ON THE WESTERN FRONT.

Taihape Daily Times, 14 May 1918, Page 6

ON THE WESTERN FRONT.

CRISIS YET TO COME. ANXIOUS WEEKS AHEAD. HINDENBURG ’S FALSE HOPES LONDON, April 29. A Pans message states that a French correspondent interviewed a prominent Spanish statesman who has returned from Germany. The statesman gives an interesting view of the effect the offensive has on Germany. He states that military leaders anticipated endrmous .sacrficeat, but promised that the massed attacks would early crush the British and French. Hindenburg expected to take Amiens and sever the British and French, or at least to bombard Paris from 25 miles. It is believed that the destruction of Paris w’ould finish the war. The statesman fixes the middle of May as the time of the severest crisis, adding that the German public view is steadily turning against the official view, of which the Kaiser still dies not approve.

Router’s correspondent at French headquarters says: The enemy so far has engaged 140 divisions, or nearly 2,000,000 men He has beside, in Franco, fresh divisions which can still be brought into the fight, and also reserves in the depots in Franco and Germany .Therefore it must be assumed that he can reconstitute his exhausted divisions rapidly. What he cannot do is to refill the depleted units with officers and men of the same quality and degrees of training. Months of intensive battle must be reckoned with before the enemy is reduced to a pitch of exhaustion. We have several perilous weeks before us, but we have every reason to await the issue calmly’. The battle as it progresses presents analogies to that of Verdun, which is of the best augury for the future. The Germans’ present objectives are Picardy and Flanders, and if they are attained they will probably serve as a departure line for the final great effort As their striking power was exhausted on the Meuse in 1916, so will it bo in 1918 on the Somme, the Avro, and the Lys.