The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE MONDAY, MARCH 25, 1918. THE WESTERN OFFENSIVE.

Taihape Daily Times, 25 March 1918, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

MONDAY, MARCH 25, 1918. THE WESTERN OFFENSIVE.

(With which is Incorporated The Taihape Post and Waimarino News).

During the past two years the British have been taking ground from the Germans, so gradually driving them towards their own frontiers that the news received on Sunday night of the British having to give ground to the enemy may prove somewhat disquieting. To pessimists it may be apprehensive and alarming, throwing them into paroxysms of fear and trembling. Sane, well-informed people will take the news as a matter of course; it was evident to them that Sir Douglas Haig fully anticipated something of the kind would happen, and a day or two ago he advised in that direction. It was announced in the House of Commons by Mr. Bonar Law that the attack had come just where the British command expected it. On a fiftymiles front the Germans launched wave upon wave of their grey-clad infantry which British machine-guns and artillery mowed down like grass. The force employed by the enemy along this length of front was uniform, and, of course, it could not be known just at what point he would select to force a way through the British lines. The first thrust was west of Cambrai, towards Lagnicourt; that failed, and an effort was made much further south, below St. Quentin. Then Sir Douglas Haig reported that there was strong movement near St. Quentin, and that some British outposts had been..driven in and that the enemy had T reached British trenches. When it, became obvious where the gap was, to be cut according to the German, pfan there was such a concentration of enemy gun fire and such a masking, of infantry as the British Commander knew there must be, and from.the very confident nature of his reports he . seems to have held the massed Germans as long as posible while his.artillery played upon them, and lengthened this murderous work by slowly retiring his line to positions already prepared for it, past which he did not intend to go. It was facing these new. positions the Germans had to stop and accept all the store of artilery and machine-gun fire that had been laid up for them. It is quite clear that the enemy failed utterly to break through British linos, and it is just as clear that it was a tremendously costly effort to the Germans. The cable received last night merely says that the main concentrated assault broke British defences and the line retired in good order to its new positions, and that the line is holding everywhere. It appears that the retirement is due west, towards Monchy, but the bombardment of Paris tends to the belief that Paris is the objective, therefore that the Germans would endeavour to get towards Roupy. The British line ran to the southeastward from passing .closely westward of St. Quentin, making an advanced salient at that place and iia Fere, and it now seems very evident that there was a double attack, one kt St. Quentin, the other near La Ferie, on the Oise, both of Avhich were io break through and cut off the whoje of the British forces in this advanced salient. If that was the German intention the failure has been so coinplete»that it will be nothing short off a defeat, with all' the terrible consequences of defeat. The special message we received last night is brief, but its language is indeed hopeful; in any case it is a certainty that the Germans have failed to nearly achieve their objective, while their complete plans now "stand fully revealed. We must regard the information as cheaply acquired, at least, till details of the crisis of the fifty-mile of battle ''is cabled to us, which will probably be later to-day. There is nothing in the message received to cause the slightest apprehension or alarm, On the contrary, if the new British line Is capable of holding—and we think that with the recent pooling of reserves, it will be—there is much cause for satisfaction. The bombardment of Paris with guns that project shells a distance of sixty miles makes it clear that Germany has long abandoned the hope ; for success by battle. The energies of Krupp's have been centred on producing a gun to throw shells an almost unbelievable distance. It is apparent that such guns would be worse than useless in ordinary warfare, that, therefore, they were invented for the purpose of terrorising and intimidate tag. Germany tried to intimidate "ranee at Verdun, that failed, and

then corruption and intrigue on an unparalleled plane was brought into play. Boloism with oceans of money to buy up French consciences and newspapers ignobly fizzled out. Still the Kaiser, Hindenbnurg, and Ludendorff knew they had to corrupt France as they had corrupted Russia or accept terms dictated by the Allies. Such a gun is only useful in campaigns of corruption. If the Germans had succeeded in breaking the British line, and making Paris a nearer target, they thought the collapse of the French people was assured. Had their efforts worked out according to plans England would soon have been the target for these new engines or frightfulness. It is comforting to reflect that these guns must necessarily be very shortlived; that their cost and upkeep will be so heavy that they can never be used in large number. But Germany never intended anything of the kind; the idea was to strike fear into the French heart and repeat the Russian trick on Britain's western ally. Failure to defeat British soldiers will Tender such diabolism abortive; It will renew and refresh French determination to destroy once for all the barbarism' in Europe. The Allies are now fully aware of the German objective; these new engines for pumping shells were stationed at Gobain the nearest German possession to Paris; an army "was to break through down the valley of the Oise, and another west of St. Quentin, which would render immediate British assistance to the French impossible; the sixty-mile guns were to drop shells in Paris to create a panic by making people believe that German armies were at their very gates, but it all failed. Frenchmen now know the trick and they will rejoice at its failure. They will have some idea also of the bloody holocaust British and French guns have made in the glorious armies of the Kaiser, while the most he is capable of has been failing, and, we venture to predict, they will find ample to spur them on to resist and subdue, to retire again if needs be so long as huge targets of Germans can be drawn on to destruction. A little ground is valueless at this stage of the war, but every life lost is a calamity to the side that loses it.; In his assault Germany has not commenced to achieve what the British accomplished at Camhrai. Our men have, orderly moved back, giving full play for the longest period for their artillery to mow down the oncoming waves of German- life like grass. The latest official cable on Saturday from Berlin stated: "We penetrated a portion of the English position between Cambrai and La Fere." This js the exact .position referred to in last night's message, which is, no doubt, Sir Douglas Haig's version of what has taken place. He finishes w#h _the_&ssurance that "the British line is holding everywhere." Evidently tlie sting of the German offensive has been\used to the fullest and has, so far, failed. We are more convinced than ever by Germany's effort to terrorise the French people with her sixtyrmilo white elephant that she knows success is impossible ■against British resistance