The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1918. THE WAR AND PEACE.

Taihape Daily Times, 12 October 1918, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1918. THE WAR AND PEACE.

(With which is Incorporated The Taihape Post and WaltmuJio News).

Prussian Militarists have fished for peace and have caught a scorpion. President Wilson has sent the 'Allied reply which may in fact, as well as etymologically, be reduced to the two words, unconditional surrender. The people of Germany are voicing their willingness to accept any terms so that they may be saved from entire destruction; they prefer to shoulder the burden of their folly as it stands to-day rather than as it will stand tomorrow, hut the military party, it is said, are not sincere in their peace efforts. Notwithstanding this, However, ft is semi-ofhcially reported from Berlin that efforts are to be continued. Maybe the supermen have determined upon a Dutch auction; they are asking the top price first and working down, rather than accepting the lowest bid of unconditional surrender ania trying to work upwards. The overwhelming evidences are that in no Allied country _ will anything less than unconditional surrender be accepted, and neither soldiers nor civilians are satisfied with unconditional surrender that does not permit of the war being carried on to German territory. Foch is delivering his own reply in three plaecs, the first, east of Cambfai and St. Quentin, the second, in the Champagne, in the neighbourhood of the Aisne River, and the third is east of the River Meuse, north of Vefoun. Some sixteen thousand men and officers have accepted Foch's terms and have been marched into~prison cages; as many more have been killed anc wounded in the delivery of the message. In fact, Germany has be"en so badly worsted in the military argument that her war lords may do anything, and anything may happen at

any time. Unless news of definite results is received to-day we are left

at another week-end on the tiptoe or expectation. The progress of Foch's scheme for driving the enemy from east of St. Quentin across those in the Champagne and converting them into a chaotic retreating mob to 135 cut off from escape to Germany by the Franco-American concentrations nortn of Verdun, is proceeding most surely and satisfactorily. The military faitn of Germany has been disastrously abnormal; it was 'believed that no force on earth could move the defence of Laon and the Gobain massif, but this is only one more case of misplaced confidence by the men of culture. We are convinced that Foch will be mucn disappoited if this very German army, that set out to separate his armies and smash a way through to Paris, does not fall into his hands a discredited, defenceless mob. A little further north there are a quarter of a million of Germans scuttling away, retreating at the rate of fifteen miles in two days, proving a statement we made yesterday that miles on open country would be as yards in prepared defence lines. This huge force la be'ing driven towards the valley of the Meuse from Fourmies to Maubeuge; indeed, it is not improbable that the enemy may be intent upon reaching the Meuse as rapidly as possible so that it may be crossed in safety and then used as a line of defence, while a manageable retreat from Northern France and Belgium is effected by the Liege route. So well is the Allied cause progressing on the West front that even the most inveterate pessimists and pro-Germans are publicly admitting that the war may end this year. Bulgaria has laid down her arms fully in accordance with the terms of surrender, and it is said that Turkey has already despatched an appeal for peace through Spanish intermediaries. In any case it is apparent that, with all avenues to food supplies cut off, even Austro-Hungary must soon capitulate without conditions. It is reported that the advance of the victorious Allies in Serbia is to puted at a line of the Save, which Is the frontier between Austria and Servia, and with this in view Mackensen has made his headquarters :at . Belgrade, the capital of Servia, close to the frontier. Mackensen is supposes to have a quarter of a million of mixed troops under his command, but there is no present visible need to regard his opposition to the Allied advancc into Hungary as very serious. The ebullient enthusiasm of Serbs, French, Greeks, British and Italians in that theatre Of war speaks volumes for the future triumph Of Allied arms. Whether peace time is reached this year or not there are certainly most excellent reasons why we should hope for the best.-