Which of the three schemes we have discussed has actually
been adopted by Germany—for, as we have said, we feel certain that one of them has been adopted—must very soon be disclosed to the world, for we must give our enemy the credit of not " waiting and seeing," but of upping and doing." On the whole, we are inclined to think that the Russian push will be the plan selected. In the first place, the Germans have still got the command of the sea in the Baltic, and they probably think that the Russian Fleet has been specially demoralized by the Revolution. Again, they pro- bably think that with good luck and a rapid push they might conceivably get into Petrograd by June, and, if they did this, that the effect on German opinion would be enormous. Besides, if things went well with them, they could not be balked of their prey by French and British aid from the Western front—aid which, as we have pointed out, it would be not only possible but com- paratively easy to give the Italians in the case of a gigantic attempt to smother the Italian position in the Alps by weight of numbers.
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