VERDUN AND AFTER.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1553, 20 May 1916, Page 2

VERDUN AND AFTER.

WRITING in March on (he German attack on Verdun, M. Pichon, a former Foreign Minister of France, said : ‘‘The attacks will continue ; that is beyond all doubt ; Germany is engaged in an operation of farreaching scope, and she cannot give it up without confessing her helplessness under circumstances that are full of infinite danger for her. At any cost she will set herself to carry through the plan that she has been obliged to adopt ; she will devote the whole of her tiiißylo it ; she will employ therein the whole force of her resources and her method ; she will he obstinate despite all the sacrifices (hat it will entail ; she will not lose heart in it until the day that she is completely convinced of the insufficiency of her means of action. Our allies in Great Britain are no less interested in the. affair than ourselves. Not only because we are both engaged in the same struggle, and the slake is none other than our existence, jmt also because what is now going on is merely a beginning. If the German effort runs up against an insurmountable obstacle, the development which would ensue in Ihe ease of a success would automatically fall out of the reckoning. If it succeeds on the contrary, we should behold events of peculiar gravity for our two countries. I do not know where on that hypothesis the projected offensives of the German army would be - launched, but it is certain that they would not allow the British troops quietly to fortify themsfdves in their cantonments. In accordance with the Prussian military method it would be on the wings of the French frontier that the principal blows would be delivered by the German army, whose objective it is to dislocate our lines. General Douglas Haig ought from this moment to be preparing for either event ; whether he has himself to take the initiative in the case of a delimit* failure of the attack on Verdun, or whether he has to reply to a. manoeuvre threatening his positions.”