Evening star., 1916-08-06

up our exports very nearly TO peace level.
We are still successfully financing and
shall finance to the end war which is
now costing one and a quarter million of
dollars every hour.
British Death Defying.
Our boys have shown themselves as en-
tirely death-defying as were ever the jap
anese. Without oriental fatalism. they
have leaped down into a worse than Man.
churian furnace, with heavens own light
in their eyes. All that can be said against
our boys, officers or rankers. is that they
are still too brave. Sir Douglas Haig S
operations have borne at every point the
stamp of modern ability Before all ac-
counts are cast up the military repute of
Britain will be second to none.
Again our workers. men and women.
strained as they are by unremitting
toll, have given up their holidays with
out a murmur. They were grossly
misjudged and libeled by many who
drew false differences at the beginning
from affairs like the south Wales coal
strike. Our workers are Of the same
moral stuff as the men in the trenches.
All are one breed. The voluntary dis
cipiine of the whole nation has become
complete without Prussian methods.
NauSht should make US rue, for Eng
land to herself hath proved most true.
Reserves to Be Brought Up.
There still are great reserves tc
bring up before our fighting power is
deployed at it's maximum. Though
the guns arenow being turned out by
hundreds a month at a rapidly mount
ing rate. our munition factories are
SO far from having neared the limit
of their capacity that they will more
than double within the next six months
their present huge output
Add two other things. Mr.. Lloyd
George is secretary for war and he is
the most remarkable statesman who
has risen from the ranks since Abra-
ham Lincoln. There will be no ques-
tion about that when the records
about this war are fully known, es-
pecially since November. 1914. Gen.
Sir William Robertson, the chief of
staff. is in his turn as strong a soldier
was ever risen from the ranks in
the English-speaking countries. His
career marks those of the Marshalls
of the revolution. Yet his colleague,
the commander in chief in the field,
Sir Douglas Haig, belongs, on the con-
trary. to an immemorial family whose
origins go back to the dimmest days
of border legend.
France Wants Saar Valley.
1t must be remembered that France,
hardened by Verdun, is now not only
inflexible for the retrocession of Alsace
and Lorraine. but for the acquisition
Of the Saar valley just over her present
frontier. The Saar valley is a small
area within valuable coal districts.
These added to the famous iron de-
posits of Lorraine would insure for
France full economic compensation and
a brilliant industrial renaissance. 1t
is claim for indemnity paid otherwise
than in cash.
Against these terms on which France
is bent Germany will, of course fight
to the last gasp. But if her Austrian
and Turkish supports are knocked
away will Germany have any chance
of fighting successfully for twelve
months more? We do not think so, but
there may be a tremendous struggle
drawn out considerably longer than
present calculations would suggest, no
matter how carefully made. We may
full year. 1t is better to reckon with
that contingency, and we do.
Question of Time in West.
The allies in the west are on the
sure way. 1t is only question of time
AS to time. opinions differ. Optimism
Is per maps niSHG at tne MANY
of the best French and English SOL
diers are very sanguine. They believe
that the wedge driven into the enemy's
lines in the west will widen as it ad-
vances, and that when it is, say, twen-
ty miles broad, it will thrust forward
with cumulative power. These SOL
diers think that the Franco British
forces in the present long, slow push
will not only reach the line Bapaume-
Peronne, but the line Cambrai-St
Quentin. This would compel an exten-
sive German retirement south of the
Sonlme, and the whole world would in
terpret such a movement as the be-
ginning of the end. Even from the
German people the truth could not be
concealed. But even that is the minor
argument. The major argument rea-
sons in terms not of acres, but of men.
The German strength is being melted
down in the Picardy furnaces We
have every reason to think that their
losses are heavier than ours, as one
bombardment follows an
other. Again, the Germans are bound
to go on counter attacking on a larger
and larger scale or give up the game
But this comes well into the allies
plans.
Main Calculation Destroyed.
In this way the enemys main calcu-
lation has been destroyed. At the be-
ginning of the year and for nearly six
months afterward the Germans believed
that the conditions Of trench warfare
would give them an overwhelming ad-
vantage in the final phase 1t would be
a fight for what Herr Won Bethmann-
Iollweg called "the war map as it
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