New-York tribune., 1917-12-16
Britain and Germany

Inc other day ldCOnlc bliLlsH Oili~'"'
statement announced the completion OF the
campaign in German East Africa Its sig
niAcance was little appreciated by world
whose attention was fixed upon Cambrai
and the Russian revolution And yet 1t
marks the passing Of one Of the great
colonial empires of modern times When
the war broke out German colonies oc-
cupied more than a million square miles
Of African territory, an empire in area
Larger than that lost by France under the
4 Old Monarchy in the wars with Britain
which preceded the Napoleonic era
Bagdad, Jerusalem, German Africa
these are measures of the present strug-
Gle between the Briton and the German.
We IRE entering the fourth winter Of the
war, war which German statesmen and
German scholars quite as much as Ger
man soldiers proclaimed was 10 be con-
test between a modern Rome and q con-
temporary Carthage, contest in which
. the German should play the Roman role.
And after four campaigns no German
ship sails the seas, every German col
ony is in British hands save for those
portions occupied by Britain's French and
Japanese allies; Germany's Turkish ally
has lost Mesopotamia and the Holy Land;
British armies occupy the roads to Suez
and the Persian Gulf, and no single foot
Of British territory has now German
master.
If one could preserve an historical per
sp4ctive in the midst Of the crowded in.
cidents Of the present time it would be
perceived that history is strangely repeat
ing itself Britain is doing to Germany
ROW what she did to Spain, to Holland, to
France. Challenged by an ambitious rival,
she has swept that rival from the seas,
she has destroyed the colonial edifce or
the new foe, and her armies are Joined
to those Of half the civilized world in
fight upon German armies on the Euro
pean Continent
Not so many months ago Bethmann-
lloliReg, then German Chancellor, an
nounced that Germany would make peace
On. the basis Of the war map but peace
with Britain on the basis Of the war map
of to-day would leave Germany not alone
confined to Europe and Asiatic Turkey,
hut with the doorways Of Asiaic Turkey
closed, with the sea gates Of the Turkish
Empire in British hands, while now and
for the future, as in the past, British sea
power would stin dominate the German
exits from the North Sea TO the Atlantic,
IRON the Mediterranean both to the Red
Sea and to the Western Ocean. Measur-
ing the war by the feet and inches of the
European scale, it still remains doubt
fut and terrific struggle. Measured by
the map Of the world, Britain has al
ready repeated the achievements Of the
sixtAenlh seventeenth and eighteenth cen
turies, and the war, so far as Britain is
:. sonrerned, still remains 70 be completed.
More than this. When the war began
England had only feet. The English
cxwdihonay army Of less than 100000
mon represented the maximum Of her
streng,h upon land. To-day she has five
million men under arms, her guns out
~eigh the German, her military machine
Is e powerful as the German, and not
seslhas her man power been weakened by
fhetrcmendous sacrifices which have been
tbellpriee Of German victory so far as
that has achieved victory against the
1'rHch the Italians and the Russians.
jerusalem has a significance for a world
pulHic far beyond its military value
Even Bagdad is a name before il is a
thing Of military Importance; and yet
thoSc cties, with their wealth Of historic
buggestion, represent a fresh renaissance
I bf british power. Louis XIV and Ma
bolt3on were confined TO Europe save for
Nanoleon's little venture into Egypt;
while British armies then, as now, played
their part on the Continent and British
ships OF war and British forces swept the
world.
II the war were 70 end today Britain