The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE TUESDAY, JUNE 18, 1918 A TRIUMPH FOR FOCH.

Taihape Daily Times, 18 June 1918, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

TUESDAY, JUNE 18, 1918 A TRIUMPH FOR FOCH.

(With which is Incorporated The fiAhape Port and News).

The great trial of strength between Hindenburg and Focb. on the road to Paris, is to all intents and purposes finished. Foch and hi* gallant Frenchmen have silenced the" two great Hun armies, the first under no less a personage than the future Kaise*. and the second under, the shock fighter, Von Hutier. Foch has fought his enemies to a standstill, and bas metaphorically erected a sign on tl»" way to Paris: "Hun trespassers not allowed on pain of death." We are informed that a moderate estimate cf German casualties sustained in knocking at the door of the French capital is 120,000. In the German parliament a member stood up and asserted that the West front was a charail-house for Germany's best manhood. The war had become a family question for the Hohenzollerns. The German public are disappointed that Rheims was unconquerable, and despite all the talk of German success, ever) General Maurice unhesitatingly declares that the West front position is better for the Allies than it was in May. Correspondents declare that Foch's victory is the result of brilliant generalship. Seek whatever authority one will, German, British, French or American, one realises that the German armies are in great troubh —at least temporarily. The British kunched a minor attack further north, at Bethune, on a two-mile front and gained all objectives, capturing the whole of the German positions and taking nearly two thousand prisoners. Members of the Reichstag are complaining about the excessive discipline in the battle ranks; that reserve officers are being forced into the firing line while regular officers are nursed behind the fighting front. The men brought from Russia have the taint of Bolshevism so strongly upon them that it is necessary for German officers to follow them up with revolvers and machine guns to keep them facing the brave men of France. With revolvers behind and Allied guns in front it would be strange if the West front was anything but a charr.e,-house for the flower of Germany's manhood. Th 9 Kaiser and his brigands have again demonstrated that they have no ability in making time-tables; documents captured on the American front clearly show that Paris was to be entered to-day, but there is less likelihood of Hun feet defiling Paris pavements today than there was last month. An intercepted order of FalkehhayS*s states: "The battles now being fought on the West front are critical and decisive. The Kaiser has ordered the High Command to take all measures to transport to France, within one week, the majority of German forces in White Russia, leaving only sufficient to maintain order." Gather evidence from where one will no doub'i can exist about the Germans being beaten at every point in their efforts to reach Paris,' and the amazing coolness and confidence of the Paris people is now becoming understandable. Further attacks must "comej It is pointed out that Germany must attack again at the earliest moment; German forces are daily weakening, while those of the Allies are daily strengthening. German newspapers are lamenting and commiserating over the fact that new peace offers are useless because the Allies refuse to listen to any German peace talk whatever, and they suggest that some secret organisation should try to reach an understanding. Germany knows that the unalterable peace terms of the Allies include the extermination of Prussianism from German life, and Germany must therefore go on with the business negotiations the Kaiser commenced in the autumn of 1914 till one side or the other is completely beaten. Then, another great onslaught may be expected shortly. Prince Rupprecht's army is said to be yet available, and that it will probably be given the task to capture Amiens, and renew the effort to seize the Channel ports. This ' means that British soldiers will be put to a similar test that the French have ' undergone. There is very little, how- | ever, to indicate where Hindenburg will strike next.. We have to leave the West front for the present knowing that Foch has attained his object and that Germany has not, therefore that Foch has gained a victory and Germany sustained a defeat.