THE CZAR AS A FIGHTING MAN 309 ར enormously powerful belligerents "at "NEITHER TO THE RIGHT NOR TO THE LEFT" That is what Italy is saying, pulled in one direction by the Czar and President Poincaré, in the other by the Kaiser and the Emperor. This is one of a series of picture post-cards that have become very popular in Italy. Japanese Intentions in BERLIN dailies, when they notice the war with Japan at all, express the opinion that China distrusts the purposes of the Tokyo government. This assertion is contradicted by the London dailies. A systematic effort is made in Washington by the German government to inspire distrust of Japan, they say, but, as the London Times believes, without effect. The assurances Japan has given to restore Kiao-chau to China have been satisfactory to President Wilson, declares the organ of British opinion. China, in fact, is rescued by We shall soon have as many peace treaties as Belgium. And look at her.-Los Angeles Times. Only side for neutrals is the outside.-N. Y. Wall Street Journal. the outbreak of war in Europe from all fear of dismemberment in the near future or in the course of the century, at least so far as the western world is concerned, declares a high authority on the situation in the London Westminster Gazette. The cautious Yuan will moderate the fury of his resentment against Japan. There is no one at hand to deal with him for the moment except the Japanese. America will not let Japan dismember China. There will be little interference in the internal affairs of the empire except on the part of the rebels. The redoubtable "White Wolf" is reported slain, but he will have a successor. The immediate future in the far East depends upon the ability of Yuan to maintain himself in Peking. The subject is one on which European opinion is divided. The significant fact to the London News is that for the first time in many years the European powers are eliminated from the situation in the far East. The burden of asserting the views of the West among the Asiatics falls upon the United States. An exchange is bewailing the many misfortunes which have befallen the Hapsburg dynasty. Never mind. The misfortunes of the Hapsburg dynasty are almost over.-Charleston News and Courier. HOW A NEW RUSSIA EMERGED FROM THE NICHOLAS II. has spent the weeks that have now passed since the outbreak of war in a series of perIsonal visits to the units of his vast host in the field. Indefatigable in the inspection of guards and regiments, his Majesty, as a correspondent of the Paris Gaulois says, seems to have constituted himself a drill master, leaving the grand strategy of the campaign to the general staff in Petrograd. The Czar looks not only to the shoes and the guns, he concerns himself, according to the French authority, with the spiritual welfare of his armies. Pious as is the Russian mind by instinct, its prayers within the past weeks have been incessant and Nicholas II. has led them. Hence that injection of the purely religious element into the war, which strikes all commentators upon the development of the Russian campaign. As Nicholas II. emerges from his special car when the train arrives at each rendezvous of the troops, Sudden Liberalism of the Czar. UNEXPECTED as was the conversion of Nicholas II. to the progressive political ideas exemplified in his recent decrees, they are accepted in good faith by the Petrograd press. The Novoye Vremya, for example, hitherto exceedingly cautious in its attitude to the radical element in the Duma, is incessant in its. proclamation of a new era in Russian history. The unusual freedom with which the press is permitted to com RETURN FROM THE HUNT AUSTRIA: "I'm bringing him home alive, Wilhelm!" spired by the Russian intellectuals who, we read in the British paper, have studied German militarism on the spot in the German universities and who realize how the end of that militarism must emancipate Russia herself. For once Russian intelligence and Russian bureaucracy stand together. Nicholas II. has thrown off the yoke of William II. "I'LL DO MY WORST-THIS MAY BE MY LAST APPEARANCE!" -Harding in Brooklyn Eagle ment upon domestic political conditions as well as upon the operations of the war itself has attracted attention in western Europe. The Viedomosti, the Moscow paper which has been consistently liberal in its views for a long time, affirms that Russia has entered the path of constitutional progress definitely and permanently. The democratic Riech of Petrograd talks of a liberation of the German masses from the tyranny of militarism. All these dailies insist that the reforms inaugurated by the Czar will remain a durable feature of Russian domestic policy. They note with indignation the sneers of the German reactionaries, the skepticism in the utterances of the Berlin press, but they remain undisturbed in a serene faith that the Czar's government is henceforth to be liberal to the end. IN Russian Reactionaries Become Liberal. IN THE Russian Duma itself there has been a decided conversion to liberalism among many hitherto conservative. The most conspicuous instance is that of Doctor Pourishkevitch. He has openly repented and recanted, notes the London News, announcing that all should have equal rights in the Russian empire as citizens. "This applies not only to Russia proper, but to Poland, to Finland and to the Caucasus." Russians, this observer proceeds, have sunk their differences. They are showing a united front. At the end of last. July there were barricades in the streets of Petrograd. The day the war was declared, the barricades disappeared. The men who had held them were the first to join the army. "They were willing to lay aside their grievances in the desire to strike a blow, and it was at militarist Germany they would strike." They were in WIL Effect of the Kaiser's Defeat on the Czar. 7ILLIAM II. would drag down with him, in the event of his defeat, all that goes by the name of reaction in Russia. This is the matured conviction of the western European press. Some great dailies abroad expect a revolution in Russia when the war is over, a revolution that must put an end to all dread of the domination of the Slav in western Europe. The Poles, as the Paris Figaro points out, have benefited most by the upheaval. Polish nationalists, however, regard the Czar's proclamation on the subject of Poland as useless in itself, having importance simply because it reopens the Polish question as such, making it a matter of immediate world politics. "For thirty years the Polish question has been suppressed," as one authority says in the Manchester Guardian, "but now it will be discussed." Representative Polish opinion, as given in European dailies, is to the effect that Poland's prospects are bright. It is to the interest of Europe in general, they say, and of England and France especially, that Poland should be a united and independent state. Had Poland recovered her integrity, the present war might never have occurred, "for an independent Poland would have acted as a barrier between Russia and Germany, just as, in the middle ages, she acted as a barrier between Europe and the Mongols." It is to the interest. of France that there should be a buffer state between Russia and Germany and it is to the interest of Great Britain that the Russian Empire be not enormously enlarged. ANOTHER NAPOLEONIC CONCEPTION AGAINST ENGLAND "Aw, what's the use of studying geography; it's going to be changed, anyhow!" -Puck chief assets-but a rapidity of movement and a dashing spirit of attack with which the world was hardly prepared to credit them." Even the German dailies admit that the Russian forces present a creditable appearance in the field. The contractors must have been held to a rigid responsibility, according to the Berlin Vossische Zeitung, because the Czar's troops carry kits comparable with the equipment of the Kaiser's forces. The Russian troops are well fed from camp kitchens that follow the regiments to the very trenches. The medical corps. is exceptionally efficient. In Moscow as in Petrograd itself the example of the Czar in making rigid inspections has been imitated by the bureaucrats. A contractor who was detected in substitution has been sent to Siberia. The most surprising development of the war where Russia is concerned, according to the Paris Temps, now Altho both wings of the Austrian army are said to have been crippled, its flight doesn't seem to have been interfered with in the least. Charleston News and Courier. The Nobel peace prize will be won this year on a pretty low batting average.-Houston Daily Post. THESE ALWAYS SURVIVE -Kirby in N. Y. World issued temporarily at Bordeaux, is the excellence of the armament turned out at the great Putiloff works. The Russian artillery has outclassed the Austro-Hungarian at all points. It possesses siege guns capable of silencing the tremendous batteries of the Germans. The latest information in regard to the battle of the Aisne is that it is drawing to a close-as usual.-Detroit News. Still, if the Southern planters could be persuaded to raise gun cotton, Europe would buy the whole crop at war prices.-Washington Post. THE NEW STATEGICAL THE GREAT WAR ALTHO the military experts of the French dailies look upon the German rush into Antwerp as a What Emperor William May Do Next. mere means of securing lines of retreat, the military ENGLAND instead of France takes the leading place experts of the London dailies admit the possibility of a descent upon England. The main reason for this British impression is found in a German reconstruction of the strategy of the war. The original conception of the war from the Berlin standpoint was that of the swift descent upon France. Russia would be crushed next. This idea, the London Chronicle reminds us, took little account of the fact that England has a fleet. The theory of the Germans was that England would remain out of the war, but that if she came in, her troops were neither numerous enough nor formidable enough to count for much. The progress of hostilities has shown Emperor William, however, that the presence of a British fleet in the North Sea is paralyzing. The failure of the Germans to break the French line has upset another calculation. The unanticipated efficiency of Russian mobilization is the third complication, bringing about, as it did, the collapse for the time being of the Austrian ally. The events of the month in the theater of the war in the west thus clearly prove to the British that the Germans have had to form an entirely new strategical conception of their great war. What that conception is we are next to see. in the perspective of the war as seen through German eyes. To this extent most European military experts are agreed. The French, indeed, insist that their "fixation of the enemy" will bring about that Napoleonic stroke which is to drive him back to the Rhine. Plausibly as this idea is elucidated in the Figaro and its Gallic contemporaries, it does not afford especial comfort to the London dailies. They discuss more and more the importance of the naval factor as the first line of British defense. Emperor William may have failed against the French first line. He will test next the British first line. This may be nothing more than a trial of strength, a demonstration, with a view to practical discoveries. The British fleet will not prove invincible, perhaps. Yet the campaign against the English will not be a simple mobilization of the German fleet, now locked up, so far as its large units are concerned. There will be a raid in force through the air. Germany Faces the Naval Factor in Her War. THE problem presented to Emperor William by the strength of the British at sea was foreseen by the military experts of Italy. Their comments in Roman 311 dailies like the Giornale d'Italia and the Tribuna were ignored at first in Berlin, but time has developed their cogency. For what advantage can Germany derive by crushing France and checking Russia, ask the Italians, if Great Britain is to ride the seas? England is train British cruisers is an instance. The more Germany ing or will soon be training a million men. They will THOSE German experts who lay stress upon the take the field in the spring. By that time Germany may be worn and weary, even if France be defeated and Russia prostrate. The British host may turn the scale at the critical moment. These considerations are supposed to have weight in Berlin. They explain a tendency in some Berlin papers, we are asked to believe, towards a more temperate optimism. At any rate, Germany, if her mind be read accurately by the French and British papers, perceives the necessity of naval interference with the destinies of the struggle. There will be reconnaissances in force by Zeppelins sent from the continent to the British isles. There will be fresh expeditions of submarines. Even if Belgium should be abandoned by the Germans, the Berlin general staff will transfer the war to the sea. Next Move of the DURING the month now ending the British fleet has maintained its unceasing vigil in the North Sea and the surrounding waters. London organs advise the English public to moderate its impatience at the failure of Sir John Jellicoe to bring the German squadron into action. Wherever the German fleet may be at this time, according to a study of the situation by Admiral Mahan in the London Academy, it is concentrated. "It will not risk division, with the chance that, in seeking to unite, one part may be overwhelmed by the whole British force." On the other hand, says the naval expert of the London Post-the most competent in Englandthere can be no certainty on this point. The purpose of the Germans is to effect a surprise. The refusal of the German fleet to put to sea hitherto does not prove to our expert its determination to remain forever in harbor. Having failed for some unknown cause to deliver a surprise attack, the German plan has always been to employ an interval in attacking with subsidiary craft. The exploit of the German submarine that sunk three successes for the Fatherland, of which they make much in the Berlin Kreuz-Zeitung, are reminded of one important consideration by the London Post. Every day during which the British fleet holds the sea, Germany is losing trade and losing money and failing to receive supplies. The trade, the commerce and the oversea supplies of Great Britain are but slightly affected. There are other things weighing upon the minds of the Berlin strategists. Altho by keeping them in harbor Emperor William preserves his ships from damage and his officers and men from the strain of undue fatigue, he at the same time lowers the morale of his men. If the attack is to be made at all, it must not be delayed too long. "Nor can Germany afford to repeat often such a defeat of a detached squadron as she recently suffered in the Bight of Heligoland, for nothing can be more demoralizing to the rest of the fleet so long as it remains inactive." Germany has also to consider the contingency, however remote, that while her fleet remains in harbor, her armies may be beaten back and Kiel and Wilhelmshaven taken by land forces. In that event the German fleet will be disarmed and sunk. How the Air Will Be Occupied by Germany. HAVING resolved upon a revision of her plan of on. campaign, to follow the reasoning of the British military experts, Germany will establish some sort of cooperation between the Zeppelins and her warships. Emperor William, as the Temps says, is a firm believer in the possibilities of war in the air. Winter is coming There will be gales over the North Sea for some weeks to come. The dirigible airships can negotiate the air in the intervals between storms, nevertheless. There is every probability, as the greatest aerial expert in England, H. Massac Buist, concedes, that England will be raided by a squadron of Zeppelins. London army men make light of the results. They forget, what the competent Mr. Buist concedes, that Germany has within scene in Paris as one of the German aeroplanes is discovered sailing over the city. Numerous bombs have been dropped in the city, one of which injured (but not seriously) the famous cathedral of Notre Dame. the past year or two built a large number of dirigible airships in secret. The size of the German aerial fleet, its resources and its effective range are known only to the authorities in Berlin. The newer Zeppelins, built recently in large numbers, are primarily warships. They have a speed of nearly a mile a minute. They have a formidable armament. Their crews are not large, but the training they receive makes them experts. London will rely, if attacked from the air, upon high-angle guns. The Germans, as was shown in their attack upon Antwerp, hang lights and other gear at a considerable distance below their airships, thus bewildering gunners as to the location of the target. These elucidations by the British expert are supplemented by the ideas of the expert of the Paris Débats. The Germans will, WATCHING FOR THE ZEPPELIN INVASION This is a London night scene, on the Thames Embankment. Strong searchlights are kept sweeping the heavens to discover any danger from German bombs dropped by airships. The capture of Antwerp has made England nervous. he suspects, make a simultaneous attack upon the battleship squadrons of the British from above and below, by submarine and by airship. It is certain to him, as it is to his European colleags generally, that the existing naval situation is growing so intolerable to Germany that she must take some action. There is not likely to be any convoying of German transports to England just yet. But there will be a German movement against the mistress of the seas in her home on the deep. Germany as the Mistress of the Air. FRAGMENTARY as are the reports coming in from the North Sea, Mr. H. Massac Buist, from a collection of recent despatches, insists that the German. aerial campaign against England is already in its initial stages. Zeppelin aircraft may raid the British isles, they may sail over London; but their chief function is cooperation with the imperial fleet, especially since no other power has a weapon of the Zeppelin type with which to offer the least opposition. There are dirigibles of all sorts in other lands, but the British expert concedes that they sustain no comparison with the war Zeppelins of the Emperor William. However the British outlook is not altogether desperate, and we find Mr. Buist writing in the London Post: "The range of vision from a battleship at sea represents a radius of something like six miles. But you have only to rise a few hundred feet in the air to extend that range to thirty or forty miles. How much more, therefore, can it be extended when you have the power, as with Zeppelins, to rise to any altitude up to 10,000 feet, which is the record so far accomplished by a dirigible balloon and achieved by that make. By navigating at what we may call the military altitude of 6,000 feet it is possible to have a vision of 100 square miles or so, and therefore to travel on a course between an enemy's warships, giving them the widest possible berth. One method of open on, therefore, is for German warships to keep immediately under a convoying Zeppelin, made respon sible for steering. them on a course out of range of the British fleet. "This is an easy way so long as the dispositions of the blockading force do not suddenly result in its becoming impossible, even with the superior range of vision, to pick a passage. Further, any such object is defeated by fog. If the German fleet is to move against our own in those conditions and take the ordinary advantages of slipping between a blockading force in such weather, the attempt will have to be made without any assistance from aerial scouts." The New Peril to the Allies in ASSUMING the accuracy of the idea that Germany is to move next against England, the theory that delay benefits the allies may have to be given up. The suggestion, altho offered in the Italian press, makes a certain impression upon the French. The Germans might profit greatly from a respite in France if they could utilize it in blows against British power, according to a writer in the Rome Tribuna. The possibility of a German diversion against England likewise explains the contention of the Kreuz-Zeitung that the German plan of campaign is proceeding satisfactorily from the strategical standpoint. For some reason, the experts on the continent of Europe do not take the same light view of the campaign on its naval side as is adopted by the English. The world, as the Giornale d'Italia remarks, is witnessing war on a tactical scale altogether unprecedented. The decisive encounter is prolonged indefinitely. Never has Great Britain faced a foe who could dispute her mastery of the sea through the air. May the world not be, it asks, on the eve of some revolutionary change in the relation of man to his. environment and may not the German campaign in the air be the first exemplification of this? The events of the next few weeks may, our contemporary thinks, bring the answer. "In any event it behooves the allies to terminate quickly in their favor if they can the deadlock in the western theater of the war.". 皆 A war in which the Cossacks win an enemy's commendation for humane and gentle behavior is some war.-N. Y. World. "Indian Troops Bring Praying-Mats to War." They will need them.-N. Y. World. Thanks are due the Rockefeller foundation which has invested $225,000 in a wild bird refuge in southern Louisiana. At last we have a place where the peace dove may rest in safety.-Grand Rapids Press. |