"How can you help it?"
"You don't find strikes in Germany, because we organise our civil population for war, as well as the military population.
"There was one strike a little while ago, not for more money, but because the men felt they were not getting the food they were entitled to. Do you know what we did?—We put them all in uniform, and sent them on to the Somme, and we sent back from the Somme an equal number of soldiers to replace them in the factory."
"When do you think the war will be over?" I asked.
"When each side realises that it can't exterminate the other. Look what we've done on the Somme! You've lost, let us say, 700,000 men, and we have lost, say 500,000; and how far have you got? You'll never beat us. If you bend us back more, all we shall have to do is to retire to a new line, and you will have to begin your work all over again. You can bend, but you can't break us."
"Well, you tried it, and now it's our turn."
"Yes; but it will never end that way. Do you know that for months past we've been digging a new line, a straight line between Lille and Verdun, which will shorten our line by half? And if you bend that we will build another farther back. It can go on for ever at that rate."
"What about the blockade?"
"Of course, that's a farce. You've been doing your best to starve us for over two years. Do I look starved? We may not get as good food as we should like, but we get enough to live on, because we've got it properly systemised; whereas you let your people eat what they like."
Yes, there was truth in that; and after drinking all his wine, I turned into bed; for to-morrow I was to be free!