New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-12-02

looking backward over this period OF
seventeen months, il is interesting to meas
ure what has happened to the German de-
fensive. In the Battle of the Somme, from
July TO the middle of November last year,
Germany lost $1,000 prisoners, and was
also compelled to evacuate 1,200 square
miles of France. At the Aisne and
before Arras, in May and June Of this
year, she lost $4,000 prisoners. Before
Verdun in three attacks-one in October
and one in December of last year, and one
in August of this year-she lost 3o,0oo
prisoners and practically every bit OF
ground that she had captured IN her
great effort last year. Before fpres ana
in the Messines attack, which preceded
Ypres, she lost $4,000 prisoners. In the
recent Cambria struggle her losses were
10000 in prisoners.
Every Reason for Optimism
In this period of seventeen months Ger.
many, on the defensive, has lost 2oo,ooo
prisoners in battle, in addition to some
10000 prisoners in the minor phases OF
trench warfare before the French ana
British lines. A quarter of million Ger
man prisoners in seventeen months Is the
measure Of the declining morale OF the
Germans when it is recognized that IN
that period they have never at any one timo
captured 1000 French or British prison.
ers. Measured by guns, they have lost not
less than 1900 heavy and field pieces
while neither the British nor the French
have lost a single gun. They have lost
between 1000 and 1900 square miles OF
French territory. Slowly but surely they
have been pushed back, and the recent blow
at Cambria is final evidence Of the fash
ion in which their defensive is breaking
down.
The coming Of winter will probably pre-
clude any further considerable operations
on the Western front, although 1t is con-
ceivable that other blows, like that at
Cambria, will be struck. The Interrupt
ton of winter makes it possible, therefore,
that the Germans may hold their present
lines until spring, but with the coming OF
spring it seems inevitable that they must
retire on d wide front between the Meuse
and the Scheldt rivers. II is equally APP
parent that the British success at Ypres
forecasts the time early next spring when
the Germans will have to withdraw
from the Belgian coast. There is,
therefore, no cause for disappoint-
ment; there is no cause for depres-
sion at the fashion in which the war Is
working out on the Western front There
is every reason for optimism in the long
series Of Allied successes beginning with
the Battle Of the Somme. This war will
rot be won by Waterloo or by a Sedan, but
in the Allied offensives since July OF last
year the Germans have lost more prisoners
than Napoleon the First lost at Waterloo
and Napoleon the Third at Sedan. The
ration which set out to conquer Paris and
Trance in six weeks in the closing days
Of the first half of the fourth year Of the
war finds itself still conducting a desper.
ate and losing defensive nearly hundred
miles from Paris. II is essential that the
allied public should see the reality, that
they may not be deceived when Germany
begins to launch peace campaign based
on the imaginary invincibility Of defeated
German armies-a campaign certain to
come within the next few weeks.