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Show I SEND THEM INTO THE I 1 WINTER .HOPELESS. Regret must be expressed that Washington does not stop talking of evacuation and armistice. The two words convey 'the most hopeful message mes-sage that can be sent to Germany. How are the Germans to be allowed to evacuate occupied territory without gaining in military strength? The only justification for an unmolested evacuation is the humanitarian side of war. There still are millions of Belgians Bel-gians and French in the ocupied area, and they are suffering the tortures of physical pain and mental depression. To suddenly release them would be almost al-most u miracle in deliverance. ' But how could such an evacuation take place without affording the ene my a slow retirement undisturbed, which in itself would be a welcomed release from- the harassing retreat which has been under way for over two months? It might be agreed that there would be no fJghting in Belgium or northern France, during a period of 30 days covering cov-ering the time in which the Germans should get out, but that the battle continue on the border of Lorraine and in Alsace. A vigorous, menacing blow by the American army now in Alsace and near Motz in Lorraine might has-' has-' ten the process of evacuation. The Standard though does not see clearly any military advantage to be gained by either evacuation or an ar mistice, unless both are coupled with surrender. This paper has insisted that the thing to do is to send the Germans Ger-mans into the winter in a mental state verging on despair. Our views are well known to our readers, and they are almost expressed in our words in the following from General Maurice of the English army, made public on Monday: "For the past three years winter ,u i hias been a time of horror, which a B well-drilled and disciplined people could endure, provided they had the morale fillip of assured victory In the future to sustain them. "Every autumn until this year the German general staff plunged and successfully suc-cessfully brought out some great coup which enabled them to end the year's campaigning with a flourish of trumpets trum-pets and to dangle victory before the eyes of the German people as a carrot is dangled before a donkey's nose. In the autumn of 1915 it was the conquest of Serbia that was the carrot; in 1916 the defeat of Rumania; in 1917 the victory vic-tory of Caporetto and the retreat of the Italian armies to the Piave. Now, today, not only arc there no victories to brighten the prospect of winter, but the outlook has suddenly become utterly utter-ly hopeless, and on every front Germany Ger-many and her allies see nothing but defeat. "Our real objective is to overcome what the Germans would call, the will of the enemy people to continue the struggle." |