The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1918 AMERICA IN FRANCE.

Taihape Daily Times, 11 September 1918, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1918 AMERICA IN FRANCE.

(With which is Incorporated The Tai hape Post and Walnrarlao News).

Far from settling down to the shelter of trenches, the men in the centre of the British Army, are out and away after the Huns who they are keeping on the run in the direction of Cambrai and Douai. They have extended their gains, notably, north of the Cambrai-Arras road; they are moving away that block of Germans whicn seemed too much disposed to take some risks rather than co-ordinate with their driven-back line some distance further south, and they are making it so uncomfortable for Mr. Hun that he has found it advisable to put his fire-sticks into the historical old town of Douai, in readiness for moving further along the valley of the Scarpe river, towards Valenciennes, where the Scarpe and the Scheldt, on which stands Cambrai, are only a few miles apart. Mr. Percival Phillips meant that the battle was over; that there was no real stand-to fighting, but that the Allies would go on exploiting their success, and instead of skulking in trenches they are contiml- ! ing to exploit their, successes to a very disastrous extreme for the Germans, 1 who indicate the order of *their going by firing Douai and villages in the neighbourhood. So persistent is the rapid forward movement of the Allies | that it seems the whole of the talk I about a Hindenburg line is shortly to be shown up as nothing more than mere clap-trap, and that the whole boasted invulnerable line of Lens-Douai-St. Quentin-Laon is, simultaneously, going to crumple up. The advance towards these fortified Hun distributing centres, has been truly sensational, Allied armies are at the door of everyone of them. We venture tc predict that the fall, almost at one swoop, of these centres of man-power concentration, main, stores of guns and munitions, centres from which the whole German line in France is fed and supplied, is going to so demoralise the enemy, and break up his main communications that he will be forced to take a long march to the rear. While that trek is in progress Avill fall the great blow that M. Clemenceau told us yesterday the American reserves had made possible. That great natural fortress, the Gobalu Plateau, with its protecting front, is flanked and had the sting of its menace to the capture of Laon effectively drawn. Laon’s main communications are cut, and only the most startling of miracles can now save it; it must fall. St. Quentin is rapidly being flanked; its main connection with Cambrai is severed ad under Allied fire, and if the enemy makes the slightest miscalculation he will be surprised to find his road from Cambrai trouble to Valenciennes safety cut and under domination of British guns. There is now no question about the early fall of the great lino that the Hindenburg fortifications were intended to render abso-' lutely invulnerable, and even unassailable. Where are the million and a-half of Americans? General March said, yesterday, that the situation on the Western front was highly satisfactory; the Hindenburg line was not troubling the 'Allies: that the Americans hitherto brigaded with the British and French had been withdrawn, and only one American division was now taking part in the fighting. What is General Pershing doing with his million and a-half of super-equipped, enthusiastic Gladiators? What are all the great executive members of the United Stafes Government drifting to France for? Secretary .Lansing, War Secretary Baker, and others are already there, and President Wilson himself is due there in October—probably before. A United States army, such as was never before marshalled, is about to strike a blow for freedom .and liberty of a force and magnitude such as

there has hitherto been no. occasion _ for in tne history of the wdrm; lean-, crs of the* great democracy, ejected lO govern by one hundred millions of their fellows, are going to give final words of encouragement, ana they are going to stand by while an army of free-men strike, as only men in enjoyment of fullest freedom can strike to maintain the freedom that is their birthright, secured by the sacrifice Oj. American blood in America’s very first war. The time is drayving near when the attacks that the American reserves have made possible will be launched, and President Wilson, and members of his Government are going to see the American legions march out with fixed determination .to return only when they can bring back a record of victories that means fullest freedom for Belgium, Servia, Rumania, Poland, and all small nations, to rule themselves, and to work out their own future and destiny; they will only return when they have so crushingly defeated Germany as to render military rule to stink in the nostrils of those nations which Germany has compelled to align up in an effort to enslave the world; they will only come back when they have achieved purer conditions in which the whole world •can breathe freely. Or, what is this colossal American army preparing for? What are the chief members of the American Government, including the American President, meeting in France for at this particular time? This army is about to launch on a mission of extreme vital moment, about that there can be no doubt, and in the meantime General March considerately tells us that everything on the West front is developing highly satisfactorily. He means that the French and British are readying up the position with admirable success, throwing wide open the door that leads to final, decisive and complete victory We cannot conceive that President Wilson and General Per-, shing, working on plans furnished by the great Frenchman, Foch, have anything less in view. There will be such a gathering of Americans in France during the coming eight or ten weeks that may never have its parallel again. We; can o,nly await the attacks the great American reserves have made possible, and hope that tFoch’s plans wall prove successful to the last rifle shot.