THE WAR.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 10 August 1917, Page 4

THE WAR.

Yesterday’s cables put rather a better complexion on the war generally. The position on the Russian front does not appear to be as bad as is painted, and there seems no immediate danger to the Russo-Roumanian armies in the Carpathians. The

Franco-British armies in Flanders are almost daily bettering their positions, and another dash forward is now daily expected. The Germans are attaching supreme importance to this Flanders thrust; the Vossische Zeitung says it will decide the fate of Germany. A British base there would enable air squadrons to annihilate their industrial basin and drive Germany completely from the seas. German industry would be completely at British mercy. For that reason Germany must hold her positions from the Belgian coast to the River Lys. Now, it seems, that Sir Douglas Haig has determined that that is what Germany shall not do. Germany, is concentrating huge forces, and many guns, behind the Flanders position; have the British, as Mr Lloyd George claims, the guns and men to smash the German lines ? It seems that the Flanders fight is to be a deciding factor in the war, it is to be one of the last, if not the last, rounds. The Vosische Zeitung realises that if Germany cannot stand up to the Franco-British now she never can,

and further fighting would be national suicide. Germany has become astoundingly human all at once; she has notified that all hospital ships will henceforth be given safe con duct, provided a Spanish naval officer is oA board; this officer is, of course, only a pretext, Germany knows as well as the British themselves that our hospital ships are used solely for the purpose claimed for them. It is also reported from Germany, through Switzerland, that submarine losses are increasing, twenty-five disappearing in July. Germany states that the campaign will be stopped after November as Entente measures make winter operations impossible. At the Servian Society’s luncheon on Wednesday Lloyd George publicly announced to the gathering, at wihch the Servian Premier was present, that Servia was about to be cleansed from Turkish barbarism. From this it is evident that the British Premier is doing one of three things: he is either talking wildly, or he wishes us to understand that freedom is coming through armed force, or by the collapse of the Central Alliance. In Poland a revolt is feared, but why should Germany fear revolt if she has the forces to deal with it in her own well-known and approved methods ? It looks as though Germany is not too sure of the Flanders position. Whether a British base in that country would mean all the German newspaper states or not, it would certainly be a disaster that must bring the end very near.