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Show ANOTHER YEAR OF WAR. It is remarkable that Goronil BrusL-loff, BrusL-loff, the wi7.!tnl of (inlicia, whon asked to predict huvv !un Urn war would last, jikiikk! a period coinciding exactly with tho prediction of Lord Kitchener two years ago. Lui d Kitchener expressed the opinion al the outaet that the war wniild last three years. All tho world doubted. The French, tortured by invasion, in-vasion, scouted the prediction. Germany wan derisive. Now General Brnsilofi" says: "I urn not a prophet, the future ia in thp hands of God, but if I had absolutely to make an hypothesis 1 should bo inclined in-clined to think that the month of August, Au-gust, 1017, might see the end of our memorable work." It is said that General von Falkcn-hayn Falkcn-hayn was removed from his office as chief of the German general staff because be-cause he predicted that tho war would last ten years unless the Germans retired to their own soil. Von Hindenburg pronounced pro-nounced the' opinion cowardly and un-Cennaii, un-Cennaii, we are informed, and declared for a continuance of the war on tho present plan. Kitchener, who came to be regarded re-garded as a marvel of cauniuess when the war had exceeded six months in duration, dura-tion, may have been wrong. Tho war may endure into the fourth year er it may run even longer. But the Kitchener prediction predic-tion is now (lie basis of calculation. It probably will bo near the mark within a lew months more or less than three years. Brusilof f believes in the three-year three-year period. Tho best opiniou in all the nations at war suggests an end of the conflict by the summer or autumn of 11)17. Before Rumania entered the war thero was an inclination in Great Britain to set the termination of the struggle a year beyond Kitchener's mark. The English think that Rumania's action has shortened tho conflict by at least six months. But JIackensen's victories in Pobrudja must be taken into consideration. consider-ation. He has rendered immeasurably more difficult the task of the Russo-Rumauian Russo-Rumauian alliance. It had been planned by the Russian and Rumanian staffs to launch sufficient forces against Bulgaria j to cut across the Orient railway this j fall and thus sever communication be- i tweca the central empires and Turkey, j Thr capture of Tnrtukai and Silistria by Mackensen and the utter destruction of one Rumanian army as a fighting force reuders it doubtful whether the railroad will be cut this year. Given an- other winter of communication Germany and Austria should be able to obtain all the foodstuffs and other materials that Turkey von spare and in return to restock re-stock Turkey with a year's supply of ammunition. Rumania, however, has already crippled crip-pled communication by the notable victory vic-tory at Orsova. By closing the Iron Gate and stopping transportation along the-Danube between Hungary and Bul-g:ui:i, Bul-g:ui:i, the Rumanians must have reduced re-duced ci'idorabiy the quantity of supplies sup-plies that can pass cither way between the Client and the central empires. |