The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-07-15
THE KAIsER's LUCKY GENERAL
Easily Praises An Imperial Telegram to Won linden burg, Who Won One Decisive Battle in His Home Coun- try and Has Done Nothing since-New German
 Theory of Victory by Retreat

London, June 1.-The Kaiser is report, ed from Amsterdam to have sent the following telegram to Marshal Won Hin- denburg:
 Tn this, your decision, you again show proof of your great talents as general, and it occupies worthy place next to your great success in the east. By it new base has been laid for the further direction of the war. The smooth, reg ular course of all measures effected so far is again a new glory for the work of my chief command"
 Sending telegrams is a habit of the Kaiser but after the messages have been dispatched, he sometimes regrets his ac- tion He may possibly come to do so
 in this instance, for on reflection it will hardly appear that the withdrawal on the Somme is a legitimate cause for con- graduation.
 Marshal Won Hindenburg has always of the great war he was called from the half pay list to take over the command | in the East Prussan district, which had been his constant study throughout his military career. He gained an opportunity of entangling his enemy in an impossible l position, and thus secured the only de- l cisive victory won in the first months of | the war Thanks to this success he was | appointed to the chief command on the | eastern front, and in this post, by de- l termination and tenacity, aided by the ef- :, forts of a zealous and competent staff, | he was able to retain the prestige which l he had so fortunately obtained. though l the main military operation on this front was achieved by his rival, Won Macken- sen. Finally he was called to the chief command when Won Falkenhayn was dis graced in consequence of the failure at l Verdun, but he has not yet performed any exploit to increase his reputation. The Rumanan drive stands mainly to | the credit of Won Mackensen and Won | Falkenhayn, and Verdun is still French.
 In December he was inviting the allies | to bite the granite of the German wall l in the vest; now he has himself de- l stroyed that wall and abandoned more I than 60 miles of French territory.
 Certainly if retreat to a previous i ly prepared position is suitable cause for imperial telegrams of eulogy, 1 other generals in this war have scarce lily received their deserts. Hindenburg's $ | predecessor, as chief of the great gen. I erdI SlaII, NOn MOllke, dlSO COnuuCtSu 1 a retreat from the Marne to pre- pared position on the Aisne, but in stead of congratulating him. the Kai- ser removed him from his post. Are l we to believe that the German armies
 are only in France because they see
 no possibility of leaving the country
 and that Hindenburg's achievement in | evacuating the Bapaume-P Peronne-
 Moyon line has opened up for them 9
 new vista If hope2
 Surely, the Germans can have but little to rejoice their hearts if they
 make so much of such a meagre cause
 for congratulation. The allies have conducted retreats under far more diff
 ficult circumstances than Hindenburg
 has; the retirement from Belgian from
 tier to the Marne in August, 1914, and
 the withdrawal of the Russians from
 the Dunajetz in 1915. were each far
 more critical operations extending over
 much greater area and without po-
 sition previously entrenched by slave labor as a goal and yet the allies did not claim the fact that their armies
 were intact at the end of these move I ments as a great victory. If the fact
 that few prisoners are taken Is to be established as a criterion of success