Dr. Balan maintains in the further course of his letter that the enemies of Germany cannot expect to be treated humanely in any special manner, for all war is inhumane, because they have from the outset persistently and constantly utterly disregarded the laws of nations and the "sacred sign of the Red Cross." In conclusion this Prussian church dignitary informs the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross that if he and his friends really wish to render the whole suffering population of Europe a truly great service, they should do their utmost to bring home to the French people, who are so deeply to be pitied, the fact that the phantom which, deluded by the lies of their and England's rulers, they still pursue is dragging them every day to deeper and more hopeless misery. At the very moment that France realizes this, Dr. Balan asserts, there will be peace. He explains that the phantom pursued by the French is "the recovery of two provinces that have been German from time immemorial, and of which we were once robbed against all right and justice." Great Britain's War Work in 1917 War Cabinet's Official Survey of Military Events and Far-Reaching Economic Changes _A report issued by the British War Cabinet on March 18, 1918, in the form of a Blue Book of 200 pages or more, presents a historical review of what Great Britain accomplished in 1917, with a survey of the changes that came over the character of the war in that year, and of the far-reaching Governmental and economic developments that took place in the British Nation. As the introductory chapter is in itself a comprehensive summary, the main portions of it are here presented._ The year 1917 saw two marked developments. On the one hand there was a profound change in the character of the war itself. The inauguration of a general attack upon the sea communications of the Allies through the unrestricted use of the submarine greatly widened the scope of warlike operations and forced the people of the British Isles to expend an immense amount of time and energy on counterpreparations of all kinds. The Russian revolution completely upset the allied plan for a concerted offensive against the Central Powers on all fronts during the Spring and Summer of 1917, and eventually led to such a disintegration of the Russian Army as enabled the German Government to transfer the greater part of its military resources from the eastern to the western theatre of war. Finally, the overthrow of the Russian autocracy, coupled with the entry of the United States into the war and the adhesion of Greece, Brazil, China, and other neutrals to the allied cause, widened the war itself from a battle for the liberty of small nations and the defense of public right in Europe into a world-wide struggle for the triumph of a free civilization and democratic government.