Evening star., 1918-09-26
Juggling Food Figures.

say anything about this. At that
time the German newspapers were
siderable betterment could be expect
ed from the Rumanian supplies. Sure
enough, in April the bread ration was
lowered and the people suffered all
summer. Such bread as there was
was of bad quality. The potatoes
ION the other hand. the German
public was sometimes provided with
statements of a sort
which we neutral journalists were not
permitted to cable, as the neutral pub
lie which has access to the ententeO
would instantly perceive
that they were lies. Truth ana ne, ies
were most expedient for their effect
at home and abroad. The object was
threefold: To bolster up confidence
abroad in Germanys staying powers,
to keep up the war morale at home
and to suppress the exaggerated
hopes which make disappointment so
This duplicity proved feasible for
a time, but it Is now beginning to be
seen through. even by the simplest
observers. This explains the marked
unrest I have recently seen among
the German people: They @ no longer
Of society is becoming loose in the
joints"
Treatment Of War Correspondents.
Concerning military events this year
Mr.. Siosteen says:
when the great March offensive
came neutral correspondents in Ber.
lin were modified. We were prom
ised at this time we would be able to
follow the operations from the out
selves for months stay at the front.
We went west on March 21. but we
had to stay. in a Belgian town. We
remained there nearly a week. being
literally entertained by our hosts.
Then after energetic protests we were
moved to town In the north of
France, where we were stuck again.
We now lost patience and demand
ed that we should be permitted either
to go to the front at once or go home.
We received an ungracious reply from
Hindenburg's headquarters. and the
next day we were sent toward the
front But we were there only two
ed. We gained the impression that
the army leadership expected far more
than it won.
THE kaiser's dramatic taking over
Of the leadership at the beginning of
the offensive pointed in the same di-
minor officers were enraptured and
continued to believe that in a few
weeks they would reach the channel
and that in a few months peace would
authorities were plainly anxious.
They no longer talked of any decisive
blow, but of the slow exhaustion of
the enemy's reserves. This doctrine
continued to be preached in the
spring and early summer for US neu-
f0d
many Of the entente's reserves were
no longer usable and at last they said
that only one-tenth of Gen. Foch's
reserves remained unused. The third
tung Paris"(On to ParisD, was launch
ed, but it soon became clear that Ger
man predominance had changed into
inferiority and that Gen. Foch's re-
serves showed themselves more nu-
merous than the Germans had ever
supposed them to be, even before the
March offensive.
Misca1culated French Strength.
'In those March days they talked
OF sixty divisions of Franco-British
reserves. In July they suddenly be-
gan to talk Of seventy divisions, and
this. after the bloody campaign which
was aimed at the exhaustion of the
enemy's reserves. Such was the mis-
calculation that Gen. Ludendorff made
During my visit to the front I
found that the German flying corps
plainly had to fight with feeling Of
increasing inferiority. Germany's air
to catch up with the entente. Giant
efforts were made, but the burden of
Holding long fronts and supplying
weak allies with ornaments combined
with a shortage of materials had been
too much. The entente has two or
three times hn
west front. The German air raids on
England had ceased. All forces had
to be concentrated at the front and
some had to be used for defense. Ger
planes than they lost. but this was
because the entente's fiars took
greater chances and there were more
Of them Tying over the enemy's lines.
German diers were unable to make
the necessary observations
Recently, for the first time, Amer
fcan flying men began to mako them
selves heavily felt The American
airplane industry has reached enor-
nous proportions, and Germany's in
feriority in the air will be greater
the longer the war continues. Ger
many's capability to produce muni-
tions has been greatly diminished on
account OF the lessened strength Of
the workers due to poor nourish-
ment. This is one Of the important
Aod<SouS s1lcClluS tue Swing OF the
war pendulum this summer
Conditions in the East.
"Another is the unfavorable de-
velopment Of conditions in eastern
Europe. The military parties an
nexation policies are bearing fruit.
The sympathies that in the first
phases Of the war could be found
among the border peoples have dis
appeared, and now, when one travels
through these border lands, months
after peace has been concluded. such
feeling is not noticeable. Nearly
year after the German government
had admitted the right of the popu-
lations to self-government we find
that these provinces continue to
sponge on the peoples scanty food
and constitute garrisons to insure the
adoption Of constitutions that please
the German military party holding
all power; but only perhaps s per
cent of the people themselves. The
same conditions prevail in the
IAN these ,nter1ockfns factors
caused in July great uneasiness
among the German military leaders.
who held II to be necessary to send
occupied regions The people in east
ern Germany, the majority Of whom
regard the eastern policy Of the gov
ernment as q sort of military mad
ness. saw with tamazement troop
trains rolling toward the east just
whom troops were, most needed for
what was hoped to be q decisive blow
in the west. This movement Of troops
to the east constituted tho second
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