REVIEW OF THE SITUATION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17325, 27 May 1918, Page 5

REVIEW OF THE SITUATION.

MR LLOYD GEORGE OPTIMISTIC. SUBMARING DANGER PAST. THE DECISIVE BATTLE. RACE BETWEEN HINDENBURG AND WILSON. Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. LONDON, May 24. (Received May 26, at 5.5 p.m.) Mr Lloyd George, in receiving the Freedom of the City of Edinburgh, 6aid the collapse of Russia was an enormous help to Germany at a time when the manpower of the belligerents was almost at the point of exhaustion. American help could not be reckoned on for some time. America, after all her exertion, did not at the present moment occupy what was equivalent to one-fifth of the accession of fighting strength which the enemy had received owing to the Russian collapse. A second adverse circumstance was Germany's unexampled submarine warfare, which was unprecedented in the whole hisof piracy. If it had succeeded it would have cut off the transport of men, supplies, and munitions. The British mercantile marine was THE ALLIED ARMIES' WINDPIPE. We had set every Government to deal with the menace. We ha<l to organise merchant shipping, which task was brilliantly. achieved. We had next to cut down imports and increase home products, and since 1916 we had increased tillage by 4,000,000 acres and doubled the output of shipping. He hoped this year we would treble if not quadruple it. The naval staff was now confident tnat we were sinking more submarines than the enemy were able to build, and we were building merchantmen quicker than the Germans could sink them. The Admiralty's returns for April, giving the record of destruction of submarines showed that the submarine was still a menace, but not a peril. As a means of inflicting injury it was still formidable, but as a danger which would cause the winning or losing the war wo could RULE OUT THE SUBMARINE. The Germans now recognised its failure; that accounted for the present western offensive.. The enemy had been driven to that as a last resort. We were on the eve of a great attack. He was able to tell them that those who best knew the prospects felt confident as to the result. He felt happier than he had felt since the commencement of the war. He had tried repeatedly to get, and nad now achieved, UNITY OF COMMAND. It was incredible that they had had for months to fight every inch of the way for unity; but it was now a fact, and it added mightily to their fighting strength. General Foch was one of the most brilliant strategists of the age. They were now approaching the third stage of the greatest battle ever fought. He was glad to think they had a man of General Foch's genius, for the Germans as well as for us. The next few weeks would be a race between Ilindenburg and President Wilson and the Germans were straining every muscle to reach the goal first, before American help was available. The Prussians did not intend to end the war until their basket was as full as it could hold. Those who imagined that they could, without breaking Prussian militarism', achieve freedom and secure the world' should remember what befell the Russian democracy. CHINA AND JAPAN. NAVAL CONVENTION SIGNED. Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. NEW YORK, Mav 24. A Peking message to the New York Times reports that a Chino-Japanese naval convention has been signed.