" BEAT!. POSSIDENTES."
[To THE EDITOR or THE " SPECTATOR.") SIR,—Does it not become increasingly clear that the principle of Bcati Possidentes, which we, less cynically, express by the phrase of Possession being nine points of the law, will be that on which' Germany will rely if the " decision " she has sought, and may be in the first instance still seeking, on the Western Front appears impossible or too difficult of accomplishment P She, has possessed herself of nearly the whole of Belgium. She has'not, as yet, lost Alsace-Lorraine. She or her ally holds all but an insig- nificant portion of .Serbia. She occupies Poland and so much of Russia as is sufficient well-nigh to double her territory. She has access to the Black Sea. She has reduced her friends Bulgaria and Turkey to the condition of vassals, while Austria herself is in little better position. Why should she care so much to press a Western offensive? These are achievements, whatever we may think of the means by which they have been secured, which will amply suffice to justify the war in the eyes -of a people only too willing to be deceived. With these Germany can adopt, yet with the air of 'having succeeded in her aims, a defensive instead of an offensive attitude on her Western boundaries, and find in a challenge of j'y has, j'y reste full compensation for losses else- where. Is it' not high time to consider our course of action in the event of there being no continuation of the offensive (other than a Peace offensive) in the West, and in the event of the problem before us becoming one of preventing the absorption by Germany of Russia in Europe; and ultimately of the whole of Northern Asia, with the old Russian menace to India paSsing into German hands?
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