Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-06-03
THE HUN DRIVE AT YOU
Can the Germans Repeat Here and Abroad
the Tactics That Won for Them
in Russia?


TN THE smoking cars, in trolleys. in
restaurants, on the streets, wherever
crowds 'forgather, persons have been
asking why the Germans weren't stopped
in the south of France. Men began to
inquire querulously 'ohy the French
didn't do this and 1Ohy the British
didn't do that.
Every one ,Cho asked himself or any
one else such question Wds outwttted
by the Germans. He had permitted him
self to be surrounded, as the soldiers
sag. He had surrendered.
The Hun general staff wants you to
ask such questions. They want the
British to doubt the French. They want
the French to doubt the British.
That may be what the drive is fort
If the German can make America
doubt, if he can make you doubt, he will,
by the mere exercise of ingenuity, have
achi we'd triumph which he has found
impossible with guns.
The British Tommy, fighting against
hopeless odds az Rheims, unfamiliar with
the larger strategy of war and the
mental traits Of the German command,
cannot know that the French gave up
territory and permitted even Paris to
be menaced in order to save Britain by
keeping the north lines secure.
The French poilu, wondering why the
British reserves didn't food down from
L11J h.
not know that the life of France now de-
pends upon the safety of Britain. The
people driven from their homes in the
occupied territory cannot reason it this
way. Neither can the average commut-
ing strategist who likes to direct the
days campaign by newspaper maps on
his way into town.
1t was natural for the wearied British
legions in the south to wonder why the
French reserves weren't thrown in before
the Marne. 1t was natural for the
French to wonder in bitterness why the
English didn't come to help in some of
the grueling battles that they lost.
Such doubts as these, if they were
made general, such friction Of sentiment,
Vould be more paIuable to Germany than
captured Paris.
1t is apparent that the German staff
has attempted to utilize the psychology
of the nations to its own purposes If
bitterness and doubt distrust can be
engendered among the Allies and their
forces the present German drive will
have been successful to an extraordinary
degree. This menace was made clear in
a recent notable dispatch from Clinton
w. Gilbert, staff correspondent at Wash
ington for this newspaper. The Ger
mans knew that many of the British
divisions in the south were worn out
with the recent fighting further north
and that they had been sent down there
to rest. They might have been relieved
by French reserves. But had Foch left
the northern line in danger for day
by any such withdrawal he would have
endangered not a battle line, but the
entire world. The northern line must be
kept solid,
The Germans may actually have had
a double motive. If they could tempt
the reserves down from the north to
defend the Marine they could have had
greater advantage in a decisive action
against the line which defends the Chan
mel ports. And if Foch outgeneraled
them, as he seems to have done, they
could use the occasion to foster irrita-
tion among the soldiers and even among
their officers and in the nations behind
them. They could cause it to be said a
hundred times that the French might
have done this" to save the British or
that the British should have done "some-
thing else" to help the French.
This is the familiar German method.
When Russia was a menace the Germans
didn't fight them with guns. They
wrought with words and rumors upon
the pride and the weakness, the jealousy
and the passion of the people. And they
broke Russia down.
When Italy was threatening factor
the Germans played in the rear upon the
passions and prejudices of the civil popu-
lation. They aimed at the minds of the
soldiers and they broke Italy down for
time at least. Now they are trying a
similar method upon the Allies, and if
they succeed they will win the war.
The latest drive was very largely for
a conquest of opinion in the Allied coun-
tries. How many home strategists will
be ready to admit that they were among
the first prisoners taken by this method?