MUCH TO BE DONE YET

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 58, 1 December 1917, Page 3

MUCH TO BE DONE YET

SIR WILLIAM ROBERTSON ON THE WAY TO WIN THE WAR.

Sir William Robertson, Chief of the Imperial Staff, speaking at the opening of tho Manor House Orthopaedic Hcspital at Hampstead, in London, recently, said; "It is no exaggeration to say that the Battle of Ypres is one of the most important, if not the most important, battlo. of this great war. The enemy has used every effort and employed the 'flower ot Ms army to stem our advance, but he is failing every time. Arras, Messines, and the recent victorj at Ypres, all tell tlieir tale. "During 1917 alone we have captured from tho enemy more prisoners and takftn four times as many guns as we havif lost to them during the whole war. (Cheers.) Without fear of contradiction, I say that our men are the finest in the world, and nobody knows that better than the enemy. We know that he is suffering heavy loss, that his material resources aro diminishing, and that he is compelled to place the younger class of recruit in the ranks iniich earlier than he would have done in the oi'dinary way, in order to keep up his strength. We know that his losses are heavier and ours lighter than they were in 1915 and 1916. "Progress must be slow, but it is none the less sure, and if further proof is needed in support of that contention, that our troops are gradually and surely establishing a moral and material ascendancy over tbe enemy, it can be obtained in the complete confidence of the Army from top to bottom. "We have every right to ho proud of what we have achieved during the last threo years. We have, in short, accomplished marvols and dono things without precedent, but—and this is a big but— -we cannot afford to stop there. The enemy is not yet sufficiently defeated, and there is a lot more to be done before he is. It can be done by determination, unselfishness, endurance, patriotism, of which wo hear and read so much nowadays, but allowed to remain to some men and women mere words and phrases. Words and -phrases will not win wars."