MR. WILFORD'S WAR LECTURE

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 30, 30 October 1917, Page 3

MR. WILFORD'S WAR LECTURE

There was a fair attendance at the Town Hall last evening, when Mr." T! M. TVilford, 11.P., delivered a war leoture in aid of: the Athletio Park Retention Fund. The Mayor presided, and the Governor-General was present. 'In. the .course, of. his lecture Mr. "Wilford said that Germany's reliance on her. submarine campaign' indicated the downfall of.the. fierman Army, for which such great boasts were made before the war. The German Army was beaten on the AVestern, front. It coald not move forward. It . could only move backward. It could'not advance against the British or the French, and portion of it was therefore transfen-ed'to another front, for the Germans were an erotic people, who could only .live on continuous - victory. The air raids of the Germans on England were for show purposes only. In. the first year of the raids,only 1000' people were killed in England] Seeing that the population of England . was £5,000,000 how long would it take to affect the country, not counting the birth-

rate? As to the Italian offensive, the small fighting force Italy had at the libginning of the war had grown to 4,000,000, men. He did'not believe the British and the French: who had been senc there were sent there because Italy wanted for men. .He thought the move of the Germans against Italy was fiecause Austria could not hold Italy. The Kaiser had contemptuously referred to' the Italian Army as. a band of brigands and mandolin, players. The Kaiser had brought his men" into Austria because of the dissensions in Austria owing to tho rising of the Slavs. Since the beginning of the war the Austrian Parliament never had been called -together till May 3 of this year; and then there was much evi dence of trouble. The Kaiser bad realised that a move was necessary to impress the Austrian people; he knew that unless a strong course were followed there would be revolutions in Austria. He suggested that the German attack was a last despairing act. The Italians were still in a strong defensive position. Mr. Wilford'dealt with other phases of the war, and he illustrated portions of ■his lecture by blackboard sketches of tho fronts, etc. .'