During the early days of July, 1916, a general offensive on the part of the Allies began.

The French and British armies attacked on the Somme, taking many towns and villages and thousands of prisoners.

The Russians continued their victorious advance in the Bukowina and began a tremendous offensive far north on the Riga front.

The Italian troops attacked in the Trentino and captured important fortified Austrian positions.

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_THE DEUTSCHLAND DISPATCH_

"_Never mind, Mr. Wilson; it is only a little Lusitania blood on the envelope_"

On July 9th the German Merchant Submarine _Deutschland_ arrived at Baltimore carrying a cargo of 1,000 tons of merchandise, princ.i.p.ally dye stuffs. According to a statement by Captain Koenig, commander of the _Deutschland_, she was the first of a number of similar vessels which were being built for the purpose of breaking the British blockade of Germany.

It was stated at the time that the captain of the submarine brought a personal letter from the German Emperor to President Wilson.

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_BALAAM AND HIS a.s.s_

What, German people, is your duty in this hour? The army wants no exhortations. It has fought superhumanly. It will fight until final victory. But the people at home--this is their duty: To suffer in silence, to bear their renunciations with dignity.

THE KAISER, _July, 1916_.

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_TEAM WORK_

The great armies recruited and trained by Lord Kitchener, with the mountains of munitions piled up by Lloyd George, have become a tremendous weapon in the skilled hands of General Sir Douglas Haig; and they are supported on the right by a French army under General Foch that has shown itself more than able to keep pace with them. It must not be forgotten that the battle of the Somme is a joint enterprise of close teamwork under the supreme direction of General Joffre.

Thus far we have heard less of the French than of the English wing, but its achievement has been equally brilliant. The Germans caught between these Frenchmen and Peronne, like those caught between the British and Bapaume, have resisted to the limit of human endurance, but nothing human could survive the awful blasting of high explosives to which their first and second trench lines were subjected; and the Allies now have the sh.e.l.ls and the men to keep up the pressure indefinitely.

_Current History, New York, July, 1916._

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"_I Hope, My Dear Friends and Allies, That I Have Been Able to Make You Feel Happy and Confident Again._"

The battle is raging, huge beyond all previous imagination. Rejuvenated, perfectly equipped with all they want, Russia's armies again have broken against our bulwarks in the east. France has experienced a regeneration in this war of which she hardly believed herself capable. She has dragged her dilatory English Ally into joining the offensive on the Somme, and whatever inward worth the British army has it now has an abundance of artillery.

THE KAISER, _July, 1916_.

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_ANOTHER NAIL IN HINDENBURG_

(_In 1915 a gigantic statue of wood was erected in Berlin to Hindenburg_)

The problem implied in the second phase of the great Russian offensive of 1916 had been solved completely in favour of our Allies. The enemy had abandoned his entire front south of the Marshes, having lost in ten weeks' fighting (May, June, July) in prisoners alone well over 300,000 men. The total casualties suffered by him in that campaign almost equalled the original strength of his armies between the Pripet Marshes and the Carpathian Mountains.

_The Times History of the War._

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"_SEEMS TO BE NEUTRAL: SINK HIM!_"

The freedom of the sea means to Germany that the German Navy is to behave at sea as the German Army behaves on land. It means that neither enemy civilians nor neutrals may possess rights against militant Germany; that those who do not resist will be drowned, and those who do will be shot.

Already 244 neutral merchantmen have been sunk in defiance of law and humanity, and the number daily grows. Mankind, with the experience of two years of war behind it, has made up its mind about German culture.

It is not, I think, without material for forming a judgment about German freedom.