Nelson Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1916. GERMANY'S MAN POWER.

Nelson Evening Mail, 15 November 1916, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1916. GERMANY'S MAN POWER.

ACCORDING to cables, Germany is woi-king her women .very hard in the munition' factories and greater efforts are to be extended. Big things .are predicted, for the spring when all belligerents will make supreme efforts. But it is evident that with the very greatly increasing demand for guns and- muni, tions as well.as for men, Germany is going to be harder put to it.than ever she was. Recent German army orders have stressed' the point about the prevention of waste in the field and there is other evidence that Germany has neither guns nor munitions to spare. Then there is the recent appointment of a- German 1 Munitions Minister, her efforts to attract workers from neutral countries, and the forced labour she is taking from occupied territory. Further it is reported that she intends withdrawing from lier forces all the munition workers who can be spared from he . ranks. This points to the fact that Cormany has i no big movements planned for the winI tor. But will, she be allowed to rest? The advance on the Ancre,. -which the cables are a present reporting, indicates that the reports that the battle of the Somme had ended, were not founded on fact, and there is much on which to form an opinion -that the Allies will keep things moving during the winter 'months in order*to hinder German-pre-parations for the spring. They are able to prepare and keep moving, owing to their superiority and the time should not be fay distant when this superiority should bo seen by. way of substantial gains in the fields. But it is necessary t<> do -much more than gain the \ipper .hand. Germany, the further she retires, the less hecome her lines and therefore the more effective the number of troops she has at her disposal. For this reason Allied effort is not confined to one area. When German reserves are exhausted, as they should be during next year, and if. she is still holding the extended lines as it is to be hoped she will he,, failing an utter collapse, the time will arrive for the Allies to fire their greatest shots. It is some such action as this that holds out the surest hopes of success, for once it becomes impossible for Germany to properlv hold all her fronts and she has not the reserves to steady any retreating movement, chaos' will prevail and her military power will have gone.