The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE MONDAY, APRIL 22, 1918. AMERICAN OPTIMISM.

Taihape Daily Times, 22 April 1918, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

MONDAY, APRIL 22, 1918. AMERICAN OPTIMISM.

(With which is Incorporated The F *i hape Post and Vra:iwai2*i« News).

About a week ago the United States Secretary for Wa,r, Mr. Baker, left France where he had been getting first hand information of what was happening on the Western front. Hevisited every part of the line from Alsace to the North Sea, saw the Allied dispositions and reserves; he conferred with the various Commanders and with the learned the approximate strength of the enemy, and the plans oui generals have evolved for dealing with it. In fact he went back to America with all there was to know about the whole war situation, and he is enthusiastic and optimistic. Before he went to Franco he could only form opinions on much the same informations we have to base ours upon. That information was not satisfying and ho went to the seat of war and saw and learned the real situation for himself. Is it not possible that if everyone of our readers went to France, as Mr. Baker did, and were given similar opportunities for gathering information that they would come back to New;. Zca- ■ land, as Mr. Baker went back to America, enthusiastically optimistic? General Foch has the reserves that he is represented to have; it is these reserves that Hindcnburg is trying to force Foch to put into the line to save a little territory which is not a factor In winning the war. Mr. Baker has learned and is convinced that these reserves and not the ground given, are a prime and vital factor in securing final victory and he has gone home optimistic —so optimistic that he cannot help diffusing it over all America. It has leaked out that America has half-a-million men at the front, and it is said that by the summer —say June —she will have a million and a, half, with artillery, aeroplanes and all .he munitions and war implements, in . addition to her own hospitals, doctors and nurses, stretcher-bearers and all means for transport. There is nothing that America will want from the Allies

L .i rue room to get at the enemy that i.as destroyed the peace of the world. From what Mr. Baker has seen ho is of opinion the maximum strength of American army should not be more than three million, and he is so confident of the future that he unqualifiedly tells his people that the American flag will be “flying in Berlin.” When we are inclined to lose hope or feel pessimistic Mr. Baker’s experience's should bo called to mind. If they dp nothing further than make us wonder what he saw and what he learned to make him optimistic, they must ... at least conflict with what is in our minds that is the cause of our pessimisnq There are without doubt good grounds to hope for better news. The mightiest armies that Hindenburg could throw against the Allies had to be held by the smallest number possible of Foch’s men, who were to retire when necessary, but do everything to prolong the period when maximum slaughter of Germans could be keptup. When opposing forces are so numerically favourable, when the whole of the German divisions have passed through that process which is officially allowed to have destroyed one half of them, when they find they are not able to break the Allied line, when they are disheartened, dispirited, tired, halffed, surroundered with the dead bodies of their erstwhile comrades, then Foch will retire the men who have stood the brunt of Hindenburg’s masses of picked stormed troops, and will throw in his untouched, fresh, eager, flower of the French Army, together with British, Americans and Italians. Secretary Baker has optimistic confidence after learning all there is to know —the worst as well as the best—why should we have any misgivings about final results? America had decided upon an army of five millions, but Mr. Baker is satisfied that three millions will be ample to cope with the worst that can happen. Hindenburg will yet make another, and perhaps another, onslaught, and he may get a little more ground, but Foch is going to take his pound of flesh for every atom of ground. It is flesh and blood that must be conserved, and while- Foch is doing that to the greatest possible extreme he is winning the war. Secretary for War Baker knows all about that and he is confident and optimistie_ Mr. Baker also incidentally indicates that the German final effort to gala victory is now being made. He says America does not need to bother about raising an army of more than three millions, but it must be done quickly. Speed is the desideratum; men must be got to France at the earliest possible moment to take part in the trip to Berlin. He does not say it in those exact words but they arc a justifiable parnp 7 rasing of what he

has said. Therefore, there is some

cause for real hope thatj the war will terminate in 1918. Baker means that Germany must be given no time to organise armies in territories that are being annexed.