The Daily News. FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 1916. THE ENEMY WEAKENING.

Taranaki Daily News, 31 March 1916, Page 4

The Daily News. FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 1916. THE ENEMY WEAKENING.

Tlie resumption of the German assault on Verdun on Wednesday, after a week's suspension of activities, was marked not only by redoubled violence, but by sueli an increased useless slaughter of her troops that about one-fourth of her effectives were left on the field cither dead or wounded. According to the account given in this morning's cable news, the Germans endeavored to conceal their designs by deluging the entire Verdun front with shell-fire for six days, and then delivered what they hoped would be a smashing blow on a front, at Malancourt, hardly a kilometre in extent. Once again massed divisions were hurled against the French, and this time it was across ground that had been ploughed up with shell-fire. Relying on the weight of numbers the Germans, apparently, made light of their task and leapt forward to overcome the enemy; but they reckoned without the French infantry and light artillery, which mowed the assaulters down in heaps* their line being again and again broken. So heavy were their losee9 that the German commanders recognised the futility of the attacks and returned, sadder but wiser men. It is considered that these spasmodic onrushes show that the enemy is weakening, either from lack of will or means. Not contented with repulsing the enemy, the heroes of Verdun assaulted the strong Avoncourt redoubt, the central point of the most recent attack, thereby indicating their supreme confidence in their strength and a conviction of the enemy's weakness. So far the Germans desperate and futile activities at this sector have only afforded them the satisfaction of partially demolishing and getting fire to the town of Verdun. But at what a terrible cost in lives and munitions! The only success of which they can boast is incendiarism. In all else there is defeat. Meanwhile the Russian successes in the Baltic provinces have necessitated the despatch of practically all the Landsturm troops in Belgium to assist in stemming the Russian advance, while the position of the Germans in the vicinity of Salonika is, to say the least, precarious. It cannot be anything hut humiliating to the high German military authorities to be subjected to a continuous string of defeats, accentuated as they h.ave been by enormous losses. There is only one conclusion that can be drawn from the complete failure of the Germans to attain their object, namely, that the French have grown in s trengtli while the Germans are weakening; moreover, they no longer possess the advantage of munitions and guns that enabled them to score initial successes. The tables are now turned, and the Allies have the game at their feet. What is of even greater importance, the Allies are thoroughly united in their policy and object. If the version given by the Italian journal Stampa is correct, the recent Allied war conference agreed that Geroust got hj? jdlflged tiiaJgriUty

o! accumulating forces against a single ally, any attempt in that direction being met with vigorous combined action. Tli is is decidedly an excellent determination, and it should have due effect on the Western commanders, while it cannot fail to impress the enemy with the fact that the Allies are cohesive, so that they may be relied upon to concentrate at any point threatened by German forces. j