OUR TURN NEXT.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 8, Issue 119, 20 May 1916, Page 6

OUR TURN NEXT.

General Joffro’s plans for the campaign of 1916, have in no way been upset. On the contrary, he is ready to strike his blow whenever the moment comes, encouraged by the know* ledge that the German forces opposing him are materially weaker than they were before the Germans began their mad bid for Verdun. In this war the cartoonist has come fairly into his own, and the French cartoons during the Verdun attack have very impressively illumined the ghastly truth of those operations. One of the best is a recent one, showing the sinister Imperial figures of the Kaiser and the Crown Prince, standing side by side in their military great cloaks, surveying a terrible vista cf dead recumbent terras of German soldiers. “How far have we advanced, my son?” asks tin* Kaiser. The Crown Prince replies, “So far as ycucan see corpses, father,” This is the grisly, simple truth. And the Germans are beginning dimly to

realise it, even though their rulers ‘ adopt the most stringent precautions , to veil the facts as decently as pos- j sible. All the talk now is of the possi- j bility of an early offensive on our j side in the West, and some people be- [ lieve they saw the beginning of it j this week when the Northumberland j Fusiliers carried six hundred yards of | German trenches at St. Eloi. But in- I (formation is , quite definite t on \one point. Since Sir Douglas Haig took | over the command of our forces in ' France, the order has gone forth all'} along the line s that the Germans must be constantly worried and given no respite. These orders have been faithfully carried out by Mr. Thomas Atkins, who is nothing loth to stir up the foe whenever he gets the chance. But it is highly unlikely that there will be any more serious offensives j on our side so long as these operations are isolated ones. The next time we strike it will be a case of striking altogether everywhere. And it is not quite certain that the Russians will be ready for big things in the East for some months yet. Possibly not until towards the end of the summer.

jr At a meeting of the Christchurch I Ministers’ Association the following mo tion was carried unanimously: — .“That the Christchurch Ministers’ Association believes that is the great national crisis created by the war, united civic religious services are demanded by public sentiment, and that

their suspension would cause great I disappointment to the mass of the people; believing this to be true, the association regrets exceedingly that Bishop Julius should have severed the traditions of the city and his earlier custom by refusing, at so grave a moment in our national history, either to join in, or allow his clergy to take part in the civic service on Auzac Day. The association regrets to learn that this is to be the future policy ( of the Anglican Church in this dio- \ cese, and especially deplores the slur contained in the term 'so-called religious services,’ in the bishop’s recent pastoral.”