The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1916. THE COST OF THE OFFENSIVE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 35, 8 September 1916, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1916. THE COST OF THE OFFENSIVE.

An impressive evidence of the costliness of a military "offensive" in human life is afforded in the figures which have heen gaoled relative to the British casualties during the month of August, says, the Otago Daily Times. As the "big push" was commenced on the Ist July, so that the! figures for July represented on paper the .wastage of the army for a full month of the offensive, it is somewhat surprising to find that the casualties' for August were more than double those for the preceeding month. It was so, however, as will be seen from the following statement of the number of reported casualties, these including, of course, the wounded (slightly as well as severely), the missing, the prisoners, and the deaths from sickness: Casualties. April 19,051 May 29,026 June 31,501 July 59,071\ August 127,790 A partial explanation of the great disparity between the figures for July and August may, the Times adds, perhaps bo found in the inevitable de-' lay that, in the midst of severe fighting, occurs in the reporting of casualties, so that the August figures will bo swelled by the inclusion in them of casualties that strictly belong to July. 6n the other hand, there will have been casualties in August that will be reported in September. Whilst it is really impossible to say to what ex-' .tent the "carry-over," so to speak, from August will balance that from July, the sharp advance from the record of casualties in the months pre-' ceding the beginning of ,the allied "offensive" to that for the two past months is a melancholy reminder to nis of the fact that the attack upon a strongly entrenched foe, powerfully armed, cannot be successfully prosecuted except at'heavy sacrifices. Even although tiic general object of the Allies' tactics has been to .spare the infantry as much as possible through t»ie employment of artillery to break tl'ojvn the German trenches, the losses mftist for the most part have been suffe reft by the infantry, who, improvised soilierg though they are, fought with a gallantry and hardihood that furnished an irrefutable proof of the folly of the enemy's assumption that die* -I'riuch Mere a decadent race.