The Daily News. THURSDAY, AUGUST 31, 1916. IMAGINARY VICTORIES.

Taranaki Daily News, 31 August 1916, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, AUGUST 31, 1916. IMAGINARY VICTORIES.

The German military authorities have throughout the war shown a fertility of inventiveness that lias been truly remarkable. In the earlier stages of the struggle there were many phases of this unblushing mendacity, but the process of manufacturing deliberate lies as well iis concocting wilful misrepresentation gradually assumed a fine art. There was, of course, method in this madness. They could not hope to deceive the Allies; their object was therefore, to influence ill-informed neutrals and create an atmosphere of confidence in the domain of the Fatherland. Apparently the nefarious scheme served its purpose more or less satisfactory to the initiators, but the time has now arrived when out of sheer desperation some means must oe found to deceive tin; people of Germany, whose hereditary faith in the invincibility of the Kaiser's armies is being rapidly undermined. At the present time there are two powerful reasons for making black appear to be white—the need of more t money wherewith to carry on the war, and the heartening up of the German people. Accordingly there is a recrudescence of the blufling" process, so artfully pr;sented that it may be effective—for a. time. Recent events in connection with the reverses met with by the Central Powers require explaining away. Hence wc ste that when the Austrian or German armies are driven/back they are Reported as "withdrawing to previously prepared positions," but in the general Way the communiques claim success eveiywhere. Yet tho Allies are advancing on all the fronts. The terrible drain on the man , power of .Germany—as well as of the lads of seventeen and eighteen—is telling its own tale. The tightening of the blockade is emphasising the dire distress among the masses of the German people, and the Allies' net is slowly but surely enmeshing the Ccnt'al Powers. On tho top of all these inevitable disasters there has coit.c the declaration of war on Germany by Italy, and tho entry of Romnania into the ranks of the Allies. The people ■:/ Germany cannot fail to be imprest! with these latest factors in Ihv struggle, r.oi' can they help regarding them as iVicative of the ultimiU-.; issue of tho war. Under the chevrastances it is only natural—for the Go,mans—to prostitute their intelligence and wits for the purpose of serving up concoctions for local and neutral consumption. It was only yesterday that a flagrant instance of this was given in the cable news concerning tne advance at Pozieres. The Jerman report did not mention the first advance, and, when referring to the second, reported that imaginary British attacks had been repulsed, while weeks later the Germans casually referred to tho lost' places in the possession of the Allies, pretending they wu'e never held nor lost by the German. It will be seer, bv this morning's cables tliat the German communiques of August 27-23 pretend that violent Franco-British attacks were made and repulsed on the Soninie, whereas there have, it is authoritatively stated, been no operations on that front during the past three days, except details, all of which'have succeeded. The message states it *.s evident that the German General Statf ore anxious to sustain the morale of the people by recounting imaginary victories, and to explain why they cannot help their allies. In the light of these exposures it is hardly reasonable to expect any credence to be placed on German reports. Their case inn at indeed

bo. desperate to need such, outrageous bolstering, but the Hermans' are' Hearing the end of their tether, .and a'few more s'eps downwards) will matter but little.