THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1914. THE GERMAN COLLAPSE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15750, 27 October 1914, Page 6

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1914. THE GERMAN COLLAPSE.

Among the things hard to realise is i that Germany is already in a state of collapse. This fact is obscured j by her frantic attempts to retrieve the fortunes of war, and to keep the western Allies from her own frontier, but it cannot be doubted when we consider the fatal sacrifices which these attempts entail, and the visibly approaching exhaustion of her military strength. It is unwise to make any forecast as to the duration of the stupendous struggle now being waged on two distinct. European j battle-lines, but it is at least probable that the driving back of the invaders across the Belgian frontier will be followed by a rapid series of allied victories of a conclusive character. For the dominating feature of recent events —in the eastern battle area, in the western, in Belgium, in France, and in Polandis that the German armies have posi- j tively lost their prestige and repu- 1 tation. Nobody is afraid of them. ! The Belgians face them now as fear- ! lessly as they did at Liege, and with far greater success. It was recognised in early August that behind ! fortifications the Belgian was a heroic defender ; it is demonstrated, in October, that in the open field a Belgian force can give odds to a German force, and still defeat it. Th French have completely regained their old military confidence, and are showing themselves everywhere a match for Germans, man for man, and more than a match. The Russians, who never feared the Germans, have justified their self-con-fidence, and can set regiment against regiment without fear of the results. Of our British army we need say little, only that we know any British contingent might be overwhelmed by numbers, but could not be routed by any German force of anything like its strength, All this is not theory, but fact. It is proved by the check everywhere given to German advances not made in irresistable strength, by the advances constantly being made against the Germans along lines strongly defended, and by the massing by Germany of every available soldier in the obviously vain attempt to turn the tide of her defeat. The Germans are now being held everywhere, for their occupation of Antwerp and Northern Belgium has left the main battlelines uncomplicated. They are being held by the French, by the British, by the Belgians, and by the Russians. No allied regiments shrink from the encounter. Nowhere is a German attack thought to be portentous with following triumph.

We are told that the Herman army is brave, and if we assume that those who march resignedly to slaughter are brave, this may very well be, but we have had neither in German advance nor in German retreat any evidence of what British peoples would regard as bravery in their own forces. The German method—apparently the only German method is to overwhelm by superior strength. The German soldier is drilled and trained into automatic obedience, and thus can be sent to his death as long as his notoriously ruthless commanders ordain, and as long as his nationally stolid nerves endure. Thus he took Liege ; thus he pushed back the British from Mons; thus he reached to within sight of Paris ; thus he took Antwerp ; thus he is endeavouring to reach Calais. But there is no master-stroke in all this. There is only barren victory and an appalling casualty-list. The German soldiery, when sufficiently trained, goes blindly and obediently to its death in order that others may pass to victory over a paving of dead. Thus the Zulus were trained, and we have all read of the result. The German training is no more effective than the 'Zulu training when it once ceases to strike terror into the enemy, and fails to win immediate victory. And here is the fact that the German system has utterly ceased to strike terror, am! has quite failed to win wherever it is opposed with anything like equal arms and equal forces. When our New Zealand Force [first meets a German attack it will know that nut only British regulars, but French, Belgians, and Russians have met and foiled exactly similar attacks hundreds and thousands of times; when it first attacks a German position it will know that the British system it follows has been successfully employed over and over again, and has rarely failed when ordered by the. British commanders, who never needlessly or recklessly sacrifice the lives of their men. All this means that Germany can only win by utterly overwhelming numbers— which she has not got— that she

can only successfully defend herself with a distinctly superior force— which she is rapidly losing. German authorities proclaim that a "life and death" struggle is proceeding between Ostend and Calais. This is absurd. The " life and death'' struggle commenced when Germany broke her pledge and outraged Belgian neutrality and will continue until it is no longer possible for this bandit government to disturb the peace of tho world. All that is taking place in the neighbourhood of the Channel is a further | wholesale slaughtering of German i j troops, accomplished with distros- 1 sing but comparatively insignifi- 1 cant loss to tho Allies and having the result of bringing constantly I nearer the exhaustion of Germany's j striking power. These amazing ] attacks, of which nobody is any , longer afraid, which are as futile j as were tho charges of the Zulus at ; Ulundi and the reckless dashes ol j the Mahdists at Omdurmau, do no ! serious harm to the Allies and are ; bleeding German militarism to ! death. German military critics ; allege that tho conflict in Belgium j will only coaso with the exhaustion I of the combatants, ignoring the im- ] possibility of exhausting the Allies, I ho grow stronger with time while j the Germans grow weaker. Ger- i many is already sending " boys and I gipy-beards" to the field, while Bri- j tain is only training her picked j volunteers, and the Empire is only i beginning to send its contingents to battle. Russia is so vast and so ! illimitable, that she has not yet been j able to place half her " first lino"' in the battlefield. Her reinforce- j ments will long be as good as any of her forces. Austria we can din-1 miss from consideration. "What is I , tho deduction ? There can only be ; ! one deduction. Germany is already i i in a state of military collapse, for I sho cannot carry out any hopeful i plan and she cannot possibly sus- ' tain the present deadly drain upon I her strength. The Allies will be I stronger in six months' time than i I they are to-day, but what will Ger- : ; many be i If the Germans cannot' hold Belgium they will fight better | ! in their own land, we are told, but j Iwe shall see. Antwerp was surren-! [ doied to save it from destruction. Will Cologne and Lcipsic, Munich! and Frankfort, Hamburg, Bremen and Berlin, defy bombardment so that the Kaiser's ambition may j have a funeral pyre worthy of I Louvain I