Omaha daily bee., 1916-07-30
ENTENTE MAKING
UNITED DRIVE THAT
WILL END Big WAR
Sir Gilbert Parker, in Extended
Review Of Struggle, Sees
Victory for Allies in
Few Months.
GERMANS GOT EARLY START
England Had to Organize and
Equip Army Before 1t Could
Do Land Fighting.
NAVY IS BIGGEST FACTOR

London, July 29.-The Right Hon
orable Sir Gilbert Parker, member of
Parliament, whose services to the
British cause have been notable in
the field Of publicity in the United
States, has made the following state
ment to The Associated Press on the
European war:
"You ask me to make a statement
on the two years of war in which
England, with its allies, France, Rus
sia, Italy, Belgium, Portugal, Serbia
and Montenegro, has been engaged.
Three months ago the task would
have been far more difficult than it is
today. Since then Great Britain and
France have moved forward on their
fronts and with tremendous effect,
but on that later. Also during that
time Russia has moved heavily upon
the troops of the central empire, and
in the southeastern corner Of the Rus
sian front has driven in, league upon
league, the Austrian troops, has cap
tured sector upon sector, city upon
city in the regions where Austria was
dominant, and has made prisoners of
100000 men.
Hindenburg Driven Back.
"Over in Asia Minor the field of
conquest has been enlarged and de-
veloped. Erzerum and Erzingan have
been captured and other centers of
Turkish authority have been taken.
The renowned Won Hindenburg, up in
the Riga district, has been driven back
mile after mile and Russian prowess
has proved itself beyond question.
Russian generals like Brussiloff and
Grand Duke Nicholas have estab-
lished Russian positions, weakened at
the beginning of the war through lack
of munitions.
Looking back one is forced to
wonder how Germany was stayed in
its march of conquest. According to
every rule it should have been in
Paris at the time it itself appointed
early in the autumn of 1914. 1t came
very near it. What stopped itl
"She had left out of her calculations
the strategical skill given by nature
to the French army, the new French
army from behind Paris, and the con-
temptible little Britishv
1T is a remarkable thing that on
the western front the only gains of
Germany were achieved in the first
few weeks of the war. Those gains
were of immense strategical value to
it. They included the mining and in
dustrial district of France and nearly
the whole of Belgium, from which it
has steadily drawn practical support
and advantages and supplies. The
wonder is not that the allies have done
so we'll, but that, with all its prepara-
tions and its perfect armament, Ger
many and her obcdient colleagues,
Austria and Turkey and Bulgaria,
have done so badly.
British Navy Biggest Factor.
apparently at the beginning Of the
war, everything was in their hands
everything except one-the British
navy. If Germany could have mas
tered it as it mastered Belgium and
a goodly portion of France, the war
long since would have been over;
France would have become third
rate power under practical German
control; Russia would have been
driven back into its steppes and
plains, once more the slave of Ger
man influence and control, and the
British empire as we know it would
have become a thing of the past.
What the British navy did was to
sweep German merchant commerce
from the seas, prevent Germany from
trading with the rest of the world,
except by crooked methods, bottle |
up its fleet to uselessness, drive its
South Atlantic fleet to the bottom of
the sea, and throttle and choke Ger
man exports to an extent that great |
cities like Hamburg have lost the
hum of their activity, and outside the
Baltic sea there is no stir of German |
commerce save in freakish enter
prise like that of the Deutschland. |
Those, however, who count the work |
Of the Deutschland as extraordinary
should remember that it is rot original,
since considerable numbers of British |
submarines have crossed the Atlantic |
during the last year safely and surely.
1t is not strange that the Deutsch-
land accomplished its feat. 1t would
be very strange. however, if that feat
is duplicated by any sister ships.
German foreign commerce cannot
be rehabilitated by the activities of
submarines. Since the battle off Jut-
land it can be safely and surely said
that the seas are still controlled over
shelmingly by the British fleet. The
German fleet came out and then fled
10 cover again after a stiff fight.
Britons Had to Make Army.
But let us now take the field of
battle on the western front For a