OCR Text |
Show uo DEVELOPMENTS OF THE WAR The military critics-; make no mention men-tion of the withdrawal of a part of the German troops from the Russian front, but the vigorous German offensive of-fensive at Soissons ami near Arras in northern France would indicate the presence of new German units in that war zone, and It is our opinion they have been diverted from General Von Hindenburg's forces. The Kaiser's system of attack and defense seems to be to drive the Rus- Biana back from the German frontier and, whenever the menace of nn Invasion In-vasion is overcome, to draw off all but holding force and. throwing the mrn into Flnnders or France, strlk" heavily at the most vulnerable points of the .'illir.s. Germany has an entire system of military railroads from east lo west, built tor the rery purpose to which those arteries of transportation now are being devoted Troop trains move over those roads without interrupting inter-rupting rjr in any manner Interfering with the regular railroad traffic When spring opens, if the Russians aro stiong enough to engage any great number of German corps and the allies brgin to make any Considerable Consid-erable headway either in northern France or Alsace, this strategy of shifting troops will cease to possess any sroat advantage because the Strengthening of one point must bring about a corresponding weakening of Some other point The one thing which nonft of the military experts beyond iho borders of Germany seem to know is the number of now- corps the KniRor will be able to place In the firirj in spring The Btatemenl has been made that a reserve army of 2,000 000 men is ready to respond to the eaii of the German headquarters. If true, that would equalise the Kitchener reinforcements rein-forcements Our guess is that the Kaiser can place under arms as many men as (.reat Britain and France combined, but the Russians If thev have the arms and ammunition, should bring into existence an army as largo as all three nations. Great Britain has a population of 43,000,000 without its colonies; France has 30.000,000, Germany 65.000, 000; Russia, I71000,000i Austria-Hungary, 40,000,000; Turkey, 21,000,000 France and Great Britain have 10,000,000 more people than Germany, but Great Britain's civilians lack the military training of the Germans or French, and as a consequence, cajinot be as readily converted into soldiers. Therefore There-fore we may expect to see the Kaiser raise as large a force as those two powers combined. India misht add to England's total 300,000 men, but not many more With those forceH balanced, the question of preponderance rests with Russia as acainst Austria-Hungary and Turkev, with a population more than two to one on the side of Russia, Rus-sia, Japan is an active participant in the war. but so far has made no move toward throwing land forces into Europe. Were the conflict to grow more threatening for the allies, Japan would be compelled, as an act of self-preservntion, to do her utmost to save the triple entente, even to the extent of sending an expedition to the battlefields. |