The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-10-09
British Officer in Topeka Tells
How To End the War.
Mere Advances and Attacks
Never Will Do 1t.
GERMANY IS STARK MAD
Her Morale Must Break Before
Allies Can Win.
Three Years More Anyway
Before Victory Comes.

Germany has gone stark mad. She
is crazy with war. A mile or ten miles
in Flanders is nothing-nothing. You
have got to wade in and kill Germans
hundreds thousands of them. 1t
sounds horrible, awful. You shrink
from the inhumanity of it. Yet you
are fighting beasts at bay. The Ger
man morale must be beaten and ham
mered under a hell of fire until the
German army breaks under the strain.
1t will take three years, maybe
longer"
Away out here in Kansas those
words sound cruel and harsh. They
arouse a sense of inhumanity and shat
ter sensibilities attenuated to the songs
of thousands of mothers who few
months ago told the nation they did
not raise their boys to be soldiers. Yet
harsh and shocking as the words may
sound, they came right from the lips
of Captain I. Finn, Tenth Battalion,
C. E. F.-Canadian expeditionary
force-in Kansas to enlist British-Can-
adian subjects for the war for world
democracy. And Capt. Firms knowl-
edge of war conditions is something
more than told in the days press dis
patches.
The allies are no longer fighting
mere men, Captain Finn told the state
Journal in Topeka Monday night. They
are fighting a nation that has lost lls
reason. a nation that gives ground
only as a wild beast rears on It's
launches or backs toward its lair
Only fire and steel and human slaugh-
ter, the Canadian captain declared
will break the German spirit, destroy
the morale of the Hun army and win
the war. Haig's batterlng ram orlNes,
the attack on U-boat bases. embargoes
on neutrals with German tendencies,
retaliation for London and Paris
aerial raids-all those things help:
But Captain Finn sees only the end OF
the war in the broken and shattered
i morale of the German troops thru fear
| of the inferno from allied trenches.
| Captain Finn Injured.
( Himself a member of the first
forces in the world war. Captain Finn
talked from the cards when he talked
! of war to a State Journal repreSen-
tative With the Canadian expedi-
tionary force, Captain Finn went to
the front to stop the German drive in
the fall of 1914. In May, 1915, Ger
man shrapnel tore away part of the
Canadian officers left hip. A rifle
ball tore hole in his chest and after
battle at Festubert. Captain Finn lay
two days on the field of No Mans
Land. Then he was taken to base
hospital, where he spent eighteen
months. He came to America in July
of this year to recruit and enlist
lBritish-Canadian subjects not subject
to call by this country.
''I don't know of my country's exact
need of men," said the Canadian Off
GER, who had modestly evaded any
discussion of the details of his own
" ounds. But know men are needed
else I wouldn't be here. 1 don't went
to grab married men with families.
but l believe Kansas has number
of registered men who are exempted
under your draft law who are subject
to our call. And I am looking for
them"
German Inhumanity.
1t was a question as to the treat
ment of allied prisoners by the Ger
mans that aroused the Canadian.
THAT isn't pleasant to talk about
1t makes me sick. God, man, do YOU
know 1 have been with my own eyes
sights that no one will believe when
you tell it. 1 talked with a man who
had come back from the German
prison camp under an exchange. And
such a man as it was. Both arms had
been cut off away up here in the
shoulders-up where no human aid
/ could remedy the inhuman brand
That's only an instance. Your people
out here wouldn't believe me if L told
of things l saw with my own eyes"
Asked of the drive in Flanders, Cau-
tain Finn smiled. But it was a weak,
faint smile that didn't carry hope
What of a mile or seven or ten
miles?" he asked. "It isn't miles that
will win this war. If it were, we
would have been licked long ago. The
Germans had the greater force when
the war started. But we had the
spirit and we turned them back. Do
you think they haven't spirit, Just as
We? OF course these drives all help
They are wonderful. But the Wonder
full thing about them is the fact that
the British are slamming intok them
as fast as they bring on fresh AEnen.
The allies must keep turning them
back and turning them back until they
/ are smashed and broken in morale.
Shutting Off NeutraIs.
Shutting off supplies to the neu-
trails helped a lot. 1t would have
helped much more If it had been done
sooner There can be no neutrality
in this war. You can't stand on a
corner and see a man knock a woman
or a child into the street and be neu-,
trail You are for it or against it and
! you are going to fight.
"Oh, 1 know it sounds inhuman and
makes the blood turn cold. But you
have got to wade in and kill Ger
mans-hundreds. thousands of them.
! 1t sounds horrible, awful 1 know
you think of sheer murder. You
/ shrink from the inhumanity of it,
/ Yet you are fighting beasts at bay
The German morale must be beaten
/ and hammered under a hell of fire
until the German army breaks under
the strain
VIII Take Three Years.
Captain Finn was asked concerning
| the probable length of the war
1T will take three ysars-maybe
/ longer" he said THE turning of the