THE WORLD WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 February 1916, Page 12

THE WORLD WAR.

AMERICAN JOURNALIST'S VIEW. The New York Herald of December 14 published the following telegram form its special correspondent in London:— "I am now absolutely certain we will win this war," was the-naively neutral declaration of Colonel George B. Harvey, editor of the Nortli American Review, when I saw him at Claridge's Hotel this evening, as he was preparing to leave for America on the Holland-Amerika liner Rotterdam, after a visit during which he saw not only Cabinet Ministers, and heard their opinions on the outcome of the great struggle, but personally inspected the reserves of the immense army of 4,000,000 men which is still in the making, and studied the wonderful development of the great Department of Munitions, which controls more than 2.)00 factories, employing more than a million men and women, and has transformed, as if by magic, in co-operation with the Department presided over by M. Thomas in France, the balance of shell power, which a year ago was three to one in favor of the Huns, to a ratio of five to one in favor of the Allies, on the Western front. "Why arc you so confident that victory will be with the Allies?" I asked. Colonel Harvey- replied: "fjefore I left the United States I agreed with a Columbia professor, who said the preponderant power in men and money was bound to tell in the end, hut now I have a stronger argument, which fell from the lips of a recruiting sergeant in the Strand yesterday. /'Don't you want to he on the winning side?' said the soldier to a group of civilians to whom he was suggesting that they should don khaki. 'How do you know ours will be the winning side?' asked a prospective recruit. 'Well, my lad,' said the sergeant, 'von know tlie Germans have beer trying for more than a year and a-half to win. and have failed, don't you?' 'Yes; replied the questioner. 'Well, then, we have been trying to lose during the same period and couldn't.' "Knowing what I do of the improved situation in men, money and munitions," said Colonel Harvey, "I consider the sergeant's logic unanswerable. "SHELLS TO BURN." "Don't make any mistake; with shells to burn and the finest body of soldiers in the world to do the burning, there is no chance of a German victory. The Allies may be forced to fight for two years—l really think they will —perhaps longer, but they will surely triumph." "It has been intimated that what Britain needs to ensure victory," I ventured, "is a strong, dominating personality to dictate the conduct of the war." "That's absurd," replied the colonel; "Ihere is no such personage in the world 11-day. Tliei'e are no Cromwells and no Napoleons. What applies to the war also applies to science, and literature, and politics. There is no outstanding personality alive. Therefore, military, economic and Government affairs must continue to be administered by groups of able men. The Kaiser is the nearest approach to dominating personality in this war, not because he is a. superhuman—lie isn't—but simply because he is practically an absolute monarch and head of the house of Hohenzollern, and he has only achieved Pyrrhic victories." "What do you think of Hcrr von Bethmann-Hollweg's speech?'' I asked. "Bluff," was the reply. "But, mark you, I have no sympathy with the absurd doctrine that Germany can be starved to surrender. If that is the hope of any of the Allied Powers, it should be dismissed at once. Germany will be able to live on her own resources for ten years. She must be whipped thoroughly, and whipped from the outside, and it is because I know that the Entente Powers are inflexibly determined to give her the thrashing she has earn-I ed by her inhuman methods of warfare that I am certain the Allies will win. "Whatever may be the attitude of the British towards President Wilson, there is not one particle of resentment against the American people. That, to my mind, is the most vital of facts. Can yon conceive of any outcome of this war more deplorable than an estrangement of the two great segments of our race? However, I know now this cannot even' .:: '.e.

"Tlio . I'i.'iet of British democracy '*?. a , s rilP 1110 was during our Civil War, v.'ien the people and their Queen withstood the aristocracy. The "British people know where we stand today. Their* confidence cannot be ahaken." Lieutenant Thompson, the colonel's son-in-law, who returns with him in order to enjoy Christmas at home, said: My blood tingled when I visited the camps and saw what splendid material there is in Kitchener's new armies. As an army officer, I cannot take sides, but I cannot help expressing admiration for tip-top fightlne fflefit-'