Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-07-27

I o The Cn3 81 lFi9 -.---... '''".'''
III the wear 1910 "1u.tsN
In theX,3rIqI- 100000
Total .....,... 2,oo0.0O0
Sincc March q of this year published
British casualties have run from 5000
to45.0o0a a week and wc shall hc fortunate
# We end The wear with frNrr than 900
600 total losses ~ouc pcupl, have an
idea that eighty per cent oi casualties
return - tie ranks There never wa>
greater deluSI4u tf Wounded which
reach the hospital~ a large proportion are
saved hut long cohvalrsscuce is needed
before thcy can undertake heavy military
duty and during the recent push immense
numbers Of wounded fell into the hands
OF the Germans and are therefore out OF the
contest
In any case YOU must reckon the dead
Out Of go, 900 Australian troops about
10000 are casualties and 1900 have
paId the supreme penalty. There are
somcw hat similar figures for andaa Yet
Australia and Cauada have between them
supplied only about onc-sIXth OF the forces
drawn from Great Britain At the lowest
estimate we must reckon that $50. 900
British soldiers have died IN this war
Last wear we enlist od almost exactly Us
rnauv men as our casualties; that IS
500 0DO This wear We cannot hope To do
50 II must be remembered that between
March p and April II the British army.
on sectors exclusively held by II re-
sisted an attack by l02 German divisions
or exactly five times as many as the di-
visions thrown against Ferdun between
February , / and March y, 1916 The ex-
planAtion Of Withdrawals on the Western
front is moreover. the use of mustard
gas by the enemy poison dcadher by
far than any vet used IN war, attacking
4e il does the moisture OF the body and
50 rendering terrible injury This strug
gle has long since ceased 70 be a matter
If gcneralship in the old sense Of that
word. Ii depends upon morale, man
power and, above all. the chemist
KErr 2.00O,O MEN AT HOME.
England il criticised because in the
wear 1917 She was keeping 1000 900 men
within her own borders In SO far as
this large force was intended rs a de-
Tense against invasion by sea, agree
that II was unwarranted. The War
Office has always been unwilling to be
licve that the protection Of our coasts
il q matter for the navy alone This
skcpticism il due to professional rivalry
and desire by some Of our soldiers to
find reasons in time Of peace for con
scripton But other factors must be
taken into the account The 1000 600
men included and indeed consisted Of
the partly trained In addition. it was
held that reserves could be more easily
fed in England than in France. which
after all is . country only a few hours
distant Besides, over the fighting period
Of 1917 we were losing 28,000 men
week and our reserves were regarded rs
d bank balance
This year, with our much heavier
losses. we see the wisdom Of last years
arrangements In the first onset at st
Quentin we could not put our men across
quickly enough, but since then over
700 900 reserves have gone to France,
and American troops in very large num-
bers are completing their training with
in the United Kingdom You have ha-
bitually understated your forces in Eu-
rope. but ] should say that there must
be on the other side at least million
Americans at the present time Another