Estancia news-herald. [volume] (Estancia, Torrance County, N.M.) 1912-19??, 1914-09-17
THE WAR SITUATION
IN EUROPE

Conflicting reports from tn
battle fields of Europe leave tn
ordinary reader somewhat con
fused as to the net results of tn,
fighting. The Scientific Ameri
can is one of the best authorities
in the United States on militar!
and naval subjects, and the fol
lowing editorial reprinted from
that paper will be found enlight
ening as to the military situation
at the time it was written. Oul
German-American readers may
consider the article unnecessarily
severe in its criticism of German
policy in violating a treaty obi
cation, but that does not affect
what applies strictly to the mill
tary situation.
The editorial follows:
AT the opening of the war it
was we'll understood (for a distin-
guished German general had
written it all out in a book that
the grand strategy of Germany
would be to concentrate the flow
er of her army against the
French, overwhelm and scatter
them in the first two or three
weeks of the war, invest Paris,
and then turn against Russia in
an equally swift and crushing
onslaught. At the present writ
ing. with the war over a month
in progress, nothing of the kind
has happened. The French and
British armies are intact and ev-
erywhere in touch; they have
fallen back upon the line of forts
and strongly intrenched positions
provided years ago by France to
meet the inevitable German at
tack; and for the past three
weeks they have not only pre-
sented an impregnable wall of
defense, through which the Ger
mans have failed to break; but in
the rearward movement to their
present position, they have
fought a series of defensive bat
ties in selected and entrenched
positions, which, on the theory
that the losses are three to one
against the attacking force, must
have cost the German army al
ready not less than 100000 men
in killed wounded, and otherwise
disabled.
The Germans, it is true, have
forced back the left wing of the
the allies; but they have done
this at enormous military and
moral cost, The military cost
has been due to the fact that here
they found themselves opposed
by 100000 professional soldiers,
men who, during their seven
years of service with the colors
had been so thoroughly drilled
in practice at the rifle butts, that |
they were crack marksmen;
which fact, coupled with the ira
ditional steadiness of the British |
troops under fire, enabled them,
against odds of between two and
three to one, to fight a series of
defensive actions in selected po-
sitions, from which they did
frightful execution upon the
heavily-massed columns of the
Germans.
To the enormous losses in men
entailed in this flanking move
ment, is to be added the more
serious moral loss which Ger
many has incurred in bartering
her national sense of honor in
exchange for the opportunity
presented by the undefended
French Belgian line to rush
across the French border in over
whelming numbers. France and
Germany had both guaranteed
the neutrality of Belgium. That
France intended to stand by her
pledge is abundantly proved by
the fact that when Germany
made her rush through Belgium,
France, even in spite of the delay
afforded by the staunch Belgian
resistance, had no time to con-
centrate her trosgs in Northeast
ern France in sfhcient numbers
to check the German onslaught.
Nothing that Count Bernstorff or
any other apologist of the Ger
man breach of good faith may
saw, can make the American
neonle think that Germany be-