"GERMANY IS BEATEN."

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 308, 28 December 1915, Page 9

"GERMANY IS BEATEN."

AX HISTORICAL PARALLEL.

The Xew York •'Tribune," in a le*Uiii<r article headed "Germany is Beiten," asks: —'"After 15 months of unequalled strife, who is it that is talking of peace? We in the United States in our own experience have an admirable standard of measurement for German military success In the Civil War the victors were for many months the vanquished. Compare the German with the Confederate successes, making proper allowances for the difference of size, and the essential fact i≤ the same. Looking back, nothing is clearer than that the South was always doomed unless it could get an early decision on the battle field. Outnumbered and inferior in population and resources, cut off from sea-borne commerce, the South was condemned to defeat unless it could destroy the armies before it.

"Germany and Austria are outnumbered. The wealth and resources of Great Britain, France and Buseia aTe incomparably greater. British sea power has destroyed German commerce and sealed German harbours, while for the Allies the sea brings all the resources of America and the colonies to the battle lines. At Antietam and Gettysburg the South bid for a decision. It failed. At the Marne and in the recent Russian campaign Germany made a similar bid and lost. A single significant fact of the military situation now is that Germany is bleeding to death.

"It may take a year or two to bleed Germany white, but the process is going on remorselessly, and as it goes on Germany continues to fail to get a decision. The German opportunity to obtain a decision has passed.

"It is clear why German statesmen talk and think of peace. There is no corresponding talk in London, Paris or Petrograd.

"Only unexpected weakness in the Bnal chapter on the part of the Allies can avert the inevitable. Bernhardi foretold with inexorable logic that if Germany failed to get a decision over one of her several foes before alj were ready she must lose, and ehe failed—utterly failed, in spite of local successes.

"Germany is now approaching what will be her last great bid for victory, but it will not be made on the battle field. That is over. It will be made in conferences, in peace negotiations and in operations through neutrab.. If these fail, we shall presently see the whole character of the conflict change and an utterly new spirit flow from the Rhine to the Vistula." . ...