GENERAL SMUTS ON THE WAR.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17320, 21 May 1918, Page 4

GENERAL SMUTS ON THE WAR.

It was hardly to be expected that Genera.! Smuts would be able to throw any fresh light upon the military situation and the war prospects in the speeches which he has been delivering at Glasgow. The future is still veiled, and the endeavour to pierce Its obscurity is generally characterised by caution and by avoidance of attempts to forecast the probable developments. There is a certain audacity in the picture which a French paper has drawn of the plans of the operations that will be followed by the Germans; but the canvas does not carry conviction to the mind. Recent events have, however, brought the realisation that only now has the war reached it's critical stage. The key in which the speeches of General Smuts were pitched was highly impressive. There was no straining after effect in them. They presented the gravity of the war situation boldly, and, rather than seeking to discount the measure of success which the enemy has been able to achieve, they laid stress upon it. But General Smuts is the reverse of discouraging. The optimistic quality of his outlook derives weight from the fact that his words were measured and that he made no extravagant claims respecting the Allies, their resources, or their determination. When General Smuts deGlares, "If we strain every nerve I do not feel a moment's doubt about the result," we feel underlying the expression of well-founded confidence the full, foroe of the categorical imperative calling for the uttermost fulfilment of the conditions upon which success is dependent. General Smuts gives us a phrase to be remembered when he affirms—"The enemy will come within an ace of victory, but will not secure it." In these few words we have a full recognition of the danger that is confronting the Empire and, at the same time, a full expression of British confidence, based not on unsubstantial elements but on a careful estimate of all the factors that fortify the war effort of the Allies. Perhaps the most significant utterance of General Smuts will be found in his declaration that "he did not believe an out-and-out victory to be possible for any group of nations," but that "he considered that they had now fought to a stage where the enemy was ready to consider and concede terms." This pronouncement demands careful examination, for it would be easy to stretch its meaning unduly. General Smuts means to imply, we take it, that the possibility of a crushing decision in the field involving the spectacular triumph of either Allied or German arms is remote. He is confident, as General Foch is, of the result of the present battle m the sense that Germany's crowning effort will be brought to nothing. But if Germany's great effort fails, her attempt to secure a German peace fails definitely with it. Thereafter the point to which the Allies will be compelled to carry their military operations in order to secure a victory of a more positive and decisive kind will depend upon the resisting-power of the enemy. The suggestion that a point has already been reached at which the enemy is ready to consider and concede terms may seem premature in view of the fact that the crash of another phase of the enemy's great offensive is momentarily expected. In any case the answer to it must come from the German Government. The latest action of the German authorities in Belgium is no good augury for the Imperial Chancellor's expressed hope that peace will come this year any more than is the unavoidable assumption that this hope is based on calculations as to the results of Germany's military campaign