Northern Advocate Daily WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE Northern Mail Daily. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1914. A QUESTION OF ENDURANCE.

Northern Advocate, 25 November 1914, Page 4

Northern Advocate Daily WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE Northern Mail Daily.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1914. A QUESTION OF ENDURANCE.

.KGISTrtRKD KORTRANSMIS. JO. T)JH->TJO_ fll ii POST AS J. N _ V.' sPAPKB

The German general idea, whose second plan of campaign has Calais of Boulogne as its objective, is concent rating its punching power on the British troops in the Ypres district. So far, the enemy has suffered huge losses with little advantage to show for the slaughterAs in the beginning of the campaign in Belgium. General Joffre has ascribed the place of honour in the line to the Britishers. This privilege carries with it a tremendous responsibility, but the " Tommies," have not failed to rise to the occasion. Incited by the peevish Kaiser, the German elite corps have been flung against the "thin red line" in overwhelming numbers, but all their savage ferocity and cattle-like indifference to death have proved unavailing against Lord Kitchener's men. The harder the battering the more vigorous the response, from the Britishers, as the enemy has found to his cost. The battle in Flanders has' resolved itself into a question of endurance. The numerical superiority of the Germans and the marked preponderderanee in the number of their ! light field guns have at times enabled the invaders to push the Allies back at various points, but these little advantages are not retained for long- It is a grim struggle, in which- strategy is ' a ljiore or less negligible factor. It is now obvious that the side that can hold on the longer will win through in the end, and though Berlin boasts of another six million trained men being ready for Germany, the claim can he disregarded, since it has been shown that German cadets are included in the army that occupies Belgium, and the third line of reserves has been in action for the last couple of months. The laconic reports of the War Office reiterate one thing—that practically along • the whole line, from the North.Sea to Verdun, the Allies are making slight, if steady, advance. The terrific slaughter of the Germans, both in the East and the West, is bound to have a weakening n_of.il effect in the long run. If the enemiy were gaining ground, the sacrifice of his soldiery would be to some extent .justified, but the position to-day that Germany has lost the flower of her immense army, with nothing, tangible to show for it, She cannot batter a path through the Allies, nor can she hold back the Russians from invading her frontier. As "The Times" points out: "It will not avail her to hold part of Belgium, when Silesia and East Prussia are overrun, and the German Empire i.. stricken at heart."