The Washington herald., 1918-04-07

hands with glee at the prospect Of
food and raw materials in great and
constantly increasing quantities from
Great Russia, the border provinces.
Siberia. and especially from the
! Ukraine.
Piracy In Ukraine.
Estimates among the Germans them-
selves vary widely as to how long IT
will take to restore the shattered
transport systems in Russia and in
troduce sufficient political order to
permit the resumption of international
commerce. But the gentle German
will probably not wait for the recon-
struction of the delicate machinery
of trade; IL he does what he wants. he
will take it, regardless OF the wishes
Of the owners. and the only real prob
/ lem is, therefore, that of transport.
4, The policy of piracy has already been
officially proclaimed. both by Ger
many and Austria. toward the unhap-
py Ukraine Peoples Republic"
| Rightly or wrongly. the Germans
| pin great hopes to the colossal Of
! fensives which they claim will break
I in the Allies fronts in France. Italy
or in the Balkans. Some enthusiasts
! go so far as TO claim in advance vic
tories in all theaters of war at once.
| These antiCipations are based on the
| transfer of troops from east to west
since Russia stopped fighting.
At the beginning OF last year. be-
sides the 10000 soldiers of Russia,
I Britain and France each had some
thing over SoooOoO each in the zones of
| operations, and Italy more than !. .50o,-
! e,
of the smaller allies. it was then cal
Culated that the Entente had in the
| field 100000 men. At the same time.
the fighting army of Germany con-
tanned 5sOO,000 men. Austria had
3.2'o,On0. Turkey very roughly l.lOn 600
and Bulgaria about 4eO.OO0. The Cen
trail Powers in January. 1917. thus
| possessed 100000 soldiers, a little
less than 100000 below the numbers
Of the Entente.
Today. with Russia out and Ru-
mania and America just beginning 10
come in. the numbers Of the Allies
| have sunk by nearly G.0pO.GGO. The
superhuman efforts of Germany arc
said TO have made up the losses OF
| 1917. and added 3I00OO men to her ar
mics. while the strengths Of her vas
sal states have remained constant. so
that. at this moment. instead Of a
deficit of 4,n00.WH. tho Central Powers
have in the war zones 2.nGN,0nO more
men than their opponents This is
very nice for Germany. hut. for va
riOus reasons these figures are more
, imposing on paper than i'm the field.
as will he shown. And not even Ger
man critics do much Dragging about
reserves: for to oppose To the millions
of potential soldiers I'm America. Ger
many, aside from growing boys, can
call upon something like $50, 900 more
men, Austria upon 461, 900, Turkey
upon $4,000. and Bulgaria upon 5000.
These are most liberal estimates of
the final possible comb-out in the en-
emy countries. and the total reserves
/ indicated of $4,000 men represent not
more than one-half to one-third the
net losses the Central Powers must
expect to suffer this year.
Last Hope In U-Boat.
The submarine is Germany's great
trump card against the forces of west
ern civilization, if her offensives fail.
The enemy claims, since the beginning
of the war, to have sunk nearly half
of the tonnage existing in 1914. Dur
ing the first year of unrestricted L.
boat warfare. from February /, 1917,
he declares he sunk 800. 900 gross reg
lister tons. figure known to be ex-
aggerated. German critics contend
that If sinkings continue at the
same rate through 1918. the ship
building programs OF the Allies ,will
not save either the Allied populations
from starvation or the armies in
France from lack of munitions. while
the ability of America TO send a mil
lion men to France is derided. To
maintain a million Americans, the
Germans declare. u.OOO tons Of cargo
per day must be delivered in France
and the ships do not exist to do this
ir addition to supplying the minimum
needs of the British. French, and
Italian populations.
Finally. an enormous military ad-
vantage is claimed for Germany be.
| cause her general stan rules supreme
over all the forces of the Central Pow
ers, unhindered by any democratic
trumpery Of civilian control over the
war lords, or by the conflicting desires
of Allies in an alliance in which Prus.
sia is first and the others are nowhere
The War Council at Versailles. the
efforts of the Allies to obtain unity oi
command, are sneered at by the en-
emy. Our combination OF a union OF
equal democratic States is declared