From ‘The War and the New Year‘, The Spectator, 2 January 1915:
THOUGH the corning of the New Year makes, and could make, no difference at the front, it does present a convenient opportunity for taking stock of the military situation. The year 1915 finds the Allies and their enemies in a condition approaching stalemate. Neither side has won, neither side has lost, and neither side is able to make a new move with the pieces actually on the Board. Of course, no analogies of this kind are perfect ; but, roughly speaking, the sacrifices which the Allies in the western theatre of the war would have to make in order to carry the German trenches are, for the present at any rate, held too great to to worth making. When you have got to attack a fortified front nearly three hundred and fifty miles long the risks of a general advance are too enormous to contemplate with anything in the nature of a light heart. On the other hand, the plan of finding out the weakest place and driving a wedge into the line there becomes well- nigh impossible when the two hostile forces have been sitting opposite each other for so long. On both sides every weak place is by this time known and defended with special care. From the Dutch frontier at the mouth of the Schelde to the Swiss frontier near Belfort, there is literally not a mile of ground which is not guarded so closely that the side which attacked in force would be bound to suffer a great deal worse than the aide which stood on the defensive and awaited attack.
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