Grand Forks herald., 1917-03-02
General Frederick Maurice Says
Strategy is Dominating the
World Struggle.
a1NDERS SUPERIOR
FORCES OF ALLIES
Has No Time for Statements
That German Army is at End
of Fighting Ability.

S30A4y oAtond over anOther winter as
1er a. purely military factors are con-
General Frederick B. Maurice, direc-
TOR OF military operations for the i'm
perd1 general staff. in an interview
k1ven to the Associated Press General
Maurice is an authority on military
history and has been chosen as the
biographer of Robert E. Lee in a SER
les published under the title Of "Mak-
opinion. there is little difference be-
tween the strategy followed by the
commanders in the American civil
var and the strategy which governs
the great struggle Of today.
Strategy Dominates War.
Strategy as immutable as time"
he said. "is dominating this war az 1t
has dominated all other conflicts. The
world has long recognized Robert Lee
a. q great general and in my opinion
he was ono Of the dozen great COM
menders Of history. a place which is
enhanced rather than dimmed by his
participation in a lost cause. as sue
cess gains its own recognition. The
strategy Of which General Lee was a
master does not change with time and
in the year 2,0o1 military leaders will
be acting on the principles of Ma
poleon and Lee.
strotegists Prolong War.
"People wonder frequently why
with tho superior forces in man pow
er undoubtedly possessed by the allies.
that more progress toward victory is
not made. The reason lies in the force
OF strategy which made your civil war
SO long and enabled Napoleon to keep
his back to the wall so long when he
had q coalition Of European nations
against him. Lee and Napoleon work.
ed on interior lines from a central po-
sition and they had the genius to
make the best possible use of the
great advantage this gave them. The
Germans understand this form of
strategy SO we'll that even in peace
time their economic necessities are
frequently sacrificed to military needs.
Forced Retirement.
II see no indication Of what has
been asserted. that the Germans are
Withdrawing at some places along our
front bec&Gses Of a desire to force open
fighting. This movement is g. retire.
mont forced upon them. They do not
like it any more than we did when,
after the second battle Of Ypres. we
had to retire and, therefore. 1t is GER
tain that the Germans will make a de-
termined effort somewhere to restore
their lost prestige.
Fruits of Winter Fighting.
Eve are now merely gathering the
fruits Of our winter operations, the
result Of which is that from Arras to
the Ancre, salient, decidedly danger
Gus to German positions. has been es-
tablished. Our range on the Somme
front gave us commanding positions
from which our artillery fire was
much more effective. The Germans,
who are no longer occupying snug
and we'll constructed dug outs. are
more anxious to retire to a safer line.
They also counted on making our
preparations for an offensive over this
country abortive by giving up their
front line and compelling us to alter
our plans.
Germans Not Done.
II have no patience with the idea
that the Germans are at the end of
their fighting resources. They are still
capable Of and will put up strong
fight From q purely military stand
point I see no reason why the war
should not go through another winter,
but conditions outside the military
zone may operate to end it sooner.
How far the shortage Of food in Ger
many has affected the physique and
morale Of tho latest recruits I cannot
say, but some deterioration from this
cause 10 almost certain and will be-
come more and moro effective with
the passage Of time. Without morale
even the genius Of Leo could never
have won his victories"