PLAYING FOR A DRAW

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVIII, Issue XLVIII, 13 January 1915, Page 8

PLAYING FOR A DRAW

~ STRATEGY.

" Wbai-is the of the furioas saltempt to; get to the Channel coast, Isgjich has cost the enemy such awful sHtaghter? {asks London "Truth.") As a stmkeof military -strategy it is condefijped" Sy almost every expert, neutral as; belligerent. Why have the GefSins been publishing ostentatiously ! partiralars of their plans for the- next stepJ«£en r they have got- to Calais,"BouHavre—rthe new guns with wfech tEey are. going to bombard . Dover, the pieregpf pontoons protected by mines thataretfiLbe built- out .into the.Straits so as to get closer to us ,the sowing of the wholemf our southern shores with mines for /fc£e destruction and stoppage of ..our", commerce;" the "transport over land of "tbeg-navy of ' 'flat-bottomed boats" iriwh«3l. the invading army is to be" ferried Straits, under cover of the irresistible guns which carry 20 miles or more ? schemes are the lqnghing-stock of=otir naval men; even sofdierß ai?e hot imgggssed by them. Why should .the unusual^course for Germany—be publishing them. • in advance? " The answer to seems to -me -pretty obvious. The confident plans with which Germany, declared war -on Russia and France have-now failed be- ■ - yoncL redemption. Her armies will never; •get" : to Paris or Warsaw, or achieve any • decisive ;stroke, in.-.this war, and she knows itr The best she" can hope for is . to—play for;a draw," to put;herself into a position fijom which she cannot be ejected, and try to wear out her enemies until she* caii secure tolerable terms cf peace arid- her ; loss. She can hope to i do-this in France, with her army in occupation of , five departments. Until aj fortnight ago she hoped to do -it in : Bo- i - land- v •! what-about England, whose territory • she cannot occupy, and whose com- , mand"of; fbe: sea she dare not challenge, except by pin-piicks from submarines 1 England" niust be thoroughly frightened. " Her'people have always trembled at the thought of invasion.. Many of her ablest * military experts have warned them again arid again' • o£"* tfhe ; danger of trusting to naval defence.; England must see the Crerman army confronting her-across the Straits of Dover. . She must hear the thunder ;of v Ktupp's masterpieces from the land if she cannot her them frcm the sea; ■■ ; She must know exactly how the resources arid ingenuity of .Germany Eave compassed her destruction from the French "coast. She must see, through the telescope, the hangars of the Zeppelins waiting the signal to go forth and de- - vnstate lonilcn. •

I \ Confronted with all these fearful ap- ' paritipns, the, British, being a chicken- ' biarted, huckstering nation, with no though for anything but dividends and ' the safety.'of their own i-kins.. will be ready ai last to do a deal. The other 'Allies- will already' be in the bargaining .mood- The termg of retirement will be patched up, and the German armies will return to the fatherland in triumph, fhai calculation,. I verily believe, is at the .bottom of all the awful slaughter perpetrated during the last ironth in Flanders. -And that is why I regard any ' JBriton who" publicly'admits that we are elrgKf to-day of Zeppelins, or of a Ger- . mar* Invasion, via Franee, or of anything £}se that flerroany can do to this conntry, as e mischievous idiot.