New-York tribune., 1917-12-16

CNerWnelmnGlN superior ana lut Vtii'i az
least equal TO the German. Again, Brit
ain in colonial territory would be the vic
tor; no German merchant ship could sail
from Hamburg to the Far East save IS
Britain permitted IL to touch at her coal
ing stations; British colonies and British
naval ports would be closed 20 German
commercial ships and German warships,
and despite the ravages of the submarine
in British shipping the German CONNER
cial feet has suffered far greater losses
incident TO the seizure in foreign ports of
the vessels that to escape British sea
power took refuge there in August, 1914.
We arc fixing our eyes upon Europe
precisely as our ancestors fixed their eyes
upon the campaign in Flanders and Artois
in the days of the eighteenth and mint
teenth century wars. and yet the British
Empire was built beyond Europe at the
time when Europe was contesting prov
inces and cities between the Somme ana
the Meuse, between the Rhine and the
Danube. When these wars were over an
exhausted France fell back upon itself,
while an invigorated Britain went for
ward in the work Of empire building.
To-morrow we may see a free Palestine
guaranteed by Allied armies. We may
see an Arab state created in Syria with a
similar guarantee. We shall see German
colonies in the Pacific permanently as
signed to Japan and to Australia We
shall see German West Africa annexed
BY British South Africa, and we may see
the ultimate obliteration Of all German CO
lonial power. But no man can expect now
to see German-led armies arrive at Suez
or on the Persian Gulf. India and Egypt
are to remain British. South Africa has
denied all German claims and borne arms
against the German, not the Briton.
German commercial establishments in the
Far East have been permanently de-
stroyed; German commercial edifces in
South America and in the United States
are gone or are crumbling.
Whether as master Of Mitteleurops or
as master only Of the Germany Of 1870,
the Teuton at the end of this war will
have to begin again in the world, and not
begin as he began on the morrow Of the
Franco-P -Prussian War, but begin with the
hatred and the suspicion Of two-thirds
Of the people Of the world; with the
British Empire closed to his exports; with
the opportunity to purchase raw materials
essential to his trade restricted if not de-
MED; with his industrial machinery on
the human side, reduced by the cruel cost
Of his campaigns of conquest
Napoleon or Louis XIV would be moved
to sympathy and fellow feeling in con-
templating Germany's position with re-
ypect to Britain at the present moment.
Nothing in what has happened to Ger
many would seem novel to the conqueror
who marched from Madrid to Moscow,
nothing in what has happened to the Ger
man colonial empire would seem strange
to Louis XIV and his successor, who lost
India and Quebec while winning cam
paigns in Flanders.
It is a curious fact that no matter how
often history repeats itself the familiar
things still seem novel to the latest gen
GRAFTON which sees the contemporary
repetition Of past events. We shall prob
ably continue TO watch the West front
with bated breath, to hope and fear FOR
Russia. We shall continue to estimate
the meaning Of the war by the daily COM
muniques, by the foot measure marking
the change in the Western trenches. Yet
those who come hereafter will doubtless
look at this war as we view the Anglo
French wars of the past, which to-day
appear wars in which the European cam
paigns were relatively fruitless, while
those which were carried on beyond the
seas permanently altered the fate of mill
ions of men and almost limitless areas Of
territory. So far Britain has run true to
form, she has done better than ever before
with her land armies, but at sea, beyond
the European horizons, she has maintained
the great tradition Of past centuries.
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Sir Arthur's Heaven
lt is a very solid and substantial heaven