Valdez daily prospector., 1915-03-23
TUESDAY, MARCH 23, 1915.
A NEW PHASE OF THE WAR.

en official form were to be accertef as the basis of judgment we migh; readily reach the conclusion that there will soon be a change in the number of powers engaged in the war. Austria we are told, is ready to cry quits, and Italy, Greece, and possibly Rumania may be expected to join the Allies. It cannot be doubted economic strain to which she has been subjected is almost beyond endur- ance, the success of her arms has thus far been not very striking, and her losses in the field and through disease have been very great. There is evidence that Germany does not count on her ally as secure reliance has, indeed, from the first had mis- givings about Austria's staying pow CT Her collapse would not be i'm mediately decisive of the conflict, but manifestly it would strengthen the general conviction that victory for Germany is no longer possible. This is not the prevailing belief in Ger many. It does prevail in neutral coun tries and among the Allies.
 Whatever Austria may do, the peo pie of Italy and Greece are eager for war. The reports of actual prepara tions by the Italian government are increasingly definite. It is even said that troops will be on the march be- fore the end of the present month, and some color of proba bility is given to these reports both by the utter ances of Italian statesmen and by the slow and difficult but apparently ir- resistible progress of the Allies in their operations against the Turkish capital. In Greece the question is be- tween the people and their popular leader Venizelos and their not less popular king, who, as the husband of the kaiser's sister, naturally takes determined stand against war. Ma tional interest will almost certainly be the determining consideration there as it will be in Rumania also.
 More significant than any of the current rumors were the plain inti nations of the British chancellor of the eXchequer in his remarks in the House of Commons on February up- on the financial preparations of the Allied powers. Reviewing the con- dition of Russia, France and Serbia, he said that there were other states preparing for war, and it is obvious, ly our interest that they should be well equipped for the task" After explaining that the plan of a joint loan by the three Allies had been re- jected at the Paris conference he made this statement:
 There was only one exception which we decided to recommend, and that was in the case of borrowings by small states. We decided that each of the great Allied countries should contribute portion of every loan made to the small states who were either in with us now or prepared to come in later on, that the responsi- bility should be divided between the three countries, and that at an op- perfume moment a joint loan should be floated to cover the advances eith- CT already made, or to be made, to these countries outside the three great Allied countries. That was the only exception we made in respect of jottn loans. Up to the present very considerable advances have been made by Russia, by France, and by ourselves to other countries. It is proposed that, if there is an oppor- tune moment on the market, these should be consolidated at some time or other into one loan, that they should be placed upon the markets of Russia, France and Great Britain, but that the liability should be divided in. to three equal parts"
 That is sufficiently direct and ex plicit. It can hardly be doubted that some of the lesser states have been preparing ito come in later on"; il is known that advances have been made-the chancellor confirms the published reports-and they were plainly for war preparations. The probability that the war will soon en ter upon a new phase is. therefore one not to be overlooked.-Ex.