New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-12-10

through Belgrade with the manner IN
which Rumania has been permitted to en-
list and to be destroyed before her allies
could help her.
To-day Britain possesses the greatest
resources in man-power of any of the ma
tons at war save Russia, and Russia's re-
sources arc limited by her inability TO equip
and munition her millions. If Germany Is
not ultimately TO dominate the Continent
and build on contemporary conquests a
new attack upon Britain, her chief foe for
the future, Britain must prevent 1t. Inc
existence Of the British Empire and the
freedom Of Europe are still III no small
measure hanging in the balance. Like Ma
Iolcon, William II has recognized that his
march TO world power must be over pros
trate Britain.
Many possibilities that we're held as
Probabilities in Britain when the war be-
gan have been dismissed. The conquest OF
Germany and the destruction Of Austria
are no longer within the realms Of ordl-
nary possibility Britain must fight Tor
the restoration Of Belgium and Of France,
because the British frontier begins at the
Mouse and British honor and security
would be permanently sacrificed II Ger
MANY were able to retain Antwerp, Ostend,
Liege or her hold on Northern France.
Not less is Britain bound TO fight until
Serbia is restored, because the road which
Germany has opened from the Belt to the
Golden Horn is road that ends only at
the frontiers Of Egypt and Of India.
All this Lloyd George has seen more
clearly than any other living Briton, and
he has seen it before most. He has recently
told the American people that the fight must
be a fight to finish, and in saying this he
has expressed the determination of peo-
pie whose will to win is written in every
depar tment of national life No one sees
more clearly than Lloyd George that peace
now would be a German victory and a
way station on the road to German world
domination.
England is fighting Germany as she
fought Napoleon and Louis XIV; the stake
IS the same and the end must be the same.
In this war Britain has more loyal and
allies than she had in the earlier
conflicts, but the demands upon her own
strength are necessarily far greater. Both
oe these conflicts ended in a draw in one
sense, since both left France standing, and,
in the case of Louis XIV, greater in area
and population than at the start. But in
both wars the British and their allies were
successful in putting a term to French
domination of Europe, and this war must
have a similar outcome if there is to be
real peace.
SO far the Allies have developed no great
statesman, no Pitt, no Metternich. If Lloyd
George now displays the genius of either
Re will unquestionably succeed to the moral
leadership Of the Entente; he will become
in a very real sense more powerful than
kings and more influential than the Kaiser
himself. Success now will make him the
biggest man of our own time, but failure
will mean the failure not merely of the
man, but probably Of the nation.
As The Tribune said the other day, the
war is marching toward military draw.
After all the expectations and conjectures
of the recent twenty-eight months, after
the making and unmaking of maps of the
prospective Europe that was to follow
peace, there is a growing conviction all over
the world that the new map of Europe will
not differ largely from the old and that
the sword will not carve many new from
tiers. We may have the questions Of AL
sace-Lorraine, Of the Italia Irredenta, of
Poland settled, we may even see the Gar
at the Golden Horn; but we are not likely
to see the Allies at Berlin, the collapse of
the Hapsburg empire or the Hohenzollerns
at Elba or st. Helena.
This comment Of The Tribune has been
inaccurately described as accepting Allied
defeat and looking forward to the perpet-
Iuation Of the conditions of war. This is
not The Tribunes view; 1t has held at all
times that Germany was beaten at the
Marine and that the German purpose was
there permanently checked. This is the
great fact and the great decision, and there
is no prospect now that it will be reversed.
On the other hand, the German people are
likely 10 fight until they are satisfied that
their own future, their own unity and in
dependence are not in danger, just as the
French rallied to their aged King in the
first years of the eighteenth century and
enabled him TO maintain the integrity of
France to the Peace Of Utrecht
The German rulers have not abandoned
their determination to dominate Europe
and to make this wars temporary gains
the bases Of later war. They still COM
mand the support Of the mass of the people
ind therefore the war must go on. 1t is
for Lloyd George, a man of the people,