The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-11-02

decisions taken In October, 1918, by the communicating chief of the armies fof the entente, and approved after wards by the governments, 1t Is nee essary to place ones self in his posi- ton of knowledge The official Ger man documents which I am able to Insert In this work had not then been published,
 Facts Not Known
 The facts they relate were not then known. Nothing was known of the extraordinary panic, which on october had seized the great general staff; nothing was known either of It's un- avoidable consequences. Marshal Foeh was sure of victory, as he said so. He added that the conditions fixed by him on October 2S were the very conditions which we should have been able to dictate after the success of further operations. But having done that. he fulfilled his duty in re- fusing to fix an exact date as to the duration of German resistance, the strength of which in critical june lures continued to be shown-con- trary to the provisions of Ludendorff up to the very day of the armistfce. He also fulfilled his duty in refus- ing to take chances with tho morale of the troops and of the peoples. by confining himself to what he con- sidered to be necessary and suffi- cient. It Is easy two years aftefward to decide that the war would only have lasted a week longer. Marshal Foch could not guarantee that. No- body even today could guarantee 1t absolutely. A few days before the eav- ,t-tf f,,. ders said to public man:
 We are going to take up our po- sitions for another winter"
 The responsible chief would hdve none of another winter" which he did not consider essential to the achievement of victory The gov ernments determined to impose ev- erything that the commander In chief exacted. but did not feel Justified In demanding more. Moreover. the problem was to place Germany in position in which she could not begin the war again--she was not able to begin It again; the problem was to force Germany to sign the peace she signed 1t. Events have thus shown that Marshal Foch was right. The armistice marked the capituia- ton of the enemy. equalization which was an unconditional surren- der.
 Great nnd Unprecedented
 The work which awaited the framers of the peace was as great and as unprecedented as the war which was to be brought to a close.
 Great and unprecedented in its scope: for the first time in history entire nations had fought. Seventy million men had been mobilized s0.- 100000 had been wounded and nearly 10000, 900 had died. Nothing in the past could compare with it. The dead alone outnumbered all the armies Of Napoleon. Great and un- precedented in its complexity; na- tion having fought nation. there had been brought Into play the sum to- tai of all national forces: agricultu- ral. Industrial commercial and finan- cial. All these potent factors of in- ternational life had to be taken into account in making the treaty. Read over the great peace treaties of the past-for the most part chiid's play compared to this. Frontier changes limited to few fragments of the map of Europe: indemnities of a few millions; the five thousand millions exacted In 1871 from France were looked upon at the time as a finan- cial monstrosity and a gross abuse of