obviously intended to split them asunder, and had it been completely successful we should have seen "Sedans" in one or other or both Allied Armies, after which Paris would have been occupied and France overrun to the Loire. The Republic would bow to force majeure. This was presumably the plan of campaign which the Kaiser was induced by Hindenburg and Ludendorff to adopt with the enthusiastic backing of the German Admiralty Staff, who believed, and convinced the All-Highest, who is the first gobemouche in Europe, that the possession of the Channel ports must involve, not only the destruction of the British Army, but the downfall of the British Empire whenever the "U-boats got control of the English Channel. Deutschland über Alles would be sung in Piccadilly. Incidentally the American hash" would be settled before" those idiotic Yankees " got into their stride. This was no wild or fanciful programme from the German point of view, backed as it was by prodigious preparations, worked out to the last bomb. Moreover, it made sufficient progress to make Great Britain take the war far more seriously than she had done hitherto. Let us not now make the perilous mistake of imagining that the present pause, which has provoked much ignorant speculation, is anything more than a pause. We are in the middle of the greatest of all campaigns, in which the prestige of Hohenzollernism is involved, and even if they would, its authors could not suspend operations. Nor is there any reason to suppose that they would if they could. Germany is entirely in the hands of the Great General Staffnothing else counts in war-and it were ludicrous to suppose that Hindenburg-Ludendorff, having put their hands to the plough, so much as wish to look back. We naturally see the war through British eyes, but the Germans only see it through German eyes, and we have no means of guessing how the situation in the West strikes their Higher Command at this moment, what measure of success they think they have attained, nor how they may regard their prospects of final success. We only know that Germany always keeps a second string to her bow, of which we had a glimpse in the course of last month. In war, diplomacy is the handmaiden of the German General Staff, and from time to time von Kühlmann is allowed to put forth "a tentacle " in order to ascertain whether there is any rottenness on any Allied Home Front-Great Britain for choice. This time he failed, but he will try again.

THERE has been no big military move on any German Front so far as we are aware since the end of April, and there is every

Another
Offensive

reason to believe that for once the losses sustained

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in the German army in the Kaiser Battle have not been exaggerated. But we may be sure that the past month has not been wasted by the enemy. It has been invaluable to the Allies in many more ways than one, but no serious soldier for a moment supposes that recent hesitation indicates any serious change of plan, while according to the most level-headed men at the Front, Germany is still able to make a yet greater effort than the last in pursuit of the arrested programme, and there is plenty of time for her to execute it were circumstances sufficiently favourable. There is, however, some surprise at the strategy, because the opening so clearly meant a "decision" in May, as no Power, even Germany, where man-power is mere cannon-fodder," can afford to go on hammering away on this scale without results commensurate with the tremendous price, and considering that the Kaiser has not yet secured Amiens, or even Ypres, there must have been warm passages of arms at "Main Headquarters." We may, however, be sure that the German battering-ram will return to the charge probably in conjunction with the long-prepared Austrian attack on the Italian Front. Our readers should be on their guard against the legend circulated by journals which have never once been right, encouraging us to believe that the enemy cannot move either because Germany is "starving," or because Austria is "in revolt." We should like to be able to credit these pleasant fictions, which have now been with us for nearly four years, but it was calculated some months ago that Germany would only reach her maximum military strength on the Western Front by the month of July. We have another three or four months of anxiety. The outlook is altogether too grave to be disposed of by fairytales which have been our undoing. We have unbounded confidence in the Allied Armies, and feel convinced that, having saved the situation so far, they will do so again. It is neither our Army nor Navy that inspire misgiving. Nor our Airmen. All our Fighting Men have proved their individual superiority in fighting to the Boche whenever they have been given half a chance.

Generalissimos

WE may presume that the pause since the severe German reverse at Ypres at the end of April has been fully utilized in a military sense by the Allies, and that General Foch, the Allied Generalissimo, has the situation thoroughly well in hand. Having chosen so fine a soldier for so great a post, the one and only thing for all the Allied nations to do is to back him up. Enemy agents are bound to spread rumours of " bickerings" among Allied generals. It is common form in all wars, and among civilian duties is that of ignoring all this twaddle. Politicians on their part, and their organs in the Press, would be equally well advised to discontinue their somewhat tedious boasting of their service in establishing Unity of Command. It is a perfectly sound and thoroughly logical principle, the success of which depends entirely upon persons. Any Generalissimo would not be better than no Generalissimo, as he might turn local defeat into a general debacle, beside spoiling every victory. Again, a Generalissimo, however capable, who was subordinate to an unreliable or inept politician who knew nothing of war-might endanger the whole Allied cause. By common consent M. Clemenceau is showing real war leadership. We had almost forgotten what it was like. He inspires no less confidence on our side of the Channel than on his own. General Foch is among the very first soldiers of the age. We may entrust the fortunes of our magnificent Army without qualms to the care of these two great men. But that is no abstract argument for Generalissimos, nor does it mean, supposing, for instance, another Chad come into power in Paris with a satellite soldier, that we could have contemplated what we were delighted to do. Men, not measures, count. We feel sure this is realized in France, whatever nonsense may be talked on English platforms by politicians seemingly more eager to score a debating point in their own favour than to overcome the enemy.

THE pause in the Kaiser Battle has enabled us to see the situation steadily and see it whole. We realize that had Ludendorff realized his time-table and had the month of May The Gulf produced a capital disaster, that would not, as the Cold-footed Brigade imagined, have ended the war. Had the French Government again retired from Paris to Bordeaux, as in 1914, had British arms been overwhelmed on land, we should have

been no nearer "a German Peace," because the war could be indefinitely continued at sea by the United States and the British Empire, who, back to back and true to themselves and one another, are unbeatable. That is the first fact for every one to get into his or her mind who has not already grasped it. We literally can't lose this war-which the overwhelming mass of Americans, Britons, and Frenchmen are determined to win-except through political cowardice or political treachery. Frozen-footed Financiers and gibbering Politicians must equally get this central dominating idea into their heads. We are not dealing with an international or constitutional problem, which, judging by their utterances, appears to be the delusion of many middle-aged statesmen-who feel lost in the war-but with an overpowering universal human problem-namely, as to whether the world shall or shall not be a possible abode for decent human beings. That is the whole issue. The German is neither decent nor human. He is a revolting beast, who aspires to get suffering humanity by hook or by crook under his heel. There can be no compromise with the Devil. That is common ground. How then can there be any compromise with the Boche, who in some ways is a libel on the Devil? That is what we are up against," disguise it as may those who, having lived on and by compromise, imagine it can settle every difficulty that may arise between human beings, conveniently forgetting that this time we are not dealing with human beings, but with Germans. Therefore the whole apparatus of compromise breaks down. Its jargon becomes meaningless. There is no "mutual give and take," no and let live," no "cutting of losses cutting of losses" when the world is in convulsion. Nothing less than Civilization, i.e. the existence of every family throughout the civilized world, is literally at stake, and unless the embattled Democracies make up their minds to win outright, and have the necessary capacity, they will one and all become the bond-slaves of Kultur. Whigs resent this brutal fact, which is nevertheless true, and if this War has revealed the terrible power of evil it has equally established the immense value of truth. Indeed, our single chance of success lies in facing the facts, of which the most important is the impassable moral gulf, which, as in no preceding war, divides the belligerents, and which could only be bridged at the peril of the Allies.

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"live

"Don't crush" Germany

EVERYTHING indicates that the United States is awakening to the difference between this and all previous conflicts, which means that the making of peace must be essentially different and infinitely difficult. An eminent statesman, greatly respected on both sides of the Atlantic, was lately heard assuring an Anglo-American gathering within the portals of Parliament, with emotion in his eye and tears in his voice, "the last thing any of us wish is to crush Germany." The observation, be it observed, produced an almost audible silence. Every listener felt that the orator moved and lived and had his being in some totally different world from himself. This dismal pronouncement was made at one of the most strained and critical moments of the German effort to wipe out the British Army preparatory to dealing a death-blow at this country, after which France, Italy, and the United States would be disposed of. Some of us marvelled how we carried on at all under such altruistic auspices and wondered whether it was in reality the Archbishop of York who was addressing us. If two men are locked in a death-grapple, of whom A is determined to kill B, while B is equally anxious to preserve A, B's chance of survival is painfully remote. Washington was exceedingly reluctant -as is only natural-to realize that Germany will kill unless she be killed. Paris has had it burnt into her. The inhabitants of London have no illusions, but some of their spokesmen still cling to pre-war ideas and talk pre-war language. They have not "war minds." We therefore look to our Democracy in unison with the American Democracy-whose robust representatives struck the right note at this same function as throughout their tour-and the French and Italian peoples to realize the actualities of this titanic struggle against evil, and to insist that at no stage shall there be any lowering of the flag. Satan is indifferent whether he gains his end-which is the subjugation of mankind-by force or by fraud. Germany fights with a similar object with a similar weapon-the two-edged sword of Militarism and Pacifism. The success of the one depends on her own strength and the Allies' weakness of the other on German craft working on Allied folly. The life of Democracy depends upon the death of Autocracy, alias the exit of the Hohenzollerns. Do "responsible statesmen realize this? Has the War Cabinet yet learnt its lesson?