The Daily News. THURSDAY, JULY 20, 1916. GERMANY ON THE DEFENSIVE.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 July 1916, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, JULY 20, 1916. GERMANY ON THE DEFENSIVE.

The news from the various war fronts o'. late lias taken a shape that cannot fail to impress the world at large that Germany has shot her bolt and put an end to her vainglorious dreams of world dominance. Her enormous forces and scientific organisation, formidable as they were, no lonjrer signify preponderance of power. She luis passed her zoii!tli and there is nothing before the German nation but a humiliating fall from the pinnacle of arrogance to the degradation of defeat. Her "invincible" armies have had to succumb to the "contemptible" forces of the British Empire, and the despised legions of Russia, It is said that the Kaiser was a spect~toi of' kottle of Ovillers, spdl if that state-]

incut is true, lie must bo a wiser though sadder uian. A Cologne correspondent states in a cable message to-day that on all sides it is becoming apparent that not a single German aim will 'be achieved. It is probable that the Germans now realise Hie intense folly of the death march on Verdun—an utterly futile and enormously costly offensive that can only be attributed to sheer madness born of vanity. They are now face to face with a situation that they certainly could never have thought would .possibly arise. It was their boast that they could make the enemy fight where and when they chose, but they have at last been disillusioned; their castles in tile air have proved a more mirage, and they now fear Anglo-French offensives at fresh points for which insuflicient reserves are available. Their fears are only too well grounded, as they will surely find to their cost. If we turn to the Eastern front, the news from that quarter to-day emphasises the turn of the tide in the Allies' favor. The remarkable successes achieved by the Russians in their new offensive caused the German General Staff such a great aliock that they rushed reinforcements to that theatre with feverish haste, in the hope of stemming the victorious onslaught of the enemy. It had that effect for a very short period in consequence of the Russians having allowed their impetuosity to outstep prudence, but as soon as they readjusted their forces it was evident that the AustroHermans could not successfully contend against the foe. Some idea of the colossal losses of the enemy in this region can be obtained from the report in which it was stated that from June 5 to July 10 the Russians had captured f)'2GO officers and 2GO;000 men, while a later "message stated that 30,000 Germans had been captured. These num bers take no account of the dead and wounded, and when we remember the frightful havoc of the Russians on the Kovel front when the Austrians were so cut to pieces that the remnants fled, only to be butchered by the German guns, it will be seen that the enemy's strength must have been very appreciably undermined. Confirmation of this' is given in to-day's cables wherein an an iiouncenient is made from Petrogrnd that a general retreat of the enemy on the East front has commenced, accom panied by the usual devastation of tin country and burning of villages. Thistates the correspondent, is one of man* indications that General Haig's offensiv. has aroused the fears of the Germai General Staff, and suggests the possibil ity that they must adopt purely defensive tactics in order to secure "tolci able terms of peace." A vain hope, sure ly. Germany may now be said to have been caught in the whirlpool of fate, from which she can only emerge a broken and crushed power, shorn of her capacity for evil, and, it is to be hoped purified of her festering sores of lust and ambition.