Welsh Journals

ARE WE WINNING THE WAR ? 1 I 'HE bitterest gibe which the German Chancellor I has been able to throw at us during the War is that the British are always talking of what they are going to do." Perhaps at this time, when our Army is in the midst of its third winter campaign, it would be well for us to lay to heart the truth that gives the taunt its sting. We do not forget the large features of the military situation, which are strongly in our favour; the economic pressure which the might of our Fleet is exerting on Germany, and the greatness of our potential reserve in man-power. But neither of these factors is decisive and they will avail us in the final issue only as they help us to break the military power of Germany on land. In that supreme and decisive undertaking, we are not yet in sight of success, and though the end of 1916 sees us in a better position than we were twelve months ago, we cannot pretend that we are where we had hoped to be. For the fulfilment of our hopes, we are looking forward to 1917, just as we looked forward to 1915 and 1916; and it behoves us now to ask whether we have any greater right than before to expect that 1917 will yield us what the preceding years have denied. The answer lies in our own will. It is we,-the civilian population of these islands-who can determine the measure of the success of our arms in 1917. We are not likely to win the War next year. Germany has undertaken the complete organisation of her national resources-by no means the attitude of a people which even remotely envisages the prospect of defeat. She will begin the new cam- paign with greater equipment, and harder deter- mination, than at any previous time. By the single weapon of the submarine, she can reduce our food supplies, and increase the difficulty of our communi- cations. But with a will as devoted as hers, we can win if not in 1917, then in 1918, or it may be in 1919. We give no alarmist view of the situation. The time for talking of optimism and pessimism is past. We have suffered enough from our habit of taking too short a view of the future and the one thing we should learn from twenty-eight months of campaigning is to face our business at its hardest. We may be perfectly certain that the most ruthless defence of which we can imagine the Germans capable will fall short of the reality. And it is up to us, the civilians, who in our political capacity are chiefly responsible for whatever failures we have experienced, to prepare for the longest and severest of ordeals. It is not primarily the business of the Army to learn this lesson. Or rather, the Army has learned it, and if we give it the chance, will carry the long struggle through. The Army has not yet failed us it has done much more than we had any right to hope for, with the weapons with which we have provided it. We know that the Army has failed on more than one tragic occasion. But its failure has been due solely to the want of foresight and of skill in some of its leaders. That responsibility lies on us, not on the Army. We have too lightly allowed the peace methods of the old Army to govern the officering of the new Army in the stress of War. We have barely begun to break down the old Army's close trade union regulations which restrict the output of ideas, the flow upwards of ability, the dismissal of incompetents. The young platoon leader who blunders or retires is shot the commander who wastes ten thousand men-do we degrade or decorate him ? Because we have not the courage to demand the best from our political leaders, they are not strong enough to exact the best from the leaders of the Army. What then is the preparation to which we must submit ourselves Its main character is clear enough. The failures of the past have been due ultimately to moral slackness in our social life and it is there that the reformation must begin. We mean the reformation to express itself in greater striking power in the field but as the source of that, we need a profounder sincerity and sobriety of temper, a clearer understanding of the issues for which we strive, and a firmness of purpose which will sustain us through sacrifice and suffering. National Psychology. We are apt to think that this kind of attitude which alone will save us is somehow inconsistent with the national character of our people. We have subjected ourselves and our neighbours to an un- usually close scrutiny and we have come to con- ceive ourselves as possessing certain solid virtues and equally some serious defects. Cheerfulness, or at any rate humour, toleration, a large fund of humanity, a capacity for self-depreciation, and a great gift for sticking it." when there appears to be no very decent mode of egress from an unpleasant situation-are all qualities that ere much of a piece and we see in them the primary materials of the British character. Wedded to these we find a thriftlessness and improvidence, a disinclination to attempt any serious intellectual exercise, with the corresponding unwillingness to face any problem before it almost overwhelms us. Perhaps popular psychology is not so far wrong here as it usually is