The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-12-14
PEACE DRIVE Is
MOTIVE ON new
HUN OFFENSIVE
Predict Another Peace Kite
VIII Follow Supreme Effort.
Moves To Prove Military Invin-
cibiIity to German People.
THIS IS KMSER'S INNlNG!
But Can Ill Afford Slaughter
"Drive" Would Entail.
Will Try Desperately To End
War Before U. S. Strikes.
BY LOWELL MELLETT.


London. Dec. 14.-Germany's much
advertised forthcoming west front
drive is her first preliminary to an
other peace offensive.
She hopes to achieve a dent some
where on the Franco-B British line She
wants to claim 'invincibility' of her
military forces to the German people
to steel them to the overwhelming
sacrifices which must come when
America throws her strength in the
battle line. She wants to buck up
Austria Hungary to greater sacrifices
against tina; day. She wants to ac-
celerate growth of pacif1st and peace
without victory" sentiment in allied
nations. Above all, she wants the war
to end before Americas millions OF
men and of war machines can be ar
rayed against her and overwhelm-
ingly turn the tide to a certain Ger
man defeat.
This is the view of observers here.
It is based on we'll defined develop
ments of recent weeks in Germany.
The kaiser and his military chiefs can
i'll afford to sacrifice the thousands of
soldiers who must be thrown to
slaughter in a west front offensive in
the view here of Germany's despera-
ton.
At Zenith of Strength Now.
| A tremendous increase in German
peace propaganda has been noted re-
Gently.
| Germany today is at the summit of
her strength. With every hour from
now on it oozes away. AT home,
Chancellor Hertling has apparently
! cemented political ruptures. On the
seas, by speeding up methods, Ger
+ many's submarines are still taking a
heavy toll of allied shipping. In the
field, Germany claims major credit
for the strategy of the recent success
full drive into Italy and a great many
n fioir, tod
Russia has been definitely put out
of the war-more than counterbal-
ancing Turkeys utter collapse. Thru
cleverly exerted but nevertheless re
lentIess pressure, Germany is extorting
food and metal supplies from ner neu-
trail neighbors.
The kaiser is at the zenith of his
power. To save his autocracy, he
must now in this moment of strength
try to save something from the wreck
that inevitably is coming, by a peace
made while Germany is strong.
4 Bagdad Hopes Abandoned.
L He knows President Wilson's prose-
1yt11g of the German people seeking
to bring them to their senses and over
, throw autocracy, will gain with every
day henceforth. He and his leaders
know the Rerlin-Bagdad scheme is
gone with Turkeys smash up. He
knows with the allied and American
shipbuilding plans and with perfec-
ton of anti-submarine devices the
German U-boat is destined to play less
and less a part in the war. He knows
his ambitious propaganda seeking to
disrupt Italy has failed; that a sena-
rate Oeace with the Russian Bolshe-
/ WIKI means nothing. Above all else
| he realizes that next spring perhaps
America will have a great force of
carefully trained men on the fighting
line; that American aeroplanes will
likely start with the allied aviators to
sweep Germany from the skies.