PROSPECTS OF THE WAR.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 144851, 1 December 1915, Page 4

PROSPECTS OF THE WAR.

CANDID GERMAN’S DOUBTS. A correspondent of neutral nationality gave me n.omlou Dvemng ixuvvs a literal translation of a conversation Uo iuui only a lew days boiore m Herml with a German mend, “an ©nicer and a man of title ami some social altitude, ‘ on tho prospects oi tho war. line neutral said ne naci just told him that he saw a great cnherence in the spirits of the Berliners since tae time ne was there. “it is only natural,” the German replied. “Every ramny in Berlin is mourning some lost one, borne have lost all uieir sons, and now tamers, 48 year* old, are called out.. .It is a tune tor sadness.” “But your armies are doing well?” “C criumJy. But X mioulU nave said you were a poor propuet a year ago if you had told me the Russians would ;>ull he holding out. Wo nave invaded them. .15iu think of what our poor devils will have to sutler in taoir swamps and snows this winter!” “Well, you are still firm in the west.'' ••For how long? What does this day-by-day bombardment of our trenches mean? ... I will toll you. the French and the British ar; catching up wiiii us m gun amt shell power. They are naturally not using it all up. It means that the number of shells they arc using in a day is the number Uiey can make in a day. . . When the guns stop uie b tench and tho Tommies will hurl themselves at us.” ‘‘But you are good defenders.” “So; yet the French are a continual surprise* We thought tlieiiueheminate, played out. But the British Tommies are the very devils.” “Why do your comic papers always show mem running away/” “Why do tho comic papers in all countries show the things that people like to believe instead of the tiling*, that are? Because, you can see that wu do not think it wise to let our common people know Die whole truth about our opponents.” “You say so?” “Weil, a would not help us telling them that the Tommy Atkinses are lln* best infantry jn the war. They are marvellous. Our men dread to go against them. Our follows light because they have been drilled to it. The Tommies fight because they like it. It is liko a gamo to thorn. Oar men cannot understand it. They hate the English. Perhaps there is a little of the hate that comes with fear!”

“What are the qualities of Tommy Atkins that they report?” ‘ Diabolically good shooting. Their snipers are positive artists. Then they are natural bayonet fighters. They certainly run well . . . but in advancing. They are all too difficult to make run the other way.”

lie confessed, in another talk, that the sequel to the big artillery preparation (which everyone discussed with foreboding, by the way, in Merlin) might bo a vast' infantry attack, which jus likely as not would pierce the German lines seriously. I sco it has come true, and I slur like to be in Merlin 10-aay’to hoar what the people arc saying of it. lx>ndon I find tremendously buoyant. Berlin is hard, grim, gloomy, apprehensive. There is a deep fear ana resentment nf si second winter campaign, and the Gormans hate you all the more bitterly for brdieving that only England's participation had made it necessary.