El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1918-02-06

accuracy OF the estimates Of Hilaire
Bellocs which are very favorable in
allied hopes I an aware that some
I people smile at Mr.. Belloc as an OPP
/ timist determined at all costs 10 stick
I to what he has said: but I have &C
tually found that these people have
! not read Mr.. Belloc- Further, I would
/ point out that Mr.. Belloc has never
| hesitated TO correct himself. By
! reason OF my conviction as to the
| paucity Of German reserves I have
no fear for the result Of q German Of
/ fensiye in the west. And I regard
| any really large scale German Of
fensive in the west as exceedingly
improbable The German general staff
could not even deliver the goods
against Italy. the retirement Of whose
armies was net due to German valor
or military skill.
venture the opinion that the Ger
man military machine will crack be-
fore the food supplies give out.
The British and Russia.
So much for Germany. For Britain
I think that. faulty as our military
machine is, It Is less so than our po-
litical machine. Our military machine
may be too slow, too clumsy and too
cosuy-it has indeed to this hour
terrible and shameful defects in the
upper regions-but II has done mar
velous things. and on the whole it
goes steadily forward. It improves.
The political machine, on the other
hand has unQuestionably deterior-
ated- It has made appalling mis-
takes because Il was out of touch
with the sentiment not merely of
Britain, but OF the world. It's hand
ling Of the Russian revolution-to
mention nothing eise-was ineffably
stupid in every way. The handling
has been condemned by all the best
expert authorities on modern Russia.
and n has rnwz7dn ava h1r- 1arr~~hened
the war and cost hundreds of thou
sands of lives and thousands of mil
lions Of money.
If the British government had fol-
lowed democratic advice in the ear
lier stages of the revolution. either
the Russians might still be fighting
with US or the war might have been
over. However, I do not propose 10
pursue further the unpleasant sub
ject OF the misdeeds Of our scandal
ously constituted war cabinet and its
creatures It has proved itself capa-
bic Of appalling follies, both Of speech
and action, but no folly that the
blind, reactionary element IN it might
be able to force upon the country
would fatally prejudice the allied po-
sition, which is practically fool proof.
True, the submarine menace-which
a few weeks ago the prime minister
no longer feared'-will cause very
grave inconvenience, but il viii not
cause more than very grave fnconven- !
fence. And in any case. the handling I
handling Of the Russian revolution, I
does not depend on the war cabinet. /
and naval activities will reg
ularly proceed, and probably VIII 1
neither improve nor worsen-
The Allied Terms
Militia and naval activities can
without other help certainly over
y EN-HHe efr5r@ 10
End Of that system can be FASTENED
y retarded by political action. and
his is where the political machine
comes in. The date Of the satisfac-
DRY peace may be decided just as
much by politics as by guns and
1ayonets and airplanes. At one time
he German military caste had such
/ hold over its proletariat chat moth
ng but a striking defeat IN the field
could have overthrown It Circum-
stances have greatly altered Of late
rhe position of the caste is vastly
cal effort on our part should be
pared to render that position still
ess and less secure by convincing
he German democracy that we wish
I no Ill whereas the caste IS its
worse enemy.
The obvious method Of reaching
hat goal is to state and restate and
lefine and delimit with the utmost
learness our terms Of peace, to the
nd of showing our democratic bona /
ides The German masses are gull
lie and they are blanketed in igno-
ances but they are not cut off from
he operations Of human reason, and
andor on our part cannot but help /
0 bring about the precise result for
which our armies are striving. !
What We Are Fighting For. Z
The details OF the prime minister's !
peech. giving Britain's peace terms. /
ave already been discussed in the 7
apers, and 1 do not propose to deal )
With them, save on two points. First, {
s to Alsace Lorraine. It is rightly
greed that We are TO stand by the q
'rench democracy in its demand "for :
reconsideration of the great wrong :
1871" Whatever they decide we 7
iii fight for. But surely, then, the ;
'rench decision ought to be an
ounced at once, for no item Of the :
eace terms is more important. OF :
kelly to give more trouble, than this
loes France mean TO stick out for :
be return OF the whole OF AIsace
orraine; or viii she be content with !
ne admittedly French portions =
hereof; or will she accept a plebis-
tie, and If so, what sort Of a plebis
.te2 We are entitled to hear the
lain answer TO this question. The L
-orld is entitled to hear it
Second, as to Russia Lloyd Georges o
ttitude in regard to Russia was ap-
lrently that Russia must look after s
er own interests unaided by the al ?
es, since she had taken her interests n
Ut Of our hands. He was perfectly q