Leaving Rome

Exodus of Germans

Progress in the West

Romania’s decision

Some years ago the popular feature of any penny periodical was a war serial, boys and their fathers consumed every line if the stuff and they will be able to recall now that the earlier days of those struggles we dark indeed for Britain.

Everything went wrong, airships destroyed English towns our fleets were always in the wrong seas invading armies landed, cities were captured and it was only at long last that writers allowed the tide to be turned.

These story writers nearly all based their plots upon our unpreparedness and it is decidedly interesting to compare what has actually happened with what was evidently anticipated.

It is well to recall these stories when there is grumbling at the slow process made by the allies in France and Belgium.

As a matter of fact we have done vastly better in the time than even the most optimistic had dared to hope for when war was first declared and as for Britain, we have already put into the field an army in size vastly greater than any named or dreamed of in any undertaking into which we had entered.

What our fleet has done, all the world, except a portion of the German public knows and Berlin will soon be painfully aware of what the command of the sea really means.

Already a compulsory dietary table is being imposed, ‘war bread’ alone is to be consumed and a telegram this morning speaks of a disputed populace making a run upon the flour shops.

When we speak of the duration of the war we must not forget the part that internal economy is bound to play.

In this direction Germany will be able to stand the strain for good it longer but the time will come when the scarcity of foodstuffs and materials for the manufacture of a munitions is bound to tell its tale.

It is moreover also certain that Germany will be the first to suffer from a shortage of the raw material of war – the fighting man.

The enemy is putting his last two million men into the field but will ere long find an increasing difficulty in holding the ever increasing masses which are being piled up against him.

The news from the west varies little in character from that of the last few days and the Paris official message is again one of progress.

German soldiers who were pillaging the village of St Sauveur were surprised by a French detachment and put to flight while on the heights of the Meuse two German attacks were driven off.

Heavy gunfire is reported to have been heard in Belgian Flanders and it is believed that the bombardment was proceeding much nearer the Dutch frontier than on previous occasions. Strong fortifications have been built by the Germans to resist the expected British landings.

There is no official news from Petrograd of the operations in Poland but the Berlin wireless messages state that the German attacks west of Vistula made progress at certain points. In other parts of the front there was no change.

It is reported that Romania has come to a final decision to take action in Transylvania and the campaign is her rally expected to begin about the middle of February.

Another noteworthy item of news is that Germans and Austrians have left Rome during the last few days and many others are ready to leave at any moment.