THE CAMPAIGNS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16742, 24 December 1914, Page 6

THE CAMPAIGNS.

iLTnOTOH the telegraphed reports re--/raiu from comment on the position, we may take it that the war has reached a critical stage and that Germany is now putting her forces to a nip re me test. It is true that in the western theatre the initiative is with ihe Allies, but the German policy is to •ndeavour to hold the defensive lines In France and Flanders while an effort is made to break the Russian armies in Poland. We have had no news worth the name from Poland of late and comparatively little from France, so that it is simply impossible to frame ' a sound judgment of the position, but “ up till the present the enemy, it must .be conceded, have fought amazingly. The big issues hang on the struggle in Poland. An advance to Warsaw would stimulate the whole population of Ger- • many with a fresh enthusiasm. Doubts * concerning the wisdom of the war policy would bo swept asido and the people would bo inspired with th© confidence of immenso victories. Failure in the enterprise in Poland, on the other hand, would bring universal depression, criticism of the Government and of the army and an unwillingness to enlist that would immediately affect the moral fibre of the troops. For our own part we have never been pessimistic concerning the war, and now less‘than ever are we disposed to doubt the result. If the Germans were actually within the gates of Warsaw we should look with absolute confidence for the ultimate collapse of their military power. But the tone of the daily cablegrams from London is calculated to produce a popular underestimation of the strength of the enemy that has to be fought, and we doubt if even in the Mother Country the people yet realise the magnitude of the task that confronts" them. It is impossible, as we have 6aid, to frame a reliablo judgment of the military position in Europe, but the known

facts do not justify tlio belief that the Allies have yet gained the upper hand. In Franco and Flanders tho Germans are holding their lines with remarkable tenacity in spite of persistent assaults, while in Poland the enemy have forced their way to Lodz and Lowicz, and they may even now bo within thirty miles of Warsaw. The report has been issued in Berlin that the Kaiser’s troops are only fifteen miles from the Polish capital, but that may be intended to give the German people a greater appetite for their Christmas dinners. In south-western Poland the Russians are at a standstill and in Galicia they have made no progress. Thus, while the Allies in the west are attacking vigorously and obtaining only small results, in the east the Russians are hard pressed at all points. We are optimistic enough, however, to believe that the turn of the tide is not far distant. The small gains in France and Flanders are being consolidated and tho next few days may convert them into large gains. The enemy cannot develop the attack in Poland now without weakening the defence in Franco, and what they strive to gain in one theatre they stand to lose in the other.