WAR ON ALL FRONTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16924, 9 August 1918, Page 6

WAR ON ALL FRONTS.

REVIEW OF THE POSITION.

. LECTURE BY HON. T. M. WILFORD. r- The progress of the war on all fronts was :h revic -ed by the Hon. T. M, Wilford, i, Minister for Marine and Justice, in a id lecture at the Leys Institute last evening, b- Professor Maxwell Walker presided, and :r there was a large attendance. r. After dealing with the present state of a- affairs in Russia, and discussing the is possibility of a complete breakdown of German diplomacy there, Mr. Wilford >, said America and Japan were tie only i 6 two allies who could geographically be g useful in Russia to-day. The Bolsheviks c- would maintain that the Allies were givh ing Russia to Japan, but the fact that « Americans had landed with the Japanese y would counteract this assertion. One of 'e the greatest mistakes Germany had made o in the war was to grant an armistice at Brest-Litovsk and allow 20CQ CzechoSlovaks, who had surrendered to Brussilof, it rather than fight for Germany, to return i. to Austria to sow the seeds of revolution. >. In Austria chaos was certain if the Allies o resisted tho allurements of a separate e peace with Austria. Tho Magyars and 0 Germans were at present in power, but a tho signs of discord were very apparent, s Mr. Wilford said Asia Minor was it Germany's best colony at present, 1 e While the German public had its .eyes en x their armies in France and Belgium the Gorman merchants and bankers were looking towards Asia Minor for markets, a With tho fall of Turkey their dream of y United Europe would fail. The capture r of Bagdad and Jerusalem killed tho i, chance of Germany getting tho Suez •- Canal, Egypt, and the Persian Gulf, while ~ the holding of Salonika prevented tho t, establishment of a German submarine a base in the Mediterranean. Italy saved | . tho world when she declared for' 3 neutrality. Sho thus released 500,0001 1 Frenchmen who were lined up on tho I - Franco-Italian frontier, and enabled Joffro t to send them to the assistance of the a French -on the western front. 9 After referring to the tremendous efforts ts of France in tho war. Mr. Wilford said 3 the admission of Licnnowaky that Bri- - tain strove for peace in 1914 settled the a question of who willed the war for all . time. If Germany won the whole of 1 France, which was impossible, she could t not hope to fight Britain, America, and t, Japan on tho seas. 1 In conclusion, Mr. Wilford said there . was only ono way of winning the war, i and that was by beating the German 1 army. It could bo done, and the read- > justmont of bounda/rios could bo made ) according to the will of the Allies after victory waa won.