The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE. THURSDAY, MARCH 16, 1916. VERDUN.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 8, Issue 65, 16 March 1916, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE.

THURSDAY, MARCH 16, 1916. VERDUN.

(With which is incorporated The Tai hape Post and Waimarino News.)

There is ample evidence in Germany to satisfy the world that the battle of Verdun is lost and won, not as old time battles were wen, but the strength of the attacking force has been, .so exhausted, depleted and enervated that it could no longer sustain the conflict, and was compelled to desist without having obtained the object for which the attack was made. Forces may be rallied, reserves brought from other places, and artillery reorganised for further efforts in the same locality, but in the e\olution of our ideas on subsequent results we have to keep in mind that the assault that was in preparation for three or four months in which the finest troops that Germany could put in the field have already been beaten, their morale broken and their dash, begat of belief in victory, destroyed. When the enemy changed the direction of their main force from the shambles before Douaumont to a diversion on Fort Vaux they admitted the failure of their original plans, and as further isolated attacks were multiplied the French began to express

in very definite terms that Germany could not succeed. It is indeed gratifying to be able to reflect on the fact that in the two great battles on the western front, having any decisive effect on the enemy’s march on Paris, have finished in favour of the Allies, and we are not convinced that Verdun will not have a greater deciding influx ence on future operations than even the battle of the Marne had. It is almost unbelievable that Germans and their Allies could place such faith in the fulfilment of War Office plans, as events indicate. Yesterday, according to plan the German Army was to have reached Paris, the Verdun defences broken down, and the Allies in full retreat, and German and Bulgarian soldiers in other ''places actually bedecked the town and jubilated in the belief of such a consummation. Much hung on the Verdun offensive; it was to be the eye-opener to what Germany’s power was capable of; it was to be the deciding factor in determining the future of Roumania and Greece, as well as of Turkey and B’ulgaria; it was to revivify depressed Germany and rejuvenate the decadent hopes of her armies; but Verdun failed; all is quiet at Verdun; mountains of German slain lay there

I awaiting burial or destruction, and I the effect on the German people is pitiable. Their faith in their warmachine is shaken; they learn of the colossal losses in dead and they have reached a stage of frenzied resentment which necessitates machineguns being operated in the streets of their chief towns to quell the resultant riots. Let us for a moment put ourselves in place of German citizens and imagine that machine-guns ordered by our Government are firing on our people in Palmerston, Christchurch, (Wellington, and other places, because they have risen in chagrin and pain at being deceived with tales and promises of victory and early peace, while their fathers, brothers and husbands are being driven to certain death wit halmost inconceivab’e callousness, or in that desperation which precedes despair, and instead of victory there “comes defeat. We appeal to parliament, as the Bavarians have done, and our Minister of War 1 still goes on lying and deceiving, telling the people they must not lose confidence in their fighting machine, because of a “sm'all miscarriage at Verdun.” The Prime Minister dare not meet his Foreign Affairs Committee to explain the position, and wo shall realise just the position that obtains in Germany to-day. German plans have been completely upset; new ones are in course of evolution

aii(j we must await their completion before it can be known whether Verdun is to again be the scene of wholesale massacre, or whether the main offensive will be directed against some other believed vulnerable point. Outside evidences in Germany we have only to notice the sensational decline in German exchange that is now taking place ,'and which will not be checked by all the efforts that Ger-