"IF WE LOSE."

Taranaki Daily News, 26 September 1918, Page 7

"IF WE LOSE."

PESSIMISM IN GERMANY. FOCH WAS UNDER-ESTIMATED. London, August 28. A remarkable statement appears in the semi-official Kolnische Zeitung. "Now, if ever," it says, ''is the moment to keep a stiff upper lip. If we grow weak and faint-hearted, then everything we have done and suffered will fade away. One will read that we are a rate which seemed great, but in reality was small. We shall have to slave for a foreigner if we lose the war. We must fight on, even if the heavens are still darker." The critic General von Ardenne, writing in the Berliner Tageblatt, frankly admits that the Germans under-esti-mated Marshal Foch's resources, thinking that they had received a knock-out blow in the spring. "ENTICING THE ENEMY. Reuters correspondent at Amsterdam states that an official writer in the Vosnische Zeitung, who is usually entrusted with the task of preparing the people for a change in policy, elaborately explains that tho German attempts to force a decision by means of the muchvaunted hammer-blows were realy abandoned on July 15, He proeeed's to declare: "Even the Entente's reicent considerable Uctical success cannot alter the fact that Eindonburg has brought nearer the end of the war,., which the English and Americans afe endeavoring to prolong as much as possible. Apart from the consideration of the loss or gain of ground, it is to the advantage of the Germans to entice-the enemy on to the trackless, roadless, and. waterless waste cf the liom'nW.

"ENGLAND CAN LEARN." "Lloyd ; George, Hindenburg's great opponent, as so often before, is endeavoring to shift the centre of gravity of the operations in accordance with the positions occupied by England and Germany at the beginning of the twentieth century. Germany is purely a Continental Power. She fights for Europe, while England, a world-Power for centuries, is fighting all over the world. It is to her interest to establish an equilibrium on the Western front and seek partial decisions elsewhere. "The decision must be made in France, which is all to Germany's advantage. Germany must, however, realise that England's history clearly shows that she can learn her lessons. Striking proof of this'was afforded by the successful resistance she made to the last German offensive." The Taglische Rundsehau, reviewing the battle? complains of the increasing number of Germans spreading pessimism. It "appeals to the Germans at home to close their ranks and encourage the soldiers in the field.