FRANCE DETERMINED.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 7 September 1917, Page 3

FRANCE DETERMINED.

The military policy of France was laid down by the Minister for War, M. Painleve, in a speech in the Chamber of Deputies on July 7. Referring to the attack on the Aisne which began on April 16, he said that undoubtedly grave mistakes were made in the course of the last offensive in which heavy losses were sustained, too cruel losses no doubt, because they ought to have been avoided. The leaders on whom the responsibility rested, and the commander-in-chief first of all, wer e relieved of tlielr commands. There must be no more ambitious plans whose grandiose proportions thinly conceal their emptiness. We must have a rational and positive war policy, equally prudent and energetic, which does not demand the impossible, but which derives from the war machine its maximum epect. That is our policy Concluding his speech, M. Painleve said: "Our allies know that nothing can bend the will of France. Whatever happens she will not fail in her task. Victory is certain, on the one condition that the morale of the country remains intact. Our soTdiers must fight, resist, or die at their posts. Victoiy or submission, as Preident Wilson said, that is the alternative. There is no other, and submission would be submission to the most odious and degrading form of slavery. If some feeble hearts ask how far we intend to go, I shall reply, like President Wilson, that we shall have reached our goal and that we shall cease to fight on the day when democracy is secured."