BY CHRISTMAS.

Taihape Daily Times, 14 October 1918, Page 3

BY CHRISTMAS.

HUNS MAY BE OUT OP FRANCE. GEN. MONASH’S HOPEFUL VIEW. LONDON, Oct 1. General Monash, in an interview, said: “We are a. long way from the end, but the Hun is beaten. It is not inconceivable, if the weather is favourable, that the enemy will be pushed out of France by Christmas. ... | do not say the same of Belgium.”— Keith Murdoch.

Mr. Edward Price Bell, a noted American writer, and the London representative of the “Chicago Daily News** has supplied a striking impressionist sketch of the fighting qualities of the Australians. He paid a recent visit to the front and motored over the battlefields with General Monash, whose character and'unconventional manner are intimately pencilled into the picture.

“Doubtless/ ’he said, “the German High Command, before making the acquaintance of, General Monash in battle, regarded him with ineffable contempt. Just now they are frantically busy trying to prevent him taking a slice from the Hindenburg line. General Monash, like all good generals is pre-eminently postiive. The whole quality and attitude of his mind shows confidence to succeed in any task. His military inspiration is for pertinacious offensive. “Hence the Australians in France have been fighting almost without respite for six months, and they have wrested from the Huns over 100 villages and 200 square miles of French territory. You can motor rapidly for two hours due east of Amiens ar~ not reach the limits of the Australian captures since April.” Mr. Price Bell then related a statement made to him by the Australian commander;— “Our success,” said General Monash, “has been due largely to the devotion and the skill of the junior ofncers. Of these 95 per cent, are from the ranks. We have a democratic army. We were told that our wholesale promotions would deprive us of the officer caste, and that it would be a bad thing. We have found the exrr contrary true, and the system has been successful in every particular. “By opening the way to ambition It has stimulated ambition, and we have reaped the advantages of the enterprise of the best men. Many of the junior officers have proved dazzling successes, as the honours they have won prove. At present there is only one brigadier in the whole army whose regular profession is soldiering, - : ''W***-v.r-

“We have heard a good deal 02? scepticism concerning the disciplines of the Australians. Some thought'that there was excesive freedom in the army—too much of the spirit of civil life, and too little of machine like character. Now, see those men out there” (General Mor,ash pointed to straggling groups in a field near the roadside), “they are not saluting ms. Their general is passing, but they carry on. “We don’t make too much of these symbols of discipline,” General Monash continued. “What we want is not the signs of discipline, but discipline itself.

“The one supreme and final test Or discipline is that every man at the appointed time and place should be resolutely ready to do his job. The 'Australian Army passes this test, 100 per cent clean.

“We have cohesion and team work, but Avithin proper range we release every individual’s intelligence and »n----iniative. There is no evidence that soldiers marshalled under an autocracy can hhast of any superiority over a citizen army, but there is abundant evidence to the contrary.” Mr. Price Bell said that General Monash and his staff are full of admiration, which is amply warranted, for the Australians’ work in re-hridg-ing the Somme Canal and the succession of swamps beyond with incredible swiftness. They threw pontoons over the deeper water, and constructed a wide bridge, conveying guns and lorries of great Aveight, and the Avork was completed in 48 hours, while tno men Avere under continuous fire.

Questioned concerning the German moral General Monash said:— “We are a long way from the end, but the Hun is beaten. It is not Inconceivable, if the weather i<? favourable, that the enemy will be pushed out of France by Christmas. Of course, I don’t say the same of Belgium.”

“Well,” Mr. Price Bell put In, “you don’t regard the Hindenburg line as too formidable?’ 7

“No,” General Monash said, “It will be taken in due course.”