Paris has been definitely abandoned. Now is this
conclusion borne out by what we behold? What, then, is the
meaning of the plan to capture Belfort and Calais? What is
the object of the vast reinforcements now on their way from
the east to Von Kluck's army? Personally, I have not a doubt
that Paris is the objective, or that the Germans are still
striving to carry out their programme in its entirety,
which is the extension of their empire over Europe and Asia
Minor. The immediate object of the Allies is to foil this
design, and only after we have accomplished that can we
think of assuming the offensive and crushing Prussian
militarism. We have not compassed that end; the battlefields
are still in the Allies' countries, and the initiative rests
with the enemy. Now to whatever causes we may attribute this
undesirable state of things--and it certainly cannot be
ascribed to lack of energy on the part of the British
Government or our military authorities--it is right that
those who are acting for the nation should ask themselves
whether those causes are still operative. If they are--and
on this score there is hardly room for doubt--it behoves the
Allies, and the British people in particular, to rise to a
just sense of the _unparalleled sacrifices_ they must be
prepared to make during the ordeal which they are about to
undergo."

The German way of looking at the relative strength and positions of
the belligerents as modified by the vicissitudes of the campaign was
realistic and statesmanlike. Starting from the principle that a people
of about a hundred millions, animated by a lively faith in its own
vitality and mental equipment, can neither be destroyed nor
permanently crippled, they argued that the worst that Fate could have
in store for them would be a draw. But before that end could be
achieved the Teutonic armies must have been pulverized and Germany and
Austria occupied by the allied troops. And of this there were no
signs. "We never fancied," they said, "that what happened in 1870
would be repeated in 1914. How could we make such a stupid mistake?
Then we had only France against us. To-day we encounter the combined
forces of Russia, France, Belgium and England. This difference had to
have its counterpart in the campaign. Thus we have not yet captured
Paris. But then to-day we are wrestling with the greate