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THE WELSH OUTLOOK The Editor does not necessarily identify himself with the opinions of contributors to "The Welsh Outlook" Editorial responsibility is limited to the views expressed in the Notes of the Month." NOTES OF THE MONTH The Huns in From all the fronts the news continues Retreat to be good. The German armies are in full retreat in the West; they have abandoned the industrial districts in Northern France, of which Lille is the centre. They have evacuated the Belgian coast. The St. Gobain massif has at last fallen into the hands of the Allies, and a steady pressure is being main- tained upon the retreating enemy hordes from Verdun to the sea. Thousands of French and Belgian inhabitants who have lived under the tyranny of the enemy since 1914, have now been liberated and are being restored to their friends and relatives. We must, however, realise that the German army is still intact, it has not suffered a debacle and the retreathas been carried out in an orderly fashion. It is true that the enemy has lost vast quantities of warlike material, including millions of shells, thousands of guns and stores of every description. He has also lost thousands of prisoners and his casualities have been heavy; but there has not been a Sedan, and on many sectors of the front the German soldier has put up a stout resistance. The further his armies retreat, the shorter will be the line he will have to defend, whilst the communications of the Allied armies are lengthening out. It is hard to see where the next line of resistance will be, but it is probable that a fortified position has been constructed on a line running in front of Antwerp, Brussels, Namur and the line of the Meuse to Verdun. Our Prospects In the East the Serbian army is pursuing in the East its victorious progress, assisted by the French, British, Greek and Italian con- tingents. It has occupied the old Serbian capital of Nish, and the Sofia-Constantinople railway has been cut. The allied forces are now approaching the Danube, and before long we may hear of their victorious arrival in Belgrade. In Palestine the British troops have occupied Damascus NOVEMBER, 1918. and are now well on their way towards Aleppo, where it is reported that a Turkish army has been concentrated to bar their progress to Constantinople. The news from Russia has been scant and, with the approach of winter, it is un- likely that we shall see any startling developments in the military situation there in the near future. Disarmament During the past two weeks, the centre and of interest has shifted from the military Abdication to the political situation. The inter- Indispensable change of notes between President Wilson and the German Government, and the premature hopes of an early peace, have absorbed public attention. The German Government has confessed that it is beaten and that its prospects of victory have entirely passed away. The German people, who have been fed upon falsehoods and victories during four long years, are now being rapidly disillusioned. The complete sudden- ness of this operation is bewildering. The Junker and military parties are now employing every device and every dodge to extricate themselves from the terrible impasse to which they have brought their country. They are pre- pared to acknowledge defeat. They are willing to make promises on paper, but they have not arrived at the point of giving the Allies absolute guarantees for the future and without these guarantees there is no security for us or for our people. There are two guarantees which are indispensable. The first is the complete disarmament of the German army; and secondly the abdication of the Kaiser. The free peoples believe and rightly believe that the Houses of Hohenzollern and Hapsburg stand as the embodiment of militarisn amd the dominion of force. Until these symbols are removed we shall never be able to believe in the sincerity or the repentance of the German peoples or in their ability to develop into democratic communities, A few weeks ago the Kaiser at Essen