The Germans must either mask Paris or break their heads
against it in the hope of taking it. Even if successful, all they can then do is to toil on for the conquest of the rest of France. In existing circumstances, and with the French field armies improving every week, they could not do this under six months, even if France had not a friend in the world. As things now stand, they could not do it in three years, and if the grim truth is told, they have got at the most three months to spare. France and Britain have only to hold on, no matter how terrible their punishment, and their final victory is certain. The only thing that we are afraid of is some act of rash- ness or impatience on the part of the Allies. But even that, though it would be deplorable, could only postpone the solution we have described. It would increase the agony of France; that is all.
