The Dominion. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1916. WAR AND POLITICS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2949, 8 December 1916, Page 4

The Dominion. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1916. WAR AND POLITICS

While-we must look in the end for success in the war to the effective use of the military and naval forces at the disposal of the Allies, a just appreciation of the existing position as between the warring nations r'will hardly be reached unless due heed is given to the political as well as to the military aspect of evente. . As one of its results the war is searchingly testing the political stability of the nations and Empires engaged, and it has laid elements both of strength and weakness conspicuously bare. With the possible exception of Prance, rapidly converted by the spirt and genius of its people irom an advanced democracy into a military dictatorship, the leading nations of the Entente group have not in 'all respects risen triumphantly to the test. Our own Empire, to go no lurther afield, has, as a direct outcome of its democratic ins'tJEutions and usages, made painfully slow progress in some vital particulars towards the standards of efficiency which are demanded in war as an alternative to failure anci defeat. Germany on the other hand has been able to bring her resources to boar _ with a greater certitude and celerity accounted for in part at least by the fact that in Germany a subservient people is subject to despotic rule. But in any general survey the conclusion must be reached that in a comparison of the political, forces and factors which make for success or failure lu *% war tlle balance turns against the _ Central Powers. Democracy i jhas in many .ways been found wanting in the stress of war, but it is [equally true that it has proved itself adaptable, swiftly in Prance, more slowly m England, but providing in both countries the foundation for an ever-increasing and expanding effort m the war. On the other hand political conditions in the Central -bmpires inevitably create and feed internal forces of disintegration, which must bo considered in conjunction with military factors. in this connection not a little interest attaches to a message from a ■Hungarian correspondent which was published yesterday. By ' his account, the people of Hungary are so little grateful for the service done them in clearing Transylvania and invading Rumania that they are receiving the ingratiating advances of von Falkknhayn and his generals in a spirit of suspicion and hostility. As this correspondent sums up the position the Hunjgarians are obsessed by a fear of German dominance. They want complete political and economic in- \ dependence. Not much . practical importance attaches for the time being to the statement tha,c if the bntenie agreed to further this object it would create sympathy with a large part of the Hungarian nation, lne hnlenla is not bidding for Hungarian sympathy, which indeed might be difficult to gain in view of the fact that the Allies aro united in asserting and supporting Kumama s ; clann to Transylvania But the account given of tho state of public feeling in Hungary serves as. a_ reminder that underneath the seeming strength of tho Germanic alliance there is a volume of political dissension and discontent which may threaten its stability. The German invasion of Ilumania, which amounts to concentrating against a minor enemy while vastly more powerful enemies are building up thoir strength undisturbed, is not easily to be explained on military grounds alone It can hardly, ~„. such grouueis, and under the conditions which exist in other theatres of war be accounted wise. But it is easily understood and accounted for on the ground that German strategy in governed by political considerations, and that tho invasion of Rumania was influenced by a desire to conciliate and attach the most refractory of a group of disaffected States whom it is found increasingly difficult to restrain as tho tide of war turns more decidedly against tho Central Powers. In view of the success which has attended tho German invasion of Rumania it is not possible for the Entente Powers at the moment to find much cause for satisfaction on this account either on or political grounds. The tax which Germany has placed upon her reserve of power in the effort to crush Rumania may, however, prove a factor in the campaign of 1917, when she is called on to meet the full pressure of her more powerful enemies on tho East and West fronts. And the political considerations which influence her military policy are likely to be more pressing then thuu they are at the present moment.