OUR NAVAL NOOSE.

Mataura Ensign, 13 January 1916, Page 4

OUR NAVAL NOOSE.

RL001) TAX OX (JIvHAIA.VV. The best- military 'opinion in the I'llilt'il Piatt's ha.s- not heen affected as regards the eventual on (crime of Ihe war hy developments in the Balkans. I; i'cs«, unshakabl v on the conviction thai the (iermanio Powers are doomed; to he decisively defeated. The ablest reflection of ill is confidence is found in a recent- loading article in [he 'New York Tribune.' The writer, who i> evidently Mi Frank I*. Siiiwmd.s, hails the meeting of the French and British War Council-, in Paris as "more, than evidence of new and better co-ordinated military operations." It is, he hiivs, an "authentic sijj;ii of the purpose of the l'Yoneh and British in a on with the war to the end." After predicting at- least another year of war, the writer disposes of the empty peace rumors in '.he i'oilmvinjr; paM-;a»"e : —"There is no basis for peace now. Germany cannot au.d will not consent ki <.>'ive up all her mighty conquests mere-iy for peace—a peace (hat would briny; a staler hip; and sterile debt. Germany's Joes cannot a»ree to •;>e,'tce while their very existence Ls in' danger. "It took Kurope 10 years to dispese of the Napoleonic menace. It will lake a shorter lime to dispose of ihe Germaii because i; is .\a|ioleonism with Napoleon left out. fortunately for Franco and (Jrent. Hritain and for the worhl, the peril of complete German success has' been disposed of." France, Russia, and Great -Britain keen the held with i;To\vin»- power and unshaken will. The blood tax on Germany has begun to tell. The Uritisli naval noose Ims been dr:\\vn to Miffocaiion. Tlic German advance has Terminated in the east,and west, and only in the Balkans is then; still progress. "All doubt of the outcome of the war as a military problem has passed. Bui one, perhaps two, years more of war are seemingly uiiescajwble, for peace is impossible while tho'se who rule Germany elinc; r o t) u . be-lief that it; is within their power to orga mVe Kuropc and dominate, the leaser peoples."