The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE SATURDAY, MARCH 23, 1918. AN ABORTIVE OFFENSIVE.

Taihape Daily Times, 23 March 1918, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

SATURDAY, MARCH 23, 1918. AN ABORTIVE OFFENSIVE.

(With which i* incorporated The Taifaape Post and Wairoarino News).

Pessimists' have been ; 'shaking''- *ttta. fear, pulling wry faces ; r*pT>Mi'n-g> doleful stories, all about a German offensive on the western front that j wont eventuate. German guns are. missing fire and the Kaiser stands bo far back that his glorious soldiers in the front ranks cannot hear him yelling, "On to Calais." The one thing essential to the advance of a German , army in these days is a road on which . there is no resistance. From Dunkirk j to Switzerland they have prospected very considerably but all ways seem to be fully blocked by Allied artillery and it has become necessary to make the glorious German soldiers gloriously drunk to get them to face what is between them and the British .trenches. We have the story cabled to us that Belgium, is packed with German soldiers "until there is barely standing room, and certainly not space for military evolutions, but this silly yarn was concocted rather to put a better heart into Germans who are afraid to attack than for consumption by the Allies. German officers are aware that the B'fttish vknow the ptrength of their concentrations as well as they know thenlselvete. American imilitary experts have viewed and reviewed all the circumstances and have told us that the initiative has never left the Allies'. Germany is on the defensive and until a place of no-resistance is discovered their talk about an offensive is childish brag, empty Wast. - The Allies have waited-ati %hTottg&<4ho;Hunbigr:, urum' : aihd to j i^^th f a^-H;he s j : ?^rc'' : 'is 3 46"bfe «a3*B j 'Mtsthmselvfcse and orofcjnpffl ] Germany to take aohaild in it-if only to ; resist the compulsion. i This failure of j the^l^io&^aT^^'"offchMve* %<?, mat-! cralise has mado-thc- west front unin- j terVstirig' for* a : while,' 1 bait information is leaking out of "Allied councils, which clearly indicates that- matters are- in train to make the Huns dance to the Allied tune without, making them silly drunk .first. William has been j given; j.a.iChanjeeHtp .do his much ad- = the.audience is tired of i waiting and, ,the, programme must be .proceeded ;with.<; r All his stage.jjr.epaxa- ! „tjons and :brass. :b,ands ri hav^, v been i ,,in-1 by Britishairman,., and t,h.3j i b e : ; blow^ r : c 9???£ r jT:-by 1 Allied,..artillery so that, the .mays proceed. The glorious, a.rmies of the!

Kaiser are not going to be let off; the Allies are now setting the. tune and the Huns are to be compelled to dance against their wishes and without any time to get doped with rum. The Allies have evidently evolved a scheme by which all reserves on the west front are being pooled so that they will be available for crushing work wherever it is decided to make a way to Berlin through the German line; there is to be no repetition of Cambrai. The next time a good opening is made to the German rear there is to be at, least half-a-million men with their horses and their handy little guns ready to go through to stir up matters around Fritz's back yard; and by the time that half-a/-million is through another ha.f million will commence to go through While this is going on. there will no daubt be an accompaniment of very heavy music all along the whole line from the North Sea to Switzerland. Germany's failure to make her offensive, materialise is not, going to delay matters on the western stage for very long, and we may expect to hear at any minute that the curtain has again gone up; that the grand denouemont is In progress and that the programme is nearly down to the final act. Wo in .New Zeaalnd may wait with confidence, for it has been demonstrated that the Allies are overwhelmingly superior in the air and in artillery. The complete failure of recent German infantry attacks, although some have been of a big battle magnitude, is sufficiently conclusive evidence that Germany cannot launch her very much vaunted offensive because the Allies wont let her In Russia the glorious armies of the Kaiser are simply becoming swamped in glory —there is nothing to stop them. They are robbing Eussian cupboards hnd picking Eussian pockets lik? common sneak thieves, or they ire and sandbagging unarmed and undefended Eussians much after the style approved by the cronkest of crooks In Eussia it is, one great glorious march to the cattle yard or the wheat barn while there is nobody to bar the

way; but fear has been into the hearts of. the HUii9> by" ominous rumblings in the direction of Vladivostok, and the cry "is going among the glorious "troops that'the Japanese are,coming with all their funny little insinuating ways,'which they put into practice so effectively in their trouble with Russia a few years ago. The Germans remember It well and they are feeling uncomfortable. On all fronts the world is awaiting the brewing storm, but with all their boast the Hun failure to face resistance anywhere seems to say that they have finished .with serious" flgh'ting and i u. :C'.'zrax.j -in; ranj '■■'". ... iwhen submarining piracy ana tneir brigandage in Russia longer profitable they Jor the best •peace they can get. | ,L2 fl«niM tyQOXOi*