Newport daily independent., 1918-03-08
AMERICA SPELLS
 GERMAN DEFEAT
Entry Into War Means Victory for Allies, Says British
 Writer.
CONTROL OF FOOD WILL WIN
Now Case in Which "the Dog Has Begun to Bite the Pig" Says Writer-Somethin Rotten
 in Germany.

Writer-Something Rotten
 in Germany.
 London.-How America's entry into the war has hurt Germany is the sub- ject of an interesting article in the Birmingham Post by Edgar Wallace author and military correspondent. It is now case in which ]"the dog has begun to bite the pig" he says.
 'Tt is as well,'' MT. Wallace writes German offensives from the circum- stances which have made them pos sible We know that the stagnation of the Russian front allows the Ger mans to employ in the west troops which, were the Russian army an ac- tive factor in the war, could not have been employed; we know that the Ital- ian has lost nearly 100000 men in the course of the fighting of the last month; but neither of these facts ex- plains the German offensive plan. For example, the push against the Isonzo was obviously uninfluenced by Italian losses-because they had not occurred. The push against Italy was and is part of the great scheme which would cer- tainly have been carried out even if Russia had remained loyal to the alli- ance.
 "Reason Is America ."
 "The reason is summed up in the word America I do not particularly refer to the forces which America will put into the field. The German gen eral staff, I am certain, has no par ticular fear that sufficient American troops will be put into the field next year to secure decision against Ger many. l doubt very much whether the German is worrying at all about what will happen in the field in the summer of 1918. But he is tremendously con- cerned over what will happen in Ger many between May and August of that year unless he can break the fighting spirit of the entente during the forth: coming months of the winter.
 'Tt is no secret that Germany had been drawing large supplies of food and necessary raw material from America, via neutral countries. Amer ica supplied these articles in the way of business, just as she supplied Brit ain with material in the way of busi- ness, and strictly in the way of busl- ness the neutral countries had been passing on their imports to Germany.
 "And so this jolly war might have gone on whilst Germany's credit abroad held-only America came in. She declared war, she called millions of men, she reorganized her industries to meet the demands of war-and then she sat down to take good look at the neutrals. And they seemed unneces- sarily bloated. They did their best to engage her sympathy. And they had little bread and potato riots just to show there was no deception.
 "But America understood. She said very simply, Feed yourselves, you big stiffs!' eff the picturesque vulgarity be allowed).
 "In the old nursery rhyme, when the stick began to beat the dog, the dog began to bite the pig. If the neutral has no food to spare and cannot buy any in America, the German cannot buy food from the neutral. In fact, the dog has begun to bite the pig. The neu- trals have no right to complain.
 Something Rotten in Germany.
 'So many millions of tons of food, stuffs which came to Germany once in the dear dead days are not coming any more. She is that much shorter of food We do not know for certain the conditions of Germany's food reserves. That there is something rotten there we know from the curious attitude o1 Bulgaria.
 But if the German, with all the sup plies he was securing from the neutral, was short in the spring of 1917 what will be his position in the spring Of 1918, when tho new American embargo becomes fully operative? We think it will be fairly bad The German crops were poor--as were all the worlds.
 Nobody but a perfectly insane per son or StauSucian-Who Will neileVe nything-imag zines that the. world shortage of food does not affect Ger many. It does affect her very serious ly. It will affect her worse this year than it did last.
 Food is going to decide this war The fact that the German censor has closed down all reference to food diff faculties and coal shortages is signifi- cant. The things that Germans do net talk about are the things that matter. If we are Witnessing the beginning of a series of offensives in the west and the opening of new campaign. that campaign, as I have said before, is hunger offensive, and the plan dates from that day when America decided that 1t was good idea to ration the neutrals, but they would have to find kI.< t<~-~e &l rxolx