The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE THURSDAY, APRIL 5, 1917. A COMPARISON.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 5 April 1917, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

THURSDAY, APRIL 5, 1917. A COMPARISON.

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

At Easter time last year the German cry was, "-After Verdun —Peace!" It was claimea"oy the Teutonic press that the great war was being guided and governed by what took place before Verduu, but this wvs only another of Germany's fatal miscalculations, it was taken by them for granted that Verdun must fall, and that their armies would sweep on to Paris, compelling Frenchmen to sue for peace. The enemy took the initiative last year in opening the spring campaign, commencing at Verdun with a concentration of troops and guns never before attempted. Tley were sure nothing could withstand that terrible, colossal onslaught, but by Easter they had hammered away almost incessantly for two months and did not take mere ground than the French and British are now taking in two days. This year the initiation .of the new year's fighting is in the nands or the Franco-British, who have taken up the Somnie offensive from where it was scarcely laid down for the winter. Verdun and the Somme furnishes a very fair comparison from which we may gain a reliable view of German strength, valour and strat-

egy, also of the value of the fighting unit. Contrasted with our armies and our individual fighters, as disclosed in events arising out of the German orfensive last spring and our offensive this spring, the advantage is with the Allies to a superlative degree. According to the German Staff plans, they told us, Verdun was to have the closest connection with the future development of military conditions on the West front. It is well to make this comparison of the position last year with that of this year, because Germany was more certain that she was going to end the war last year than the Allies are that it will encr this year. They were certain of Verdun's fall, and they boasted too soon that the Allies would be compelled to regroup their "lighting forces, but just what was predicted for the Allies fell to the lot of Germany. The possession of Verdun was to forerun a new pivoting point at Soissons, the neatest held ground to Paris, on which the entire front" was to be pushed forward to the French capital. They persisted with this foolhardy plan and were still sacrificing the flower or their Army, to prodigality, on the first of July when the Allies struck their first blow on the Somme, and" the French Verdun victory forced upon Germany a re-grouping of her forces, while having to give imperative attention to the knocking at the doors of their underground fortifications in the newly-assailed area. When Verdun was relieved and a lull fell over the Somme the enemy High Command took unction that it had killed the Allied offensive,, as the French had theirs at Verdun, only to find this year th e sword taken up where it had been put to rest for the winter. It Is the Somme offensive, not the Verdun that is going to have, and is having, the closest connection with future developments of military conditions along the entire Western front. From Arras to the point from which the glorious armies of Germany were going to pivot for a march on Paris, British drovers are furiously driving the Germans back like cattle to their own country, and ft is predicted there is to be no serious stop till they can water at the Rhine. We have been promised peace in 1917, and who will say that our armies on every front, wherever they are engageu," are not putting up performances that augur well for a splendid promise-keeping. Last year Germany failed in her boasting to secure Victory; her armies were ignominiously beaten by the French; they lost more ground to the French in two days .than they took

'fifom' ttiem in,two months, and the French, are . still fighting strongly on tne'Meuse driving their arch-enemy brack. Everywhere, on all frmts where French. and British, are engaged, the enemy is on the defensive or is rctrfeating, before, : o\ir, victorious arms. Germany still has the strength tc make an effort somewhere, but numbers, quality and equipment are against her. At the opening of the year's fighting last spring the Allies were on the defensive on all fronts; the opening this year finds them prosecuting vigorous offensives everywhere; they have the Germans running before them, driven like cattle, on the West front; they are being hustled out of Palestine and. Syria by our brave fellows from Egypt; they are having their Berlin-Bagdac dreams killed by th e rapid clearingout mission of British and Russian arms; in the Balkans victory is increasingly with the Allies, and nowhere, this spring, are the German arms in th e ascendant.' The comparison of this spring's operations and conditions with those of last "raring discloses to what extent German interests have deteriorated, and to what a. glorious extent thos e of the Allies have appreciated. Germany wanted peace a year ago, she has commenced to cry for peace again this year, but it is a very different kind of peace. We hear nothing of a map settlement now, for the reason that the map is undergoing another rapid transformation. The map settlement idea may be acceptable when Allied generals are freely perambulating the streets of Berlin. The German morale must suffer considerably from defeat on all fronts; running away, harassed by British bulldogs does not conduce to an accumulating courage. This comparison entitles us to believe the offensive taken by the Allies this spring is going to result in what the German offensive on Verdun last spring igncminiously failed in—Peac e .