WHY THE ALLIES WILL WIN

Otago Witness, Issue 3234, 8 March 1916, Page 30

WHY THE ALLIES WILL WIN

SHELLS TO BURN AND MEN TO BURN THEM.

The London correspondent of the New York Herald sent a cheering message to his paper on December 11.

_" I am now absolutely certain we will win this war," was the naively neutral declaration of Colonel George Harvey, editor of the North American Review, when I saw him at Claridge's last evening" as he was preparing to leave London for America on board the Rotterdam on Monday. He is going after a sojourn, during which he saw not only Cabinet Ministers and heard at first hand their opinions on the outcome of the great struggle, but personally inspected the reserves—an immenso army of 4,000.000 men, which still is in the making—and the wonderful development of the great Department of Munitions, which controls more than 2500 factories, employing more than a million men and women, and. has transformed, as if by magic, the balance of shell power, which a year ago was three to one in favour of the Germans, to a ratio of five to one in favour of the Allies.

"Why are you so confident that "victory will bo with the Allies?'' I asked, and Colonel Harvey replied: "Before I left the United States I agreed with a Columbia professor, who said preponderant power in men and money waa bound to tell in the end; but now I have a stronger argument—one which fell from the lips of a recruiting sergeant in the Strand yesterday.

"'Don't you want to be on the winning Bide?' said the soldier to a group of civilians whom he was suggesting should don khaki. "'How do you know ours will be the winning side?' asked a prospective recruit. SURELY WILL TRIUMPH. " ' Well, my lad,' said the sergeant, ' you know the Germans have been trying for more than a year and a-half -to win and have failed, don't yon?' " ' Yes,' replied the questioner. "_' Well, then, we've been trying to lose during the same period, and we .couldn't.' "Knowing what I do now of the improved situation in men, money, and munitions," said Colonel Harvey, "I consider the sergeant's logic unanswerable. Don't make any mistake. With shells to burn, and the finest body of soldiers in the world to do the burning, there is no chanco of a German victory. The Allies may be forced to fight for two years more. Really I think they will fight perhaps longer. But they surely will triumph."

" It has been intimated that what Britain needs to ensure victory," I ventured, "is a strong, dominating personality to dictate the conduct of the war."

"That is absurd," replied the colonel.- " There is no such personage in the world to-day. No Cromwells, no Napoleons. What applies to war also applies to science, literature, rnd politics. There is no such] outstanding personality alive. Therefore the military, economic, and - governmental affairs must continue to be administered by groups of able men. " The Kaiser is (he nearest approach to a dominating personality in this war. Not because he is superman. lie isn't. But simply because he is practically an absolute monarch, the head of the house of Ilohenzollern. and he las achieved only Pyrrhic victories." "What did you think of Dr von Bcth-mann-Hollweg's speech?" I asked. "Bluff!" was his sententious reply. "But mark you, I have no sympathy with theabsurd doctrine chat Germany can be starved into surrender. If that is the hope of any of the Allied Powers, it should be dismissed at once. Germany would bo able 1o lives on her own resources for 10 years. She must be whipped thoroughly, but whipped from the outside, and it is because I know the Entente. Powers are inflexibly determined to give her the thrashing which sho has earned by her inhuman methods of warfaro that I am certain the Allies will win. \0 RESENTMENT AGAINST AMERICAN PEOPLE.

" I have hesitated hitherto to say any r thing hero for publication," said Colonei Harvey, "for two reasons. Ido not like to seem presumptuous, and I do not like to be censored. But I will say, before returning to the land of the free and the home of' the proud, that, w-hatever may be the attitude of the British towards President Wilson, which I prudently refrain from depicting, there is not one particle of resentment against the American people. That, to my mind, is the most vital of facts. I can conceive of no outcome of this war more deplorable than an estrangement of the two great segments of our race. But I know now that ctr.not eventuate. The instinct of British democracy is as true as it was during our civil war, when the people and their Queen withstood the aristocracy. Thev know where we stand to-day. Then* confidence cannot be shaken." Colonel Harvey closed with a tribute to Mr David Lloyd George, who, he said, is showing a marvellous grasp of affairs and has developed :'nto a statesman of the first magnitude.

i" suppose you read that the Democratic National Committee has recommended Pre> sident, Wilson Tor renoinination?" I said. "Yes," replied the Colonel,-" and if the war lasts a year he will have a chance." The Colonel significantly emphasised the word " chance." Lieutenant Thompson, the Colonel's eon-in-law, who returned with him in order to enjoy Christmas at home, said: —"My bloooj tingled when I inspected the camps and saw what splendid material there is in Lord Kitchener's new armies. As an army officer I cannot take sides, but I can't help admir* ing first-class fighting men."