nd West

Fighting of the Second Week in May on French and Russian Fronts.

[By a Military Expert of THE NEW YORK TIMES.]

The sinking of the Lusitania has, for the week ended May 15, so
completely absorbed the attention of the press and the interest of the
public that the military operations themselves have not received the
notice that otherwise would have been awarded them. The sinking of this
ship, with the delicate diplomatic situation between Germany and the
United States which the act brought about, is not a military or naval
operation as such, and comments on it have no place in this column. At
the same time there is an indirect effect of the drowning of hundreds of
British citizens which will have a very direct bearing on Britain's
military strength and policy.

The British public is notably hard to stir, are slow to act, and almost
always underrate their adversary. In almost every war, from 1775 down to
and including the South African war, England, with a self-assurance that
could only be based on ignorance of true conditions, has started with
only a small force, and it has been only when this force has been
defeated and used up that the realization of the true needs of the
situation has dawned. Then, and then only, has recruiting been possible
at a pace commensurate with the necessity.

In the Boer war, for example, every one in England, official and
civilian, believed that 30,000 men would be more than enough to defeat
the South African burghers. Yet ten times 30,000 British soldiers were
operating in the Transvaal and Orange Free State before the war ended.

In the present conflict Lord Kitchener himself admits that there are
many times the number of British soldiers in France than was thought
would be necessary when war was declared. And even up to May 6 the
British public was not thoroughly aroused. Many of the peasants in the
back counties hardly believed the war was a reality. Recruiting was
slow, there was but little enthusiasm, and Lord Haldane's thinly veiled
hint that a draft might soon become necessary was almost unnoticed.

But the sinking of the Lusitania has brought the war home to England as
nothing else has or could have done, and all England is aflame with a
bitterness against Germany which is already increasing the flow of
recruits and cannot but add to the fighting efficiency of the men now at
the front. The effect will be far-reaching throughout the British
Empire, and will do much