The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-01-20
WAR ECHOES

New York World: What an extraor-
 dinarily ridiculous statement Dr. Won
 Bethmann- Hol1weg, the imperial chan
 cellor, makes in his circular to the Ger
 man ambassadors and ministers when he says that k'as early as July 24 the chief in command of the British fleet | had taken secret measures for concen- | trating the fleet at Portland;" that Eng land was therefore the first great power | to order military measures taken on a | large scale" and that "her outward ac- 1 tion tended to humiliate Germany and Austria"
 The review of the British fleet off l Spithead was publicly ordered long be- fore the Austro-Servian issue arose. After the review, the Ulsterite threats of civil war in Ireland made 1t expe- dient to keep the fleet together for a time, and it was while the fleet was
 thus assembled that the Austrian note
 was sent to Servia.
 There was no more mystery about the concentration and movements of the
 British fleet than there was about the location of the Atlantic ocean. Nor did diis IldH UT diy <iuoti ioh oe siAe~e time dream that the presence of the
 British fleet at Portland was humiii-
 ation to the dual alliance.
 It took the German imperial chancel- Tor five months to invent that particu- lar myth, and while it may be creditable to his fertility of invention, it reflects
 no credit upon his statesmanship. 
 Cleveland Plain Dealer: The fierce German attack on the French line In the vicinity of Soissons seems to mark the beginning of a new drive against Paris. Soissons is the point where the opposing lines are nearest the French capital. The choice of this place for the new German attack under the personal direction of Kaiser Wilhelm probably indicates a new threat against the city which was the first objective of the armies of invasion.
 The German victory at Soissons seems
 to have been decisive. Even the French reports admit the success of the Kaiser s
 brilliant and unexpected attack. Ger
 man guns are now posted In the
 trenches the French were compelled to
 abandon, and there seems to be readl-
 ness to make new attack on the posi-
 tions assumed by the defeated army
 General Joffre will, of course. hasten
 achievements to the threatened points.
 and make every effort to prevent the
 actual breaking of his long line of de-
 fense.
 The engageemnt at Soissons is the first real battle in the west since the fighting in Flanders. The French, Bel
 gians and British have been content
 to maintain their positions, waiting fof achievements and more favoraple
 weather. The Germans are necessarily
 still the aggressors, as they understand that the element of time fights in be- half of the superior numbers of the al lies. After the retirement at the Marne, which marked the end of the first ad- l, vance upon Paris, the Germans made their bold attack along the coast, hop ing to take their opponents unawares' This drive proved as futile as Von Klucks first brilliant advance through France. The attack at Soissons, under the eye of the Emperor himself, may be the beginning of third determined at tempt to advance.
 Only recently the center of interest shifted from the extreme northwest, Tn Flanders, to the extreme southeast, IF Alsace. The Soissons battle turns at tention to the middle of the opposing lines, where the fighting for months mas been a siege warfare. 1t is likely to open a new chapter of the war, whether or not the initial German success IS tol-
 lowed by a considerable advance.