TWO MORE YEARS OF WAR.

Timaru Herald, Volume CVI, Issue 16311, 13 August 1917, Page 2

TWO MORE YEARS OF WAR.

AN AMERICAN VIEW OR GERMANY.

" The Germans can't he starred out" is the verdict of Mr Herbert C. Hoover, chairman of the Commission for Relief in Belgium, who is to be the United States Food C'oniniissionov during the war. Mr Hoover reached the United States from Europe recently, and he made the statement to •a correspondent of the '"Central News" on the day after his arrival there. "There is only one chance of the German people oi - of the Kaiser's army starving," he said. "That is a bad crop. If the crops are normal they can keep on going. The last reports I had from Germany before I left Europe were that the cattle was practically intact. By that I mean that for a year or more the Germans have been using only the surplus of the herd, keeping the base of the herd intact.'' Mr Hoover was reminded that ha had been quoted by a Cabinet Minister in "Washington, as reporting that the Germans had food enough to last for two'■years. He was asked if he meant that the Germans would be out of food at the end of two years. "If the understanding that the Germans would have no food at the end of two years was - gained f rom what I have said, it was incorrect," ha said. ""What I meant was that if the Germans went right ahead, and ate at the dictates of appetite, so to speak, of what they have, the present food supply would last two years. It is not to be supposed the Germans are going to do that." Mr Hoover does not "believe the war will end for many months. He said "It" the Hohenzollerns and the militarist Government are to be destroyed —■ and nothing short of the destruction of those mnd dogs will give hope of permanent peace—the war must go on «fc least a, year more, or probably two years. The American people should be under 1:0 illusion that forces making for popular government in have as vet anv consequential weight, although' thev 'show occasional sparks of crowing light. From a purely military view" the Central Powers have a greater mar. power and armament than hithcrte. and this, together wi-h interior lines, enables them to put up a rteadv resistance to tbe continual' . crowing strength of the Allies." J