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Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 192, 18 September 1914, Page 6

Grudgingly official Berlin admits the German invasion has suffered certain checks. The admission of even «iinor defeats, following on the published announcement that the -armies of the Fatherland were sweeping all before them, and that Paris was threatened, will induce in the most credulous German citizen a feeling of misgiving as to the invulnerableriess of the great war machine. For years past the Teuton has had it drilled into him by the military -party that once the ' German legions were loosed on the enemy, there, could be but one result—unqualified victory for the Germans. This has ever been the justification put forward for the' excessive taxation which the nation was subjected to to build up the army and the navy to its present strength. To : day the prestige of that allegedly per* feet and invulnerable organisation, the German field force, has received an irreparable blow. Though markedly superior in numbers, the Germans have signally failed to" resist the Allies' at-tack-ran attack that.changed the whole situation from one of "dubiety to one of hopefulness, and even confidence. The German army has been outfought from the Marhe.back to-<the Aisiie, and it will be a sad day for Berlin when this fact leaks out. The German citizens could not be expected to know that the advance of the invasion on Paris was actually connived at by the Allies for their own purpose—it was a tactical retirement, pre-arranged, and entirely successful from whatever aspect'it may be regarded. This, and the : emphatic defeat on the Marne, will not be good news to a people who, it can hardly be doubted, are already suffering acutely the economic stress that was : inevitable once Germany lost her sea-borne traffic, and had her ports sealed,by an enemy's fleet. Right from'the outset Germany's plans have been bungled. She thas failed in her object of a swift, sweeping victory ; on the contrary, she is faced with repulsion on to her own frontiers. She has found no neutrals ready to lend her money in her time of financial helplessness. Huge armies on the frontiers require to be fed; the citizens may fend as best they can. The Russian guns have sounded the knell of the Austrian army. Obviously it is the beginning of the end for the Hohenzollern, for "Prussian militarism" and "German trucujenee."