The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 1918. THE WEST FRONT POSITION.

Taihape Daily Times, 16 April 1918, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 1918. THE WEST FRONT POSITION.

(With which is incorporated The f&ihape Poet and WatowuPio News).

The latest cable to come to hand yesterday afternoon conveyed most reassuring intelligence. We could never believe that the) Immense body of reserves built up-in France were a myth as many people of the pessimist class were prating about. It was a semi-official message and it stated that “the great mass of our reserves is still intact and at the disposal of ; the general command.” The disaster resulting from incompetence is rapidly being overcome and we know that New Zealanders and Australians had" to he rushed from their old quarters at Messines to patch up the mischief wrought by an incompetent who was made a general because he had been longer in the army than much more clever men. The battle in Flanders now shows a very distinct slowing down by the Germans, but it still violently continues. Our men are hold- 1 ing the massed onslaught, only giving very smaii and unimportant ground, while on the other~ hand they are driving the Germans back very considerably, and, the semi-official message says, it should be possible to hold them as reinforcements are ready to be brought up and put into the battle line. The Germans made a terrific effort to prevent the movement of reinforcements but they completely failed, and French troops are now holding weak sections in sufficient numbers to repel all the enemy’s efforts. As the Allied command now seems to have rescued the British armies from a calamity, it may fairly be conceded that they will be able to hold out against any further German effort, more especially as it is now certain that the great mass of Allied reserves . are quite intact and ready for use by the general command when the opportune moment arrives. It also seems fairly clear that these reserves are not for patching up weak places, or for reinforcing points at which the enemy is •.aking mere than ordinary effort, hey are intact ready for use when the general command may want them. The tide of battle now seems to be turning in Allied favour; latest French reports state the Tenacious British have rendered negative the enemy’s attempt to break through between the Lys and Ypres, and it may now be taken as certain that the road to Dunkirk and Calais is blocked to Germans. The position westward of Armentieres, where the Portuguese held the line is still critical, but as the Germans have been driven back many miles and the most important towns of Bailleul and Neuve Eglise have been recaptured and held there is yet hope that the pyramid reaching to Merville will yet be brought down. It is a particularly slender and acute salient and efforts to widen its base have not so far succeeded. Whether the Allies will pay much attention to it is questionable owing to the whole of the ground being a huge swamp, over which hard fighting would be difficult. No doubt utmost effort will be made to hold the Germans in this swamp to prevent linking up with the Messines fighting just to the northward. The last word from Sir Douglas Haig yesterday was that the British line was intact; that Neuve Eglise had been recaptured; that fighting was proceeding around Bailleul, which the British have retaken possession of, and that the enemy’s losses had been most severe. French official messages show that the enemy is being well held; that many small French counters have been made resulting in small hatches of German prisoners being brought in. Turning to correspondents it is quite clear from many captured documents that Germany has not reached her objectives, there is no doubt whatever about that despite the quitting ol the British Fifth Army general. We are told that Sunday’s news was much more reassuring; the British were holding brilliantly against concentrated fiery onslaughts. Northward of Armentieres the situation was critical but timely reinforcements were arriving then. The holding of Bailleul and Neuve Eglise were important factors in the situation, and the British are not letting go those factors of such importance for the safety of Dunkirk and Calais. The ground now held is an amphitheatred rounding from Wytschaete to Kemmel, Neuve Eglise, Fleurs and Berthou, as well as Bailleul, and the enemy is almost exclusively confined to low-lying country. One correspondent remarks upon the extreme celerity with which successive masses- of German troops are thrown forward, but the belief is expressed that the present enemy effort is near spent. Saturday’s and Sun. day’s fighting resulted in all German

attacks being repulsed, but no news equalled the importance of that which semi-officially informed us that . great masses of Allied reserves were still -intact and ready for use when the general command found occasion to’use them.