The Press. Saturday, December 1, 1915. The Length of Wars.

Press, Volume LI, Issue 15453, 4 December 1915, Page 10

The Press. Saturday, December 1, 1915. The Length of Wars.

During the years immediately preceding the outbreak of tlit? present war, while the possibility ol' Mich ii convulsion still hung as a sinister cloud on the horizon of the future, men's minds were very busy with anticipations and speculations. "We can remember that a common assumption of that time was that the next great European war must l)e short, as the perfection of the machinery of destruction was such that a long; strugcly must mean the annihilation o[ either side. This anticipation has not been fulfilled; and, according to

present indications, its falsification i.s likely to become much more glaring before the end comes. li' we ask. why? tno first answer would bo that the idea that prompted the anticipation was chieily t!i::t of a great naval struggle; and no .such struggle has yet taken place. So far as land war is concerned, it was hardly realised that enormous ievelopinent of destructive agencies was

fairly equally apportioned between attack and defence; and, moreover, armies of millions of men take a long time to kill off, or even to be forced to acknowledge themselves beaten. The actual casualties in the present war would in themselves furnish vast armies on any scale to which history affords*a parallel; and each side st ill persists in replenishing its resources to the extent of its powers. W lion we glance at the past, we find an immense range of variety in the length ol wars. A writer in a London iveekiy says: "Wars have grown shorter '• bocauso ot their sharpness.'' There is a certain amount >'f truth in this statement. No doubt the brevity of the Austro-Gcrinnn War of 1860, and tho comparative brevity of the FrancoI'russian War of 1-S7n. were mainly due to the intensity of .lie lighting. Hut there was also in each the element that one iside was overmatched. In point ol intensity the present, war surpasses every other that has ever been fought. In the old deliberate days of the Jhirty Years War in Germany, the War of the Austrian .Succession, or tho English Civil Wars, armies went, into winter quarters as a matter of course, and only emerged with tho spring to- resume deliberately their manoeuvres for position. And. in the old Hundred Years War, between France and England, far the

greater part of tlie time was passed in being merely "in a state of war"; active military operations were few and far between; and when they did occur, they had the air rather of combats of chivalry instead of ruthless lifc-and-death struggles between bitter enemies. But in the present war there is scarcely a moment at which the terrible tension is relaxed. There is no going into winter quarters by .1 sort of tacit mutual agreement. The vigilance, the fierceness, the ruthlcssncss, know no relaxation. And yet it lasts, and seem'* likely to last a long time. Tho highest developments of military science, military power, and military organisation have not been able to sccuro a decisive result. The area of the struggle has enormously widened, and in each fresh region tho fierceness and fury of attack aro met by a corresponding fierceness and fury of defence.

There was one incident shortly after the outbreak of the war which to competent observers at onco conveyed the impression that wo were in for a ions and terriblo struggle. This was the mutual pledge or agreement between England, France, and Russia that no ono of them would make a separate peace, or even consider proposals for a separate peace. But for this, it is at least conceivablo that before now some one of the. three might liavo fallen a victim to the insidious wiles of the enemy, which had for their object the loosening of the bond which held them together. The pledge was, of course, merely the expression of tlio instinctive sense of tho three Powers that tho issues at stako for all of them were practically tho same, viz., tho removal from Europe of a terrible incubus and danger, and tho securing of freedom and safety for tho nations. And it is this.sense of the tremendous issues involved on. both sides that keeps tho war going, and inspires every. Power engaged with a determination that amounts almost to a consecration or a religion. For this condition of things no war in history affords any parallel. Tho overthrow of Napoleon was a sacred object with "England from first to last; and if tho Continental Powers who pocketed her gold had been inspired with tho samo zeal and national enthusiasm, the work would have been finished in half the time. In the Seven Years War Pitt subsidised Frederick the Great to keep tho French and Austrian*; well occupied on land, whilo ho created an ♦ Empire at sea. 13ut if the co-operation of France, Austria, and Russia on that occasion had been characterised by tho fervour and intensity which we see illustrated today, not all his genius for war would have saved Frederick and hLs smull Stato from total destruction. The Boer "War dragged out for two and ahalf years. The Boers fought for exclusive racial privileges, which they dignified by the name of freedom. But in England largo and powerful party wero opposed to tho war. and used nil their influence to cripple it. The fact is that 110 analogies f«m the past have any application to tho present, war. It stands alone. It is practically a wind-ing-u~> of the affairs of the old Europe, and tho inauguration of a new. It is the crash and collision of forces, which have been gathering strength and ininetus for a long time; arid, mighty as are the destructive agencies brought into play, iho enormous expansion of national resources in recent years has developed a mass of resisting power which will take a lot of hammering and battering to break down.