he late summer were so enormous that I am
convinced from what I saw in Germany that she has now called almost
everything possible to the Colours. One of Hindenburg's
stipulations in taking command was that he should always have a
force of half a million to throw wherever he wished. We have seen
the result in Rumania, and the men skimmed from the training units
then have been replaced by this last great levy from civilian life.

Therefore, with something over 11,000,000 men called up, Germany
has now 6,000,000, or a little more all told, many of whom are not
at all suited for service at the front.

Germany on the defensive at the Somme certainly lost at least
600,000 men. Attrition, to be sure, works both ways, but if the
Germans are out-gunned this year in the West to the extent expected
their position must become untenable. The deadly work of reducing
German man-power continues even though the Allied line does not
advance. I know of a section of the German front opposite the
French last winter which for five months did not have an action of
sufficient importance to be mentioned by either side in the
official reports, yet the Germans lost 10 per cent. of their
effectives in killed.

The more munitions the Allies make Germany use, the more fat she
must use for this purpose, and the less she will have for the civil
population, with a consequent diminution of their output of work.
Germany simply cannot burn the candle at both ends.

CHAPTER XXV

BERLIN'S EAST-END

The poor of Berlin live in the north and east of the city. I have
seen Berlin's East-end change from the hilarious joy of the first
year of the war to an ever-deepening gloom. I have studied
conditions there long and carefully, but I feel that I can do no
better than describe my last Saturday in that interesting quarter
of the German capital.

Late in the morning I left the Stettiner Bahnhof in the north and
walked eastward through the Invalidenstrasse. There was
practically no meat in the butchers' shops, just the customary
lines of empty hooks. A long queue farther on attracted my
attention and I crossed the street to see what the people were
waiting for. A glance at the dark red carcases in the shop told me
that this was horse-meat day for that district.

The number of vacant shops of all descriptions was increasing. The
small shoemaker and tailor were closing up. The centralisation of
food distribution is greater here than in the