"CAUGHT IN A VICE"

Southland Times, Issue 17652, 9 February 1916, Page 6

"CAUGHT IN A VICE"

GALL I ENI’S CON FIDENCE. THE ISSUE OF THE WAR. ALLIED VICTORY ASSURED. The Paris correspondent of the Associated Press of America has cabled the following report of an interview which he has had with General Gallieni, the French .Minister for War, who had already been four hours at work when at nine o'clock lie received the correspondent.

"What are the reasons for my unshakable confidence in victory?" repeated the general. "They are those of every Frenchman. Our enemies have been powerless to attain the essential object of every war, the destruction of the adversary’s forces. From September 1914. when wo arrested and repulsed the German offensive, the game was lost by the enemy. That victory gave the Allies the essential factory—time—which lias enabled ns to organise the effective operation of our resources—resources very superior in men and money to those of the enemy, and nearly unlimited in material, thanks to our mastery of the sea.” The general outlined the situation of the German armies. “Caught in a vice, the Central Powers arc struggling desperately to free themselves front the grip. The attack upon our front along the Vser, the offensive against the Russians last spring, the campaign in the Balkans, are the convulsions of a beast at bat'. 1 recognise all their energy and vigour, but their importance is secondary. Even the recent successes rendered possible by the treason of Bulgaria cannot modify tho strategic situation, which has been unalterable for many months. 1

"nehlnd their fronts, which the Central Empires have been able to push back at one point in the East —but have boon unable to break —the French, British, Russian, and Italian armies are intact, growing every day stronger and better armed to conquer. Transported to the west, re-transported to the cast, then to the south, the enemy's armies are exhausting themselves, and the quality of tho German soldier Is rapidly deteriorating. The opinions of all those who saw the prisoners taken during the battle of Champagne in September are weil fixed upon that point