The Washington herald., 1917-10-21

but IL the radical dispositions indi-
Gated In this and the preceding para
graph take place, they can only be
the prelude to a violent offensive un-
dertaken somewhere with the masses
of men thus released from Germany s
contracted trench frontier.
When men speculate concerning the
extent of the inevitable retreat in the
spring. a horrible fear is always
present in their thoughts. VIII the
Germans repeat. on a large scale and
In part of the most densely populated
country in Europe. the wholesale de-
struction carried out under Hinden-
ourg's orders during the retreat from
the Noyon salient last winter?
The writer motored through the
whole breadth of the evacuated belt
In April. a day or two after traffic was
possible along the wrecked road: there
Is no need to rehearse the horror OF
that trip, the towns and hamlets
blown to pieces so that scarcely a
jagged wall remained standing: the
Quilted farmhouses. the fruit trees.
the sinister thoroughness with which
the Germans had seen to it that no
shelter for a single soldier remained
In country dotted with villages.
And it is impossible to deny that a
military motive existed for this saw
agery. Hindenburg turned the coun-
try into desert in order to delay pur-
suit. He rested his new line in un-
spoiled territory. with roads and rail-
ways intact, and towns and villages
behind him in which to billet his
troops. The advancing allies were
compelled to bring with them huts
and tents and to make superhuman
efforts to get their transport up.
Not Rolling Land.
The same argument will apply
with even greater force, to the retreat
in Belgium, and IL 1t extends south
wards, to retirement through Nor.
thern France. But the territory to
De devastated here is not a rolling
farm land, with occasional small
towns and many villages like ruined
Picardy; IT IS a manufacturing coun-
try covered with cities.
Bruges. Ghent, Roules, Courtrai
will certainly be abandoned. Brus.
sells, Antwerp, Lille, Roubaix, Tour
nal, Deuai. Valanciennes. and a dozen
other famous and prosperous cities,
hlled with factories, magnificent pub
lie buildings, and world famous
churches of the Middle Ages, may be
given up. VIII they all suffer the
fate Of Peronne and Bapaume, or
poor little Vermand and Holnon on
the road to st. Quentin, towns crum-
pied to dust by the Germans for no
reason excepting to embarrass the
French and British armies in their
advance?
There are certainly German gen.
erals who will answer this question
with an IMPLYING Yes" II the Ger
mans fell back to the line of the
Meuse and destroyed every house in
every city between their present
trench lines and their new positions,
they would accomplish twenty times
the destruction that has been wrought
on all the fronts in Europe since
the beginning of the war. But they
would do more than follow their pre-.
cedent OF last spring: they would
delay pursuit: they might make a
serious campaign against their new
lines impossible during most Of the
1918 fighting season.
There are German politicians who
Will oppose such procedure, who have
brains enough to realize that what.
ever its military effect on the 1911
campaign. wholesale devastation Of
Belgium like that carried out in Pi
cardy would SO infuriate the human
race that 1t would seal the fate Of
the German Nation. But whether
such politicians have enough power
to veto the desires of tAe German
General Staff, whether the All-High
est stan itself would carry its abom
inaoie doctrines to the last extrem
ity and commit crimes beside which
anything in modern history mus
pale, are riddles that only the future
T, can answer. And until they are an
swered, the world. when once 1t real
ICES that the retreat is in prospect
must hold its breath.