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The Daily News. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1915. THE DECIDING FACTOR.

We mentioned tke other day that tho enemy was now appreciably feeling the loss of men, and that it was only a I matter of time when, if we maintain the pressure we are exerting on every front, he would be overwhelmed. The enemy cannot keep up the supply of men, whilst the forces of the Allies are increasing theirs month by month. The I New York Times, probably the sanest and most influential paper in the United States, has something illuminating tu say on this important aspect in a recent issue. It describes the Hermans as being in the plight of a chess player, handicapped by having fewer pieces, wlhhc brilliant and audacious attack has failed. His adversary, even with no plan of attack, can win the game simply by forcing an exchange of pieces until at last the advantage of a mere pawn is insurmountable. Germany cannot, afford to compete in killing on even terms; yet that is what her enemies now are in a position to force upon her. The New York paper goes on to say: j You beat your enemy in one 'of two ways only: you kill him or you capture 1 hint, To besiege, to item, to break

liim economically, that is only to capture him by rules refined. The arithmetic of the position of Germany and Austria was clear from the beginning. With 115,000,000 people, they challenged. 235,000,000. That was one against two in terms of population. In terms of soldiery it would be practically the same, not. at first, perhaps, but ultimately so, for the ratio of effective fighting males to the total population does not vary greatly among the countries of Europe, except, of course, as one may be better prepared than another for first offensives. Therefore, warfare in which for each Englishman, eacli .Frenchman, each Russian and each Italian soldier killed a German or an Austrian soldier also last his life was and is a kind of warfare utterly without hope of success to Germany. One German might in the aver- \ age kill his man-and-a-half (no Teutonic militarist could expect more) and the disaster would be only a short time postponed. The Times suggests that from the outset it must have been clear to the Gen- • t-ral Staff that German victories would have to be victories of strategy. Competition in slaughter was hopeless, by reason of arithmetic. Teutonic valor could not destroy all the non-Teutonic armies of Europe. But Teutonic strategy might accomplish miracles. Armies that could not be destroyed might be captured, and, besides, at the very first, the Germans had the numerical superiority in effective numbers. The enemy's strength was partly potential; Germany's was actual. Therefore, Germany had to win the war' before it could settle down to a contest in killing, before her adversaries could 'begin to force her to exchange pieces. Looked at in that light, the outlines become very clear. Preparedness to strike the first crushing blows, the haste to reach France even at the cost of invading Belgium, and, failing in that, the heroic, magnificent attempt to get a decision in Russia, pursuing it headlong at a pace to break men and beasts, all of this was with one aim, namely, to win a war against superior numbers by strategy. And, says the Times, every effort has been baffled. No army has been captured; no great military decision has been won; but, on the contrary, non-Teutonic Europe's potential force has become actual, and Germany's enemies in their own way may exchange- Englishmen, Frenchmen, Russians and Italians for Germans with absolute certainty that the supply of Germans will run out. The influential American journal further suggests that even though the Allies may fail to hreak the German line in the Champagne country, and may fail to bend backward through Flanders the top of that same line, the Germans, nevertheless, are bound to lose by it irretrievably in another way. It forces them to exchange life on fairly even terms, and that is the very thing they can least afford to do. It brings them rapidly nearer to the point of being overwhelmed by sheer numbers in competitive killing. The Times concludes: That the Teutonic allies have failed to gain one decisive triumph and have now to face the arithmetic of their physical inferiority is a fact which cannot be concealed, no more from Germany than from the world, and no doubt explains the anxiety of German comment on the Allied offensive at the west. All that Germany has won is territory, which, in the event of a capital strategic victory, she might have been able to .trade upon, but which, in any other case, she will be obliged to defend with declining relative forces. Her territorial successes in Russia require to be held ■by a line so long and vulnerable that to weaken it much by transferring men to the western front would invite disaster. They are, in that sense, a liability. Russia has only to bide her time and produce numbers beyond Germany's power to resist. In every other way Germany has failed- Her airships, her submarines, her frightfulness, all have failed, and she is reduced to the arithmetic'of killing. In that direction lies certain and utter defeat. And the fact of its having come to this closes the door to further hope of a miracle in the art of war which alone could avert or postpone disaster 1 No wonder the thought lias occurred to Berlin of defending Germany on the Rhine.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TDN19151119.2.17

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Taranaki Daily News, 19 November 1915, Page 4

Word count
Tapeke kupu
930

The Daily News. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1915. THE DECIDING FACTOR. Taranaki Daily News, 19 November 1915, Page 4

The Daily News. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1915. THE DECIDING FACTOR. Taranaki Daily News, 19 November 1915, Page 4

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