FIGHTING IN FRANCE.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 8, Issue 67, 18 March 1916, Page 4

FIGHTING IN FRANCE.

[ It has been proclaimed that the third phase of operations has been commenced at Verdun, but, at present, .there seems very little to show for' it Any great attack by our Teuton enemies is invariably preceded by rather boastful talk. In fact everything, assumes fan almost appalling hugeness; their talk is big; their armies'? are big, the slaughter is big, and (their defeat is proportionately big. .4 They were going to smash through to Paris, then Calais had their, I 'attentions for some time. Their smashing propensities were next turned ion Petrograd, and in shame and at invariable defeat they turned tlieir huge forces on almost bedridden little Servia, but even there smash wa s cut short by a gathering at Salonika. While the tangent in Servia was proceeding they were arranging, drilling and actually rehearsing another smash for Paris, something that was to be invincible, and aIL the detail of poets, pressmen and .picture makers were there to immortalise| the glorious event. The word smasib had proved an unlucky term so they changed the verbal mascot to ,and for nearly three weeks they '--.were responsible for a rain of I artillery explosives that not only delife, but changed the topogra- | phy gr the country, over which it was I directed, out rof all recognition, but; I

they were the blasted, not the blasters, and Paris is as safe, or safer, to-day than it was before the appalling holocaust was begun. Unimportant actions are taking place in various pprts of the 450 mile line. The Britisji have hid some small, though highly important successes; our airmen have raided gun making and munition making German centres, not omitting to destroy buildings in the hugejif works in the home of the Krupp's at Essen. In fact, operations

highly satisfactory from the Allies* point of view. In other .arenas our cause is in the ascendant —Roumania has practically decided upon a future with the Allies, the "Sick man of Europe" is nearing his end, apparently in his last dying convulsions; the Russians are marching victoriously through Turkish Armenia and are close to functioning with the British forces at Bagdad; the Arabs in Egypt have been given their quietus, and all .that is left of German talk in that quarter is about an attack on the Suez Canal, that will never eventuate. On the eastern front Russia is confident of holding the enemy, so that in all battlefields at the close of another week there are the most hopeful ; signs.