The Cordova daily times., 1916-11-10

mind can become a reality. The mili- tary defeat of Germany, and that is i the only defeat the army looks for ward to, means an invasion of the German empire. General Sir O'Moore Creagh, the distinguished Irish "V. G." has said:
 "The Indian lancers may never ride through the Brandenburg gates, but the end of the war will not come until it is possible for them to do so.' { Things are going so we'll at the western front that it is difficult even for any words of warning to dull the spirit of elation in London. With Germany on the defensive it is felt here that the enemy is no longer fight ing to retain all he seized in the first great onslaught of the war, but is rather struggling to hold as much as possible until peace shall come There is the predicted shortening of the western lines," which Londoners con fidently look for from day to day.
 On the other hand, is the state ment of General Foch, the French commander, who declares the Ger mans are so tightly held in the west it is impossible for them to either ad- vance or to retreat in any great mum ! Der.
 "We are on them" he said Hike corrosive acid. We have eaten into their Hanks and they can't throw us off. You cannot see acid at work but the disintegrating process is go- | ing on all the time"
 The artillery of the allies on the Somme, where the great armies of the belligerents are massed, com mands such an overwhelming infiu- ence as to prevent q retreat, it is said The smelling behind the German lines is just as intense as it is in front. The expenditure of English and French shells has frankly amazed the Ger mans, the military critics here all ! agree, and the artillery activity has brought about a distinct new phase in the fighting. It has driven the once closely locked trenches further and further apart. It has solved the pro blem of dealing with "dug-in" enemy. It has been discovered that the way to successfully take a trench is to obliterate it, to flatten 1t out with shell fire. Recent allied advances have been bought with ammunition rather than with blood. This has led George Queri, the German critic. to write in the Berliner Tageblatt
 Every German killed costs a for. tune to the French. The enemy is de. voting all of it's attention to artillery. The whole concentrated experience of two years finds expression in shells and more shells. His infantry is used only to test the bridge made by shells to the German trenches. Infantry | fighting is no longer man against man. The trench is only rushed by infan- try when it has been blown to dust. It is confession by the enemy that his infantry is of poor quality"
 This fling at the infantry, accord. ing to British officers is merely put in to cover up the real tribute to the artillery of the allies. The military authorities here have been somewhat surprised at the deep impression the artillery has made in Germany. They were quite delighted with a report by a German military expert quoted as having said:
 british infantry never had any value. The French infantry now is only miserable shadow of what 1t was two years ago. The French in fantry nowadays attacks only when the artillery has done it's work so per fectly that they have only to occupy the shattered trenches"
 Those officers who believe the war will go on for two years longer say it has taken two years to put Germany really on the defensive and they an ticipate it will take two years to make her acknowledge the defeat which the allies believe is inevitable As to in ternal conditions, the army man takes it into consideration only as to its effect upon the moral of the fighting men. It is undeniable that great sac rifices are being demanded of the ci- william population in Germany, and it is contended no army long remains wholly superior to home influences.
 Those who believe in an earlier end. ing of the war base their belief - or perhaps their hope upon the mill, tary assumption that an army cannot offer the same resistance in third or fourth or fifth line trenches that il did in the first line. They declare that when the French and the English were retreating at the beginning of the war it was retreat of unprepared, ness. The German retreat, they as. sert, is retreat of exhaustion. These they say are the vital physical and moral facts oF tho laws Of war An