It is curious to note that the German prisoners showed
not only surprise but resentment at the intensity of our artillery fire. We are told that one wounded Prussian officer "of a particularly offensive. and truculent type, which, is not uncommon," expressed the greatest contempt for our methods. "You do not fight; you murder." If it had been straight- forward. honest fighting, his regiment, he declared, would have beaten no, but it never had a chance from the first. "Then was a shell every ten yards. Nothing could live in such a fire ! " We shall bear as well as we can the odium of having won from the Germans that mastery in artillery fire which they have so long enjoyed. "Eyewitness" tells us further that in spite of the mauling which they received the prisoners were almost unanimously optimistic as regards the general situation. It is the old story that the Germans are soon going to finish with the Russians and then will be able to trample France and Britain into the mud. No doubt it is a great advantage to the Germans to have inspired so hopeful a feeling in their troops, for next to the will to win the belief that one is winning is the greatest factor in streets. At the same time, we must not forget that when disillusion at last comes to the optimist it-comes with terrible force. This the Germane will discover before many months are over.
