THE COLONIST. SATURDAY, JANUARY 8, 1916. WHERE GERMANY WILL BE BEATEN.

Colonist, Volume LVII, Issue 13979, 8 January 1916, Page 4

THE COLONIST. SATURDAY, JANUARY 8, 1916. WHERE GERMANY WILL BE BEATEN.

Mr John Buchan, the well-known historian of the war, has an.instinct that the final decisive battle will h& fought in the West. The war will be won by

forces in the field and by nothing else After her bold adventures in far-away countries it is in Franco and Flanders that the armed Knights of Germany will crumble. In a speech at a London gathering a few weeks ago in which he expressed this 'belief, Mr Buchan said there were, two main facfcj of tho war which wore well known to Germany, but which our pessimists always, jgnored. The first was that no machine was immortal. Given time, France, Britain, and Russia could create a machine quite as good as tho Germans'; and when that machine was ready the decision would rest, as always in war, with the human element. Secondly, the human element, that of numbiM-s, so far as' Germany was concerned, was wearing thin. Every day the spectre of tlinvnjsliing man power drew closer and closor to Germany*; -skle. A lnaehin/) could do marvels, but.it could not call the dead men from'the grave.., lie believed that the Germans, had not 'the liurnbcr of men necessary to create new positions behind their third position. They needed their reserves in the firing lino. Because there had been delay after the great attack in September, it did not mean that the advance, movement had stopped. To say that the great attack was a failure was what the Germans wonted us to believe, but it was not1 tiue. ' Our purpose was to strike a series of hanlhierrblorvys which would roa;lly.'fbi^ohe''enemy..'to retreat. The | September attack" did what it was intended to do; We completely reeoyeted the initiative &nd broke down some of the enemy's strongest, defences, and took the first step in a movement which was not going to stop. We had worn the German man power very thin, and though our losaes had been great they had not been too .groat for the result' achieved, and ori the French and British sides they were less than oceurrai in the abortive enterprise of the early summer. The advance might be slow 'at; th© moment :while we were: accumiir lating men and munitions, but the mover ment was going.! on hone ' th& less. Sooner or later the next blow would come, and th^n the next, till suddenly tlie steel rod of the enemy's defence, long* filed and often bent, would break. In a war of this'magnitude the views of the General Staffs in the field must be long, and it was the^ doty of the. cuilian people, at home to take long views-also. Perhaps not the least extraordinary result of tlie fighting was the High spirits of the tropbs. Referring to Loos, where we sustained such appalling losses, Mr. Buchan .said the Gghting of our battalions thore was not surpassed by the greatest exploits in our military history. The consciousness of success of the soldiers after the battle was a wonderful thing. "I have seen tlie melancholy ebb backwards after other battles, and evon with the courage which was conspicuous thore was weariness and satiety. There was nothing of that sort after Loos, when oven desperately wounded soldiers came cut of the battle'^singing arid ■■ ynaving bloodstained fcaybnets. Would -anyone; dare to say after Loos that tfior© is any degeneration in our race?" Mr Buchan has a high opinion of the French Staff. It is quite as good aa the German Staff, he says, and there is probably no Geriiian commander of the calibre of General Foeh. iOnev^ing;which Germany forgot- .Jwfen':«he/mad4Jw^^i^'lthe ; «t6ic^ ismiand fortitude of France. " v Tlie sober1

gaiety, the cheerful resolution <tf thi» French are far more formidablo tih'a.ri the loud-mouthed heroics of Germany. It is like tempered steel against cast iron. *We have many grounds for hope, but we have none greater than that wt> efcand 6houldef to Bhoulder with France.