OFFENSIVE STILL GOING STRONGLY.

Taihape Daily Times, 28 August 1918, Page 4

OFFENSIVE STILL GOING STRONGLY.

German newspapers are preparing the people of Germany for the evacuation of France/and a retirement t\ the Rhine. We suggested the possibility of some such a disaster to German arms in yesterday’s issue, but we were ont quite prepared to learn that leading newspapers in Germany were in line with the Taihape Daily Times on this subject. Every hour of the day brings us further corroboration of the desperate plight the German armies are in, and now German newspapers aver that a retirement to the Rhine may be necessary. Some correspondents are striking notes of warning that we' may soon expect the dishevelled and disrupted Germans to establish a linb which will bar Foch’s great enterprise,-' and bring it to an end, but Poch himself says, “W r e shall continue,” he did not say may- continue; the futune is positive, definite—we shall continue. With the continuation which Foch promises, how is it possible for Germany to get the time to prepare winter quarters that would furnish safety and satisfaction for troops? German newspapers recognise the difficulty, and while they no doubt hope for a line at the Meuse on which to spend the -winter, they realise that they may be forced to fall back on the Rhine. Very much fighting has yet to be done to make the present line satisfactory for the Allies or the enemy, and seeing that Foch rs continuing the formation of salients from which the Germans must go, the end of his offensives is yet a long way off. That well-informed journal, the “New York Times,” has something helpful to say; its Washington correspondent tells us how elated military circles are with the Allied success, and, which is more important, he says, “a big drive by the American army is expected in the southern sectors o t the West front.” We are informed that General Pershing is getting his new army into fighting condition, but at latest advices he was not quite ready. Altogether, the evidence points to General Foch’s determination to continue the offensive- to an extreme that is calculated to spell defeat and disaster to German arms and aims.