CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 December 1915, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

" ENEMY LOSSES. Presumably the estimate of the German losses given in a cable message on the authority of a British journalist at the French headquarters, is based on French official figures. The permanent reduction of the enemy's forces is set down as three millions to the end of October, and the current loss is given a* 300,000 a month, of which two-thirds represent permanent loss. Estimates to the end of the first year of the war varied from two millions to two millions and a half, the official French and British figures inclining to the larger number, so that the. net loss to the Germans during the three months of August, September and Octoher must have been at least half a million. The period ineluded, of course, the Allied offensive in tile Western theatre, as well as heavy fighting on the Dvina front. If the average of those three months could he maintained for the rest of the second year of war, the enemy's position would begin to look more than dubious. The German resources in taen at. the beginning of the war cannot have exceeded 8.500,000 eiiectives, including men up to forty-five years of age. ' This figure is based on official German information, and should be more accurate than an enemy estimate. The losses have been three millions to date, and to these lias to be added the tally of men out of action but likely to return to the front, and this may be regarded as a ''constant" of, say,' 800,000, so that the total of German effectives, if this method of calculation is sound, must now be less than five millions. To find troops for the next spring offensive Germany must call up the class for 1918. and according to the report she is already putting men over forty-five years of age and younger men who are physically defective in training. A man is not necessarily too old for war at forty-five, but only a small percentage of such men can be classed as fit, and consequently the new recruits are likely to be poor average material. Comparing the figures now given with those furnished, in the French official survey earlier in the year, it would appear that the German losses between January 1 and October 31 must have been in the neighbourhood of 1,700,000 men. On January 1 there were 3,-200,000 German recruits in the training '.» amps and depots, in addition to 4,000,000 in the field and 1,300,000 dead or incapacitated. As another 1,700,000 losess have been incurred, the available men for new formations and for filling the gaps in the existing formations were reduced to 1,500,000. Of these it is estimated that not fewer than 000.000 >men were used in new formations during the great offensive against Russia, and that at least 200,000 were sent to the Western front. If these estimates, again, are correct, Germany had, on October 31, a carry over of only 400,000 apart from next year's drafts, to meet current losses, and these losses, it seems, are placed at 200,000 net per month. Either the estimates must be wide of the mark or else Germany has already passed the period of maximum effort in the matter of men, and her whole effort now can be directed only to filling the gaps in her present formations.