The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1918. COMPARATIVE PEACE METHODS.

Taihape Daily Times, 19 October 1918, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1918. COMPARATIVE PEACE METHODS.

(With which is Incorporated The Xaihape Poet and Walnwm'jo News).

The Amsterdam “Courant” has aumitted that the report with which w startled the world cannot be confirmed. That journal does not, apparently, go the whole distance anti say that it has been made the tool for effective distribution of Hun fabrications which are intended to play a part in lowering the morale and effort of the brave fellows who have fought against them for ifour years. The effects of such propaganda are, however, invariably more disastrous to the defeated than they are to the victorious, hence we have German commanders blaming the peace reports for the surrender of their men on an extremely large seals and with the minimum of occasion and provocation, i* is difficult to realise in what way the reports that Germany had capitulated and the Kaiser abdicated could have been given a more deceptive garb of truth; the statement was without qualification and was accompanied by several corroborating items. It evidently deceived men in positions of authority in Britain, for they expressed the belief that it was trm», the newspaper that published it probably being the chief source of their credence. However, it is officially dubbed a Hun lie, one of millions for which Hundom has become worldwidely noted. The story was received in Taihape, as elsewhere, with mixed elation and anxiety, the latter quality strongly predominating, and few have expressed regrets that it Is nox true. In Britain a similar state pre-’ vails, nevertheless, the atmospheric is said to be tense with the feeling that fighting will shortly terminate with concurrent determination, both in France and Britain, that terms or peace shall be dictated by the Allies. A. peace without unconditional surrender is not wanted in New Zealand, nor In France and Britain. Cable-muddlers in Europe seem to have a fiendlsn penchant for cabling silly fairy tales; after the official denials of their lies of the pervious day they sent along another ludicrous story about peace. This fable states an armistice has been arranged, one of the chief conditions of which is, that fighting is to cease; that the Allies are to right-about-face and march ten miles to the rear; the Germans are to rightabout also and march twenty miles' towards Berlin. Of course it is , too silly for belief, but that is the quality of news the cableman at the despatching end thinks will meet the needs of New Zealand average intelligences. More truthful messages, which are supported by official confirmation, certainly do disclose that the Germans are going twenty miles, and more, towards Germany; in fact they are doing it in record military tim'd; they cannot get away fast enough. The Allies are following them up with difficulty, so fast is the pace the Germans are setting. In the southernmost departments of occupied territory in France we find the Germans going twice twenty miles, from Laon to Rethel, in just over two days, and they are still travelling strongly towards Berlin. Eastward of Bohain and He Gateau there is, if possible, greater anxiety to get away, and with the pace kept up a little longer the famous town of Sedan will be encountered, where Foch’s plans seem to provide for the reversal of a little military episode that took place between forty and fifty years ago. Still further north there is no abatement of German desire to go back the twenty miles mentioned in the fictitious armistice arrangements, as well as other twenty miles’ additional. The Allies are rapidly pressing eastward of Valenciennes towards Maubeuge and Mons, where the valleys of the Sambre and the Meuse present an easy and a fairly comfortable road to Liege. The enemy has tarried too long in tnc old historic town of Douai, and disaster seems imminent for his lagging troops. Well may the atmosphere be tense with the feeling that big events are at hand. The Germans in Belgium, right to the North Sea line, are no less feverishly complying with the terms of their fabricated armistice; Ostend, the erstwhile great menace to Britain, is already in British occupation from sea and land, and General Plumer is following up the fleeing Germans at something like review pace. Important strongholds are falling into his possession in rapid succession,. Dlxmude, Roulers, SThohrout, Couftrai, and the valley of the Lys is reached, which leads on to Ghent.

Great railways, of supply and of escape are being rapidly seized and rendered of no service ,to Germany. Zeebrugge is and: „ swiftly being evacuated; Bruges must fall with it into Allied hands, in fact the German retreat and Allied advance seems to have developed into a race with Liege as the'winning post.. While Germans are nervously getting,away in accordance with some imaginary peace arrangement, Foch is vigorously pushing a peace campaign of . his own making, which shows no intention of stopping at the enemy’s frontiers. So effective is this Allied peace drive that tne Hun is very nearly a stranger to French soil; the little he does occupy he is trying to get away from with an haste. Victories of great magnitude, supreme importance and of far-reacn-ing effect now attract but little attention, simply because the atmosphere is tense with the feeling that incalculably bigger events are at hanct.Foch has so deftly used his coping tool upon the Hun stone that its disintegration and destruction has become imminent. The Hohenzollerns may desire to continue resistance, but there is room to wonder what the whole German army will think and do when it realises that the stories about an armistice and peace having been arranged are nothing more than the most cruel deception. The Amsterdam “Courant” has had to admit that it has been deceived hy German lies into publishing a peace that had no foundation on fact, hut the time is not far distant when its pages may be filled with reports of a capitulation forced from Germany by the unrelenting sword arm of Foch; the atmosphere is already tense with the feeling that supremely sensational events are on the tapis.