PATIENCE WINS

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

PATIENCE WINS

GENERAL WOTS ON THE PROSPECT.

The London correspondent of 'the Paris "Journal" recently had an interview with General Smuts, a member of tho War Cabinet, who, m reply to a question as to "how the military situation really stands," expressed himself as follows:—

What you describe as the standstill of to-day is the result of yesterday's fundamental mistake, which consisted in ■ believing that tho only important thing was the raising of men. This war is above all a war of-materials: ■we discovered this, rather late. Fortunately the harm has been made good, and -we now have the superiority. That is tho reason why we were so slow in going forward. If we are progressing less rapidly than some would like, that is because the development of war machines favours the defensive and makes swift "victories almost impossible as is proved by the example of Verdun' where the French, although with their backs to the wall, resisted countless assaults._ The tactics -which we havo adopted in France have not been showy but their results are certain. Thoy have consisted of gradual and limited advances in the zones which have been rondered untenable by the superiority of our artillery concentration. These havo cost us very little in men, but thoy have a maximum of loss to tho enemy, and it is certain that wa shall persist in them without pause or respite. _ Tho military aspect of tho situation is satisfactory. To-day we have conquered ; the victory is ours. The Germans understand that perfectly; thoy are ablo to foresee the final result of our persistent military pressure. Can oiio doubt tho growing feolings of terror which possess her as she seos the nations range themselves side by side against her, the-financial markets closed to her, the food problem becoming each day more and more acute, her economic future hopelessly compromised, and her namo more and more detested? She is faced with the prospect of being strangled to death unless tho Entente Powers again open the doors of the world to hor. There is nothing that Germany longs for more ardentlythan peace; all her people feel that their position is desperate. "But," added Gonoral Smuts, "hefore thinking of peace wo must bo ••ortain of having finished with military Imperialism. The stake is the greatest that the human race has ever played for; patience and confidence are all that we now need in order to bo certain of ivinning it."