New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-09-24

1
ership alone. but of a kind OF politlcal
and military cooperation, an interpiah
Of civilian and fighting persohslt'es,
which make the present comDlnatlOH VI
the Allies exceptionally formldaDle;
Their generals are admirable, put couIu
not have done the work without the
statesmen. A..
There are several leaders on the
Allies' side whom we think more than
a match for Hindenburg. General
loire. in his extraordinarily quiet
steady way. is proving himself to be
very memorable man. He reminds US
once more that Fabius was Latin, not
n Teuton. Add Foch. Petain and the
rest. General Cadorna is at least as
we'll able to teach his opponents as 10
learn from them. Huxley, as one re-
members. said that the Latin mind, as
an intellectual instrument, was the
most flexible of all and among the
keenest. The Gar has in his service
at the present moment, with AleNleH'
Brussiloff, Ruszky and others, the mos.
brilliant galaxy of military talent tha'
Russia has known IN her "nole hls'oiS'
Robertson and Haig.
As for our Tritish chief Of sta"
General Sir William Robertson, who
has risen from the ranks in way alb
solutelv impossible in Germany, is
quite one of the most remarkable men
IN tho whole war. 1t is hard 10 mag
inc him being dominated by any one:
Sir Douglas Haig, in the handling OF
his work on the Somme. has proved
himself a very strong and deXterous
commander whom the Germans. max
ing more desperate efforts against MN
than against any other leader, nave
not vet been able to stop. None OF
these men is disturbed about linden
burg. 800.
soldiers who lead the Allied armies
had been left to themselves, the com
mon cause would not have been so ad-
vanced as it is to-day. Each OF them
was necessarily preoccupied for long
time with his own particular front or
sector.
Statesmen Success.
II was the statesmen who brought
about the masterful coordination. and
among these statesmen we're not ohly
deliberate ministers of the older stamp
like Lord Grey and Baron Sonnino, but
poljtical leaders like Mr. Lloyd George
and VI. BRAND, whose careers would
lave been as impossible in Germany as
that of Abraham Lincoln.
Far sooner and more decisiyely than
any soldier. Mr.. Lloyd George seized on
the meaning Of the trench deadlock and
the method Of breaking IT. Without
him the Allies might never have come
in sight of winning. This we may say
when we think Of the prodigious out.
put TO which the British Ministry OF
Munitions has attained in this present
month. Even in France civilian insight
like that of VI. Albert Thomas led the
soldiers on the munitions question.
Finally. the political ability and
imagination OF statesmen who would
never have had the faintest chance Of
coming to the top in Germany dared
even to touch the sacred sphere Of
strategy A minority Of thinkers,
chiefly civilian. formed a definite, rea-
soned. farsighted view early in the
war that the enemy would have to be
much weakened in the East before he
could be overthrow in the West, and
that the line of final victory for the
Allies would have 20 run through the
Balkans. Conversion of the Allies
councils 70 this doctrine was very slow.
Lloyd George and Salonics.
Mr.. Lloyd George was the first to adj
vocate an expedition from Sslonica
He urged this idea, I believe, as carly
as November, 1914. Could he have had
his way at that time Serbia would
never have been crushed, Rumania
would have come in much sooner, Bull
garia and Greece would probably have
Joined the Allies and the war might
nave been over by now. Mr. Lloyd
Georges views were resisted for nine
months.
Then began the great role Of the
French Premier, VI. BRAND General
Joffre himself had been converted TO
the Salonica idea, and carried it with
famous energy at an intensely dramat-
&c war council held in London. But il
was necessary to give yet fuller and
more masterful Interpretation to the
theory of action in the Balkans. As
president Of the conferences of the
Grand Alliance in Paris. VI. BRAND
was in r position of rare influence.
lie used ;hat influence with all his
impressive and persuasive eloduence
90 enforce the doctrine of the single
and continuous front, linking up all
The Allied armies from Belgium
through France, Italy, the Balkans and
RumanIa into Galicia and Russia.
II was magnificent conception. II