STERNER WAR.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15132, 29 January 1917, Page 4

STERNER WAR.

That the war in.- 1917 will he sterner than the campaign has hitherto been, is generally admitted, and the nation must nerve itself for the great trial before it. There is no doubt the Allies and Germany axe making strenuous preparations for' a renewal of the conflict op a gigantic scale. Eeoent cables' speak of the confidence with which the Allies are facing the future. The cables from day to day which speak of Allied raids and successful trench "warfare afford evidence that that confidence is not misplaced. At the same time we must not shut our eyes to the fact that the enemy is making great preparations also for a renewal of the offensive. The London correspondent of the Sydney Sun tells us of the activities in Germany. Hindehburg is said to have succeeded, in pulling his whole army together. It is sore, from wounds, but they have goaded it to further exertions. It has had failures and bitter defeats during the summer and autumn, but is undismayed. And the evidence is convincing that the old warrior has secured also a massed effort within Germany that promised to lengthen the 1 war and add_ materially to our task. Official communiques do not show it. Political speeches do not show it. But, says the correspondent, , no intelligent reader could study the facta at first hand without agreeing that there must be a fight that will stagger humanity, and eclipse all previous notions of war, before Germany goes down. And we cannot win unless every man understands that it is a choice between : complete mobilisation and ruthless organisation, and the immediate financial and industrial ruin that goes with .defeat and the national decay that follows it. Germany’s levy en masse has brought to the aid of her armies and her war organisation every man and woman of Germany. Even the children are now reported to be working in little, helpful ways—the girls sewing or doing housework* the boys doing the little work of the village and the simpler work of the cities. • Germany has her million war prisoners at work, and she has drained the occupied provinces of their muscle. We are told that on the Western front the entire countryside in in the hands of engineers, who are spreading machine-guns with a liberal hand and transforming virgin pastures and hamlets, and patches of woodland into foundations for new battlefields. Village cemeteries in regions were snells have never, fallen are now marked out as miniature redoubts; there is not a thoroughfare of military importance that has not received atention. All this might be disconcerting but for the fact that we know the Allies are equally alert. Hindenburg has set the Ames a task which will require all their efforts,. but they are confident of success, and will meet the future with that fresh vigour and determination which confidence alone can inspire.