The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1916-07-30

London, July 29.-The Right Hon. Dir
Gilbert Parker, Bart, NJ. P, whose serv-
ices to the British cause have been
notable in the field of publicity in the
United States, has made the following
statement to the Associated Press on the
European war:
You ask me to make a statement upon
the two years of war, in which England,
with her allies-France. Russia, Italy,
Belgium. Portugal, Servia and Monte
negro-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 of that later.
Also, during that time Russia has moved
heavily upon the troops of the central
empires, and in the southeastern corner
of the Russian front has driven in, league
upon league the Austrian troops, has
captured sector upon sector. city upon
city in the regions where Austria was
300, 900 men.
''Over in Asia Minor the field of con-
quest has been enlarged and developed.
Erzerum and Erzingen have been cap
tured and other centers of Turkish au-
thority have been taken. The renowned
Won Hindenburg, up in the Riga district,
has been driven back mile upon mile,
and Russian prowess has proved itself
beyond question. Russian generals, like
Brussiloff and Grand Duke Nicholas,
have re-established the Russian positions
weakened at the beginning of the war
through lack of munitions.
WONDER OF VICTORY
Looking back, one is forced to Won
der how Germany was stayed in her
march of conquest. According to every
rule she should have been in Paris at
the time she herself appointed, early in
the autumn of 1914. She came very near
it. What stopped her?
She had left out of her calculations
the strategical skill which belongs by
nature to the French army. the new
French army, the new French army from
British army
1T is remarkable thing that on the
western front the only gains of Ger
many were achieved in the first few weeks
of the war. Those gains We're OF I'M
mense strategical value to her. They in
cluded the mining and industrial dis
tricts of France and nearly the whole
of Belgium, from which she has steadily
drawn practical support and advantage
and supplies. Wonder is not that the
allies have done so we'll, but that. with
all her preparations and her perfect
nant and har nha6ient
colleagues, Austria and Turkey and Bull
garia, have done so badly.
Apparently at the beginning Of the
war everything was in their hands, every
thing except one-the British navy. If
Germany could have mastered her as she
mastered Belgium and a goodly portion
of France, the war long since would have
been over; France would have been a
third rate power under practical Ger
man control; Russia would have been
driven back into her steppes and plains,
once more the slave of German Influence
and control, and the British empire as
we know it would have become thing
of the past.
WORK ON NAVY
"What the British navy did was to
sweep German merchant commerce
from the seas, prevent Germany from
trading with the rest of the world, eX-
cept by crooked methods. bottle up
her fleet to uselessness, drive her
South Atlantic fleet to the bottom of
the sea and throttle and choke Ger
man export to an extent that great
cities like Harburg have lost the hum
Of their activity, and. outside the Bal
tic sea, there is no stir of German COM
merce save in a freakish enterprise
like that of the Deutschland. Those.
however, who count the work of the
Deutschland as extraordinary should