5 FEBRUARY 1916, Page 2

On this statement we have only two remarks to make

: first, that if Germany thinks there will be no more important battles she is reckoning without her enemy ; and secondly, that if she seriously hopes to embroil Britain with the other members of the Entente—that can be the only object of the Chancellor's statement, particularly in later passages in which he suggested that Britain was utterly indifferent to the future of France, Russia, and Italy—she vastly misunderstands the Allies. This is the sense of a declaration issued by the British Foreign Office, which adds that Germany has spread abroad a further utterly unscrupulous statement that Britain actually intends to abandon her allies, and has already made peace overtures on her own account to Germany.