Evening star., 1916-09-20
ALLIES b|GDR|VE
|SDUE NEXT MONTH
Preparations on All Fronts Be-
inu Made on an Enormous
Scale.
DENMARK is EXPECTED
TOGET INTO CONFLICT
Will Be Given Scandinavian Section
of Schleswig -Holstein as Re
ward for Her Participation.
Copyright, 1857
BY HERBERT COREY.


PARIS. September ss.-The big drive
should begin about October !.
This prediction is necessarily vague
1t is an attempt to forecast an event
which will be affected by dozen winds
of circumstance. The drive may begin
earlier. 1t may not start until later.
But whether it starts early or starts late,
it will start on the date fixed by the al
lies 1t begins to look as though the
Germans have very little to say about
the future direction of the war. They
are not whipped yet. They are far from
being whipped. But the handwriting
seems rather clear on the wall
They have not been able to react
strongly in any one Of the theaters of
war They are definitely weaker in each
field. The allies are definitely stronger.
rs there chance that the war will
end this year. | asked a very acute
gentleman in the foreign office.
ut is not impossible" was his guard
ed reply.
Not the Real" Big Drive.
Even the well informed portion of the
public has been in the habit of refer
ring to the combined French-British Of
fensive on the Somme as the big
drive 1t has never been entitled to
that label. 1t has been most success
fun big drive, in which the allies proved
their ability to smash into the German
lines whenever and almost wherever
they pleased 1t has been an overture to
the big drive 1t has been trial reat,
in which the great new war machine
was warmed and gauged and jolted
down to its work. But the big drive it
Il i've of ffsI
than a battle on a Observation-Disclosures
front. 1t is to be an attack east and
west, in which every nation of the al
lies will exert every pound of weight
against the powers of the center.
The big drive is an affair of politics
and commerce we'll as artillery. Its
aim is not merely to smash the military
strength of the central powers. but to
shackle them SO that. even after peace
is declared, they shall be reduced and
impotent
"Bulgaria has asked for peace and has
been refused. Either Greece will join
the allies or there will be a revolution
in Greece. Rumania has been promised
those provinces of Austria which are
Rumanian by b 'od.
Just to Kill, the Real Aim.
Those statements rest upon high au-
thority. But to properly seize the i'm
mensity of the big drive one must ap-
proach it piecemeal 1t is perhaps cas-
ier to consider first the purely military
operations on the western front There
may be no distinct line of demarcation
between the little drive of today and
the big drive which is to start. 1t may
merely be that there will be few more
hundred guns firing and few more
thousand men employed, and little
more speed shown in the giant opera
tfon. In all probability it will be only
an intensification and prolongation of
the present offensive. It's aim is not to
break the line" although a break in
the German line would be welcome. The
plan has a ghastly simplicity. 1t is
only to drive the Germans back and kill
as many of them as possible in the
driving.
Ordinarily the drive should end about
the middle of September. By that time
the best of the weather has passed, and
rain and wind may be anticipated as an
item in the account of most weeks. This
hampers aerial operations, hinders ar
tiIlery observation and calls for an ex-
travagant expenditure of shells to ac-
cemplish a desired end. II the allies
were still Inferior in artillery power to
the Germans-as they had been up to
September lit is probable that the
stagnation by the time the first snow
hies. But the allies are no longer in
ferior- They are today on practically
even terms Their supplies and re-
serves are increasing every day. while
those of the Germans do not show any
apparent growth.