The Daily News. SATURDAY, MARCH 4, 1916. DEMENTIA OF GERMAN PRESS.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 March 1916, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, MARCH 4, 1916. DEMENTIA OF GERMAN PRESS.

According to a Times and Sydney Sun cable to-day the German press is jubilant over the result of the battle of Verdun, claiming that it is a great and unexpected success, and that the German losses were not heavy. They are, of course, obeying instructions in thus distorting the news concerning the intensely sanguinary conflict. The German authorities dare not let the truth be known, so the people are presented with news of "a great and unexpected success," and are encouraged to believe that the losses wire not heavy. The only partial success achieved'by the Germans was nt Douaumont and the cost of lives was immense. According to the London Chronicle's Geneva correspondent, an officer of the General Staff estimates the losses from Friday to Monday at 73,000, while the total German losses are estimated by a Paris paper at from 1-25.000 to 150,000, the intensity of the fighting being marked by the terrible havoc made in the massed columns of the German troops. If the German press can find any material for jubilation over the result of the recent desperate offensive they must bo most peculiarly constituted, for the final fate of that offensive was to collapse before the ultimate lines upon which the French elected to make a successful stand. The Cologne Gazette assorts that the Verdun battle is Germany's answer to ilr. Asquith. ]f that bo the case the answer is extremely inconclusive, to say the least. There is no questioning the truth of the Frankfurter Zeitung's statement that Germany U risking everything for her life or death among the world's Powers. That is an exact statement of fact, and wo .".re quite prepared to believe that she is prepared to resort to greater violence; but when it comes to abandoning her chivalry it is difficult to conceive how *lie can lose her hold on what she never possessed. How mendaciously the Ger-li-.r.n press strive to stir up the dregs cf infamy in the people for whom they eater is apparent from the statement (bat the fiendish policy over which they gloat is directed against ''robbers and murderers." It is, however, merely the adaptation of the old legal fiction that if you have a hopeless case, abuse the jollier side, only in the German mind abuse must be of the most virulent type and supported with as complete n tissue of terminological inexactitudes as it is possible to impress into their service. If the"e are grounds for jubilation, how is it that messages from Germany state that a wave of depression is sweeping over the country? Germany is exasperated. That is the crux of the whole matter. The Kaiser, the Crown Prince, the pick of the German Staff, and the flowft? of h.er g-rmies undertook one of

the most savage offensives in military history, and were not only foiled in their abject, but had to suffer colossal losses. Without doubt they will try again, possibly in the Champagne, where the Allies are in a positien for a flank attack upon the main German eommunic»ti»ns. It is a great danger spot for tliew, for it constitutes a most promising spring-board for cutting off the invaders. Here they will find the Allies fully prepared. In these days of aerial reeomiaisanccs movements of masses of tra»ps are easily detected ami rlic corresponding tactics adopt o rf | 0 the enemy's object. Thcio j, „hln rally a feeling of tension after Ml( .j, j. furious onslaught as that at Vp,. ( i„ r . and considerable speculation as <■„ the point whereon the next inferno will take place, but there is no luck of confidence in the ability of the Allies to bold their own until the psychological moment arrives for that spring forward upon the enemy for which preparations have been so thoroughly made. All the shrieking tirades of the Orman press will not affect the final issue one iota, nor will the publication of false news assist their cause or bolster up the credit of the c.umtry. German hopes of victory, like the German mark..are rapidly declining day by day, and soon nothing but her dementia will remain to prove the truth of the saying that those whom the gods wish to destroy they first deprive of reason.