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Show Your correspondent was north of the Argonne forest at the headquarters headquar-ters of an American major general at the time that the armistice was signed. The entire situation as regards the German army was thoroughly understood under-stood by high commanding Americans, and it was a very mentally dense doughboy who did not know for himself him-self just how things stood with the foe that was confronting him from Metz to Belgium. It is true that the Germans managed manag-ed to keep their battle line intact : that Is. they had troops confronting every unit of the allied forces, hut they had no reserves worthy of the name, and while their supply of ammunition was sufficient for some weeks' lighting, ihe end of the supply was in sight. All these things were known to the American commanders. The intelligence intelli-gence service of the armies of the allies al-lies was of the best. Information was obtained from captured prisoners, from raids on German trendies, from air-plaine air-plaine observation and by other means. The Germans had a railroad line and a high road running from Metz in Lorraine, which was one of their great military strengths, to the army lines back of Verdun Nothing Left But Retreat. The Americans cut off the St. Ml-liiel Ml-liiel salient and drove the Germans back north of Hatton-C'hatel, where the enemy established a new line. North of the Argonne the enemy was driven back to Sedan, which fell some days prior to November 11. The railroads and highways from Metz to the west were under American Ameri-can artillery fire. In a few days at the most the German armies from north of Sedan to Metz could have been supplied only in a roundabout way, a way so difficult that it virtually virtu-ally was Impossible to use It adequately. ade-quately. There was nothing left for the German Ger-man army except retreat, which meant soon the Isolation of Metz, the fall of that stronghold, and a precipitate retreat re-treat of the Germans into their own territory. There was no other way out of It. The German army of November 11 last was licked out of its boots. Its commanding oftieer-fi knew it. They saw the inevitable facing them and hastily they took advantage of the opportunity op-portunity to enter into an armistice. Army of 500,000 Urged. Military men say that fjOO.OOO regular regu-lar troops will he necessary to maintain main-tain America's part of Its obligations under the League of Nations. General Peyton O. March, chief of staff, has testified to this effect before the senate committee on military affairs. There Is apt to be a misunderstanding misunderstand-ing concerning what is said before the committees of congress on army matters. mat-ters. The administration has asked for appropriations for continuing a force of 500,000 in service' until peace becomes stable and the League of Nations Na-tions becomes a reality, if it is to become be-come one. In addition to this, the belief of military men Is that a large force of regulars must be maintained after the present war Is a thing of the past and the League of Nations is In existence. This is a mere statement of the things that have been presented by military chieftains and by the secretary secre-tary of war to the house and to the senate committee which has been tak Ing under consideration the matter of appropriations for the army as It is to continue until peace is an actuality. In the hearings which have been held the future has been gone into as well as the present, and it is for this reason that the regular army of the future has been under discussion. Wide Variance of Opinion. There seems to he a feeling among majority members in congress that Ihe United States regular army safely can he cut to 125,000 men after peace definitely is established. Therefore Ihe country can see at once how wide the variance Is between congress and military mili-tary chieftains on the subject of ihe force necessary for the country to maintain under the ordinary conditions of world affairs. It seems that the chief of staff believes the provisions of the League of Nations will make it necessary for us to maintain an army of half a million, notwithstanding t lie fact that the league In its provisions aims to make military forces to a considerable con-siderable extent unnecessary. However, How-ever, as the chief of staff views It. the for'e will be necessary in case the ! provisions nf the league are violated ,nnd the United States intends to live i up to Its obligations under the crive. n.mt. j Secretary of P.ak-cr In urging that I present appropriations be based on an mi y of 500.110 men Is moved by his desire to make recreational and educational edu-cational work in tin' army an abiding' feature thereof in order to stimulate enlistments and to make the army not only a fighting force, bin a school 1 In which men can fit themselves for : certain lines of activity in civil life. It lias been the endeavor to get from army men their views of the possibilities possibil-ities of enlisting by the volunteer phm enough men to keep filled the ranks of an army of half a million men. No army officer has been found who believes be-lieves that in peace times the ordinary ordi-nary enlistment methods will hc sufficient suffi-cient to maintain the half million force which March thinks will he necessary. It Is the secretary of war's view that I If recreational and educational features fea-tures are added to the service of the i soldier, .yountr men will be willing to! enlist In order to get the benefits ' which the service will afford. J SENATE TO RATIFY TREATYANDLEAGU E BELIEF IS IT WILL DO THIS, HOWEVER, WITH SERIES OF RESERVATIONS FOR FUTURE. ALLIES WOULD NOT OBJECT England and France Want United States in the League of Nations as Next Best Thing to an Actual Alliance. Al-liance. By EDWARD B. CLARK. Washington. Men who are accounted ac-counted keen observers of legislative situations seem to believe today that the peace treaty and the league-covenant league-covenant will be sanctioned by the United States senate In the form tha' they are written, but that there will be a series of written reservations passed by the senators which will concern con-cern themselves with the attitude of the United States in the future towards to-wards certain provisions of the document docu-ment or documents. Of course it cannot yet he definitely determined whether this view of the situation is a correct one, but it is a fact that men who are opposed to the covenant as it stands and men who are in favor of It agree in effect that the outcome Is to be as above written. What the reservations will lie In their entirety cannot be told, but It Is known that in part they will concern themselves with immigration questions, ques-tions, with the Monroe doctrine, nd probably with some things connected with rights of withdrawal from the league and with suggestions concerning concern-ing the armed part which the United States is expected to bear in case of embroglios. I have talked with men who are In touch with the foreign feeling on such an outcome as that outlined above. It seems that the British and the French are perfectly willing to allow al-low the United States to make Its reservations. Reservations or no reservations, the covenant will go Into In-to effect and the future, so far as the senate's action is concerned, will be allowed to take care of itself, the belief be-lief of the foreigners apparently being be-ing that nothing which the senate shall insist upon In separate document docu-ment will affect the smoothness of the running of the world's affairs. Bunau Varilla Favors League. Bunau Varilla, the great French engineer who directed the work on the Isthmus of Panama when the French company had it in charge, Is In Washington. This Frenchman lost a leg at Soullly, not far from Verdun, Ver-dun, about two years ago. He was the engineer in charge of providing the water supply for the French armies ar-mies and It was some job. A Boche airplane dropped a bomb near the general's headquarters and he was maimed, but notwithstanding the number of his years he recovered, later to return to the front and still later to journey to the United States. Bunau Varilla Is in favor of a League of Nations. So it is understood under-stood are most other Frenchmen of high official standing. This also Is true of the British of like estate. One learns one thing, however, in Washington Wash-ington through direct and indirect touch with visiting foreigners, and the facts may just as well be faced. It Is not to be supposed that the French and British are in love with (lie League of Nations so much because they believe It will solve all the war problems of the universe, or that It will prevent for all time territorial and racial bickerings. They want the League of Nations mainly because the United States will be a party to it, and France and England, barring the possibility of an actual alliance with the United States, feel that the league is the next best thing. Hun Army Was Whipped. An American correspondent, Frank II. Simonds, cabling from Paris, says: "German public men are making desperate des-perate efforts, with certain success in some directions, to give the impression that the German surrender last November No-vember was due solely to the principles princi-ples of the fourteen points." This simply means that the German officials are trying to make their people peo-ple believe their army and their navy were undefeated last November, and that when surrender came it was not forced but voluntary, because of a desire de-sire to end the war In behalf of all peoples. American army officers, some of whom are In Washington, and scores of them still In France, know that this German contention Is a lie, that the German authorities know that it is a i lie. and that the people of Germany j ought to be matte to know that It is a lie. . One of the worst features of this at- J tempt on the part of the German high I command is to make It appear, that I their armies were not in a bad way last November Is that thousands of I Americans seem to think the same j thing. They are lust as badly in-formed in-formed on the subject as are many j of the German people. j What All Americans Should Know. ! It oucnt to do some goo. to let all ; Americans know that while Germany' could have fought for a while longer. ; she could have fought nothing but a i defensive battle on a line that would have crumbled quickly and laid open her country to the Invading forces. |