The Washington herald., 1916-01-16

seventeen months, which has produced
| the "Starhsh' forts. The allies must
accept the def and strive by an over
whelming weight of shellfire and by su-
perior numbers to neutralize the advan-
tage. Can they do IT? Possibly. But
when / hear men. wise and otherwise,
talil confidently about the mathematical
certainty that the side must wi which
accumulates a great superiority of men
and guns and which has at the same
time superior credit, 1 think of those
Fnety Germans with forty machine guns
*ho held up while army. They make
the mathematical certainty seem alb
/ surd. Suppose the whole German army
digs itself in, as did the ninety Ger
mans, and the West and the East. The
resources not only Of the allies, but
4 OF the whole world, would be unequal
to the task of breaking through them.
II the whole German army prove one
hundredth part as strong, in proportion
to its enemies, as was that band of
ninety men, two men to a machine gun,
against an army OF De Castelnau.
Advantage of Defensive.
This incalculable factor, the relative
advantage Of the defensive over the at
tack, is responsible, in, the opinion of
| stan officers here, for the decision of
the high command to meet the Germans
! and their allies in the Mediterranean
theater and try to beat them in the open
field before they can dig themselves in.
And no general can learn excepting by
/ experience which cost rivers of blood
just how much stronger in proportion to
the strength exerted is the defensive. All
that can be said is that this disparity
appears to be continually increasing to
| the advantage of the defense as the work
/ oh
proof against the heaviest shells, goes
| on East and West
The problem involved Is simply one OF
proportion. Regardless Of the fate Of the
great campaigns which will be fought
out In the near East, most authorities
believe the war will be settled on the
Eastern and Western fronts. How many
more men than the Germans the allies
need. how many more machine guns, how
many more cannon, how many ore shells
to drive them out of their entrenched
lines? II 1t were possible to put this ques-
tton to Lord Kitchener, to Gen. Joffre, to
Gen. Cadorna, to Gen. Alexie1, and to
quartet would reply in chorus, I'VE
haven't the least idea"
1t is theoretically true, as strategists
| and statesmen proclaim INCREASINGLY that
J Germany can be beaten If enough men,
enough guns. enough shells, be provided
by the allies. But the problem put in
that way is misleading. II an omnis-
/ cient arithmetician discovered the an
| swer to the question above to be $780,
900 men, 10000 machine guns, 10000 can
| non, and 25,O0OO0.OOo shells, 1t would stiIl
remain theoretically possible to crush
| Germany. But SINCE in practice, the re-
quired numbers are impossible Of attain
ment, allied statesmen would throw up
their task and grant the Kaiser his draw.
Heading of Munitions.
| Under the heading OF munitions, and
consequently under the supreme control
| Of Mr.. Lloyd George, come many things.
| such as motorcycles and marmalade, hot
water bottles and howitzers. There are
more than 5000 distinct articles required
to maintain the British army in the field,
and the authorities at home must be
ready to supply any desired quantity OF
any one OF the $1,000 upon presentation
Of a requisition blank.
! Three supremely important articles
| have not been supplied up to the pres
ent, In sufficient quantities to beat the
Germans. They are. in the order of
| their present Importance shells, machine
| guns and cannon.
| 1t Is needless to labor the point that
no army can win a battle against an
| entrenched foe without mountains of
shells to rip his trenches and bombproofs
| to pieces, destroy his barbed wire and
| smash his machine-gun emplacements. II
have a very remarkable photograph OF
| the battlefield of Loos said Mr.. Lloyd
George in discussing the need for more
! shells and always more shells. There
was barbed wire which had not been de-
stroyed. There was one machine-gun
| emplacement which was intact, only one;
the others had been destroyed. There,
in front Of the barbed wire, lay hundreds
Of gallant men. One machine gun! These
are the accidents that you can obviate
IL you have enough shells to crush every
| trench where an enemy turks, to destroy
every concrete emplacement, to rend and
] tear every yard of barbed wire, so that
| II the enemy wants to resist he will have
to do It in the open. face to face with
better men than himself. That is the
secret-plenty OF ammunition"
25O,ooO shells a Day.
In May the German arsenals were
turning out $4,000 shells a day. most of
| them high explosives. The British at
that time, as Mr.. Lloyd George told the
astounded house of commons this week,
| were producing $500 high explosive and
1900 shrapnel daily. No wonder the
she'll scandal, exposed by the Northcliffe
press, overthrow the government! Now,
I after six months of hard work, condi-
tions have changed.
The devils fOrges'' of Germany, Il Is
believed here, were organized at almost
/ full capacity last spring, and the daily
output Of shells in Germany is now esti-
mated at not more than 100000. Lloyd
| Georges thirty-three national shell fac
tories. and the hundreds of private firms
which are working for the government,
are now completing perhaps IL, 200 shells
day, mostly high explosives. That fig
ure is not official. Week by week month
/ by month, the British production of shells
is increasing; experts have calculated
when the output in these Islands will
pass that of Germany, and think may
be permitted to state that the time
specified is considerably less than a year,
The French output of shells, though less
than the German, is much greater than
/ the British.
/ At the battle of Loos, the British guns
fired In few days nearly all the shells
made in Great Britain and imported from
the United States within the preceding
four months. Gen. Sir William Robert
son. the new chief Of the imperial gem
/ eral staff, and then Marshal French's
chief Of staff in Flanders, told the min
lister for munitions that the army was