New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-04-30

taken are denied with extreme aceroity,
but for the most part the denial and the
staccato insistence upon ground held fur
nish the body Of the reports.
We are then face TO face with com
plete change, a change that had come al
most imperceptbly, by such fine grada-
tions as TO awaken no real comment when
it had become absolute. Germany IN the
west from February to the latter half OF
April has been on the defensive. More
and more her energies have been eXerted'
not to attack but to repel attack.
In the same time there is to be noted
the change in the tone of Allied reports.
In October British authorities concealed
the figures of their miniature force IN
France. In April they announced That
100000 British troops were in France
six times the number that met the
Kaiser's drive at Calais. Heavy artillery
had been manufactured so rapidly that at
Neuve Chapel!o and Hill 60 British supe-
riority could not be denied Three quar-
ters OF Kitchener's million were now In
the field, despite a casualty list which by
May l cannot be less than 100000; that
is. twice as large as the first British
expeditionary army.
As to the French, the reorganization OF
their army was completed. Generals in
Vulnerable had gone 10 the rear, old men
had given way to younger, political OIL
GERS had succumbed 10 the grim decision
Of Joffre. The glorious traditions Of the
Revolutionary army had been revived and
many who had started in the ranks now
wore their shoulder straps. In April the
French army had reached the point at
which the German began the war and the
costs of the delay had not been too ex-
cessive.
Now, in this period IN which her foes
had been advancing daily IN numbers and
in efficiency, in the time which had seen
the arrival Of the first armies Of English
recruiting, which would now be succeeded
rapidly by others, for the enlistment had
assured this, what had the Germans &C
complished? For the thousands and
thousands who had given up their lives at
the User, about Ypres, for the terrible
month of fighting in Flanders, for the
series Of struggles that marked the APP
proach Of spring, what had Germany to
shown
Just this: she had held her lines. From
December l TO May /, with incidental
local changes, she had retained her foot
ing in France, her occupation in Belgium.
But in doing this she had definitively &C
copied the defensive. In October her
champions, her press, talked about the
capture of Calais, the second advance TO
Paris, the siege and fall Of Verdun. But
in April the same voices were proclaim
ing that the contest was a draw, that
German defence could not be broken. To
support this they pointed to the lines
themselves, to German resistance, as
splendid as German attack had been.
In January a French offensive north of
Scissors had ended in disaster. In Febru
airy the struggle in the Champagne had
left France but few rods nearer Berlin.
The British victory at Neuve Chapelle,
the French successes in Lorraine and
Alsace, these were local, incidental, had
never been q really serious threat to Ger
man position. So far the German claim
was sound. But how far was this from
the October frame of mind! In the Civil
War the same transition followed Gettys-
burg and Vicksburg. Southern news
papers talked more and more rarely of
taking Washington, Baltimore, Philadel-
phia, but more and more insistently rose
the assertion that Richmond was i1nprcB-
nable, the South indestructible on the de
fensive, an assertion that came fresh
from the press into the hands Of the Icd-
eral troops when they entered the South
ern capital, fifty years before the present
year.
Yet giving the German claim every
possible consideration certain circum-
stances were forcing themselves upon the
minds Of the neutral world. The wal nd
become one OF endurance anu Ile nun DciS
were bound to be more and more with the
Allies. 1t had become a question Of men
and money, and in men and money
France, Britain and Russia were certain
to gain rather than lose in advantage
henceforwaId. A neutral world supplied
Germany's enemies with food and ammu-
milton. A hostile feet shut Germany off
from the outside world. British industry
continued, French industry went on in
part, but more and more the exits Of Ger
man industrial production were being
closed.
The Allied writers who had forecast
immediate famine for Germany had plain
ly shot far wide the mark. German food
held out and was likely to, yet Germany
hal already experienced the discomfort of
a bread shortage. Lack Of petroleum and
Of copper had affected, if it had not Grip