The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE SATURDAY, APRIL 14, 1917. THE BRITISH KICK-OFF.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 14 April 1917, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

SATURDAY, APRIL 14, 1917. THE BRITISH KICK-OFF.

(With which is incorporated The Taihapo Peat and Waimarino News),

News of the lively commencement of the 1917 offensive on the Western front very nearly monopolises the cables. We are told something of what America is doing, but there is nothing definite yet in that quarter to indicate just what is to follow. The Americans are too astute to reveal to Germany at this stage exactly what their plans are. There is nothing reported from the Balkans except a general riot by Bulgarians against their selfsought German masters. .The sensation caused by the Russian revolution has become a back number in face of what is happening in France. Many people still fear that the German element will again attain ascendancy and that Russia may enter into a compact with the Hun intriguers. The present leaders in Russia are, however, educated men who know .that with Germany once more in favour would be followed by a return to Caardom and the much hated bureaucracy and absolutism. The people have tasted freedom and they are not likely to do anything that will mean a virtual surrender and a return to ■serfdom. Most people are now con-

vinced that the Kaiser, Prince Rupprecht, and the balance of the German high command wer e deliberately lying to their people in saying the scuttle from British guns in France was nothing more than a strategic retreat to lure British and French armies to destruction. What extreme devilish sacrifice they are making of their best troops if there is a scrap of truth in the allurement story. The whole talk about strategic retreat is a tissu e of downright common lying. Twenty thousand prisoners were taken in two days’ fighting; the ordinary proportion of killed and wounded would mean that from one hundred thousand to one hundred and thirty thousand German soldiers have been put out of action; one hundred and fifty big guns, many huge trench mortars, countless I machine guns, and immense quanti- ■ ties of other booty have been captured. The loss of trained officers, from commanders down is In itself a disaster to the Germans. Whore are the defeated armies going to before a stand can be made is the question now uppermost in the minds of great military experts. It did not appear to us possible or feasible for the Hindenburg lin e to be effectively held. It seems reasonable that if the British could destroy the most perfect mass of fortifications known to military science, and drive the defenders out, the Hindenburg line would be too close and disorder and demoralisation would be too general for defeated and routed men to adjust themselves in time to withstand the certain onslaught of their pursuers. Therefore, we preferred to think the German command would fortify a much safer line, one that lends itself to strongest defensive works, and one sufficiently far away as to allow of fairly complete reorganisation should the worst happen to them. Great military experts are now drawing the line that ordinary common reason led us to in the first place, that is a line running from Nieuport on the Belgian coast, along the Belgian frontier to Maubeuge, Mezieres, Hirson and Verdun. We stated that if the British were as successful as the spirit of our men seemed to foreshadow, the Germans would be compelled to rapidly pivot back on a line from Antwerp to Brtrssels to Namur, on Maubeuge to prevent disaster. Now it seems certain that if FrancoBritish successes of the past few days continue there will be little rest for what remains of Germany’s defeated armies till they take up the “Wacht am Rhine.” The Hindenburg line through i Cambrai, St. Quentin ana Laon is broken and otherwise so damaged as to render it unsafe and, consequently, the strategic retreat further still to the rear must be continued. -Headquarters correspondents tell us that British guns are smashing the flying masses of Huns on the congested roads leading to the strategic positions which seem to have no existence. The German defeat has caused -consternation and riots in Germany, and it is not at all improbable that the Hohenzollern dynasty may encounter as great a foe within as it has sought from without. The almost miraculous achievement in two days by the British is being vigorously followed up; heavy snowfall is interfering with observations, but we may all hope, at this lateness in the season, it will only be of short duration.

T HREATENING LABOUR TROUBLES.

There is some satisfaction in knowing that Sir James Allen, ActingPremier, and Minister of Defence, and the Hon. W. D. S. MacDonald, Minister of Mines, have gone to the West Coast to study the miners’ strike on the spot. It is rather late in the day, but their presence among the men, and the indulgence in a few heart to •heart talks that are free from everything suggestive of force and uppishness, may yet have the virtue of turning away wrath and of leading to a path of honour and righteousness. A telegram yesterday advised that there was no apparent change in the situation, but a cable from Australia has struck a very ominous note. It made reference to Australian labour linking up with secret organisation °f labour in New Zealand. Is this the faint small cloud of something disastrous to follow, and if it is, when is it timed to burst? is ;t before the return of our men at the

front, and if so, what will happen when they are ready to come back? If this labour unrest and secret organisation has reached a stage at which no ordinary effort can stop it, who are the culprits that permitted it, and why are they not compelled to stand aside for men who could and would have prevented it? It is as well to keep in mind the fact that we are living in war-like times and that the restless spirit is as much in evidence in New Zealand as elsewhere. Let us not continue to live in any fool’s paradise; Britain refused to see th e German menace and thousands of her best sons were sacrificed; the Czar of Russia minimised the threat of revolu-

tion and he is now a deposed monarch; the German military caste were so sure of their super-strength and super-ability that they were blinded to the possibilities of defeat and extinction, are we, in New Zealand, following in similar foolhardy footsteps?