Evening star., 1915-07-08
back FROM FRONT,
GIVES WAR VIEWS
Herbert Corey Replies to Ques-
tions Asked Many Times
by Americans.
END OF THE STRUGGLE
HAS VARIETY OF GUESSES
Chances Of the Belligerents. Align
ment Of Allies and Peace Pos
sibilities Discussed.
Copyright. 1915. br Herbert Corey


exception of two insignificant breaks.
In that time l have seen something of
| the people, the conditions and the
fighting on both sides. Three weeks ago
l returned to New York for n vaca-
tion-a sort of breathing space-a
! brief stay in country i'll which every
woman YOU meet is not mourning the
! death of friend Or relative. and not
every man YOU meet has been ruined
by the war. When this is published l
shall be on my way to Italy. during
my stay here I noticed that l was ask
ed the same questions over and over.
! l; occurred to me that they might well
be answered in print.
"How Long Will the War Last?"
One might answer that question con-
fdently enough, but the answer would
only be right if guided by luck. In the
French trenches the men said the war
would end in June. That was when the
-rass first began to turn the battie-
feds green At the same time the
English soldiers said it would be over
by the first snow. The German
lighting men said it might end next
summer Back of the line-in those
quarters in London and Paris ana ber-
in where one gets in touch with the
ma sters-this was the answer:
Two years, at least: maybe three:
That may seem incredible ana ois
heartening But the war has been IN
progress for eleven months now, the
Germans still hold the greater part OF
Belgium and rich strip OF france
and are making fresh gains in Gailcla:
, The theory that a peace-loving world
hrrred in it's brea ast-that the bankers
would not permit long war-haS peeh
knocked skyhigh. About all the bank-
-.rs have to do with this war is 10 lur
nish the funds. If they refused TO lur, :,
Ssh money I do not doubt they would
- compelled by their countries 20
-bich they should be loyal. Those VINO
AVE seen something of what is gong
on over there in Europe DOUBT II human
rature has been greatly Gnansr@ Thn ,e'oney ey
Tie last six centuries. Ihe moheS
-,-ould not be extorted in the way mai
owed by tradition-bE proppine a
banker up against a SOW hi.Mput .,t -
would be secured. Remember that thls
is n matter of life and death. ana 'hat
lechery of man for money would not
he permitted to halter nation.
Germany's Chances in the War;
who will VIM
The assumption is that the allies VIII
win. They are gaining III III
each day-slowly, perhaps, put SUN
gaining. Germany and Austria are
feeding on their own strength ne
time must come when they Will nave
exhausted their supplies. whereas the
allies have the world to draw upon.
Granted that the al1shmeh' .t
unchanged the odds seem to favor the
allies The German chance lies IN the
fact that it is a slow and costly process
TO blast men out OF lntrenchiheHtS.
Their offensive ended with the pat'!e
of the Marine, SO far as the west is
concerned The hope to hold on 10 SO
much of the ground they have gained
that in the end the allies will sicken
of the lob and consent to peace Whlch
in effect would be a victory for the
will the alignment of the allies De
changed?' 80
There is no proba bility that it will.
1t has been persistently reported IN
Germany that both Russia and France
had indicated desire to listen to
peace negotiations. These reports are
in all Likelihood untrue. and were put
out for their effect upon the people.
Some OF the eXasserations were ao
surd One even heard in Berlin that
Messimy and Witte and Asquith had
visited that city to sue for peace ii
may be taken for granted THAT Ger
many hopes to SO batter either Russia
or France that one the other viii
ask for relief The threat of a revolu-
ton in Russia is persistently reported
in Berlin.
Can Russia be seriously crippled bE
! Germany?
asked that question of German
general once He replied that when
one digs a hole in dry sand, about the
only effect one notices Is th"t more
sand runs in" No one knows how many
millions of men Russia has. She is IN
doubtedly short of guns and munitions
1t is all guessing what effect the war
is having upon her unstable politics.
rs there tall; of peace in France
France Drawn Into the War.
Not in any official quarter. But there
is unaues:ionably d feeling among one
element OF the people that France was
made catspaw in this war. They
hold that Germany's real quarrel was
with Russia, and that France would
not have been attacked except for the
alliance with Russia and England,
which bound her to her partners for
tunes Long before the war they had
abandoned their talk of "revanche"
France only wanted to be let alone-to
continue happy and prosperous and
safe ] do not profess any personal
knowledge of French sentiment. In
what l have said here / am quoting
! Americans who have lived in France
for years
u
England:"
One of warm friendship on the part of
the governing Glasses. But an antipathy
that one inherits from ones grand
father cannot be legislated out of the
! heart. The French peasant and shop
keeper suspect England's good faith
Absurd stories have been spread about
that England 81 fortifying the channel
ports she now holds, and that she will
not give them up after the war. One
of the Paris papers-following the
action of the Northcliffe papers in Lon
don-printed for days a diagram which
showed that France was holding SAB
miles. Belgium fifteen miles and Eng
land thirty-one miles of the western
front. That produced an inevitable
effect The ignorant reader did not re-
fleet that England was holding the sea
and financing the allies, and that upon
her thirty-one miles she had been fight
ing the most savage battle in the land
history of all England's wars.
rs not France grateful to England?'
Not mite-according to my Ameri
can friends. The French attitude is that
England is fighting for EnRland's life
just as France is struggling for ex-
istence. The French think that Eng
land has quite much reason to be
grateful to France. One never hears in
France that the violation of Belgium's s
neutrality occasioncd Englands en-
trance, except an unviolated Bel
gium was a protection to Eng1and's
coasts. and a Belgium in possession of
Germany was danger. 1t is highly
likely that much of this talk has been
set afoot by German agents.