MASTERLY STRATEGY.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 August 1917, Page 5

MASTERLY STRATEGY.

• 'PRESSURE ON GERMANS. . STEADY EXHAUSTION W MILITARY POWER. (Wellington Times Special Correspondent)'. 'London, June 7. London received curious evidence that the campaign on the Western front has entered upon a new phase, and that the tendency of the Ughjting wfta to creep northward. During tie quiet 4wurs of the night it has been possible this week on the commons and apex! spaces of the metropolis to hear the reverberations of the bombardment proceeding in tie !Wy-t----schjwte salient and its neighboring'ssetor*. Previously Box Hill was the near.o»t> point to London at which the noise <4 guns had been reported. But that was during the bombardnnait which culminated in the capture of Vimy ridge, and the atmospjierio conditions were not so favorable #9 they Ibave been during the last few days for the transmis-' sion qf sound oV«r great diatanow.

It is on record that tihe noise of th« guns at the battle of Waterloo wi heard by slaps down tie Channel a. hundred miles away. Yp*ee is, roughly, a hundred and fifty miles from fipndqn, and there is nothing really surprising, therefore, that London should hear the occasional rumbling of a cannonade which has been actually rattling the windows of houses ijiMargateand fUrasgate. The fact that you can Park in the easily hows of "ft© morning and listen t» the thudding of the cannon seems, however, to bring the centre of the Empire v«ry near to the frings of the war. It appeal to th« anamination far wore powerfully than do the occasional aerial raids 'wihioh have darkened our streaks and taken their toll of the lives of our citiaen*. You gel; the same impression of dose vicinity to the fighting wheu you ses the ambulances pouring out of the railway stations bearing away to the hospitals some of the human wreaka®# of the war. You got it wore powerfully still in those far-off <Ja"v« when the German# overran Belgium and Northern lfraiwe, aud streams of wtogws, wild-wed, and looking as though they walked in & trance, sought ty in England, aud put tho British X«¥y between ttiam and their enemy. 'lV** proc««fen» of. r«fwg®Mj currying V» la* fiijaifi little buudta of

household, good* thtra tad J the'mesiw^offooi*^^ in that terrible autnmTHE AXJJBD '■JMWS3S.'* • J knd now we nay hope-the- «?i ceding. If all goes well it striwfljl icdi V P be long before we succeed in uggpretf I ing a part at least of the Brigia* boCL Tile Kaiser has been asserting tk Jwfr-- <'•>s terical terms that the British oftuuiW 1 4 east of Arras has ended and has to achieve its military objective, H baW 4 done neither the «ne not. the o£bfe& ff •% would no doubt suit 13w Genua®* V&> mirably if Sir Douglas Haig would colyi $ strike his Mows exactly at' the pptnii ; where the Germans are ready f<sf Hsi tJI and expect on assault, But Sir DeaglasS <-*' Haig is working on a plan, the ftwfrilil , 1 $ of which were settled weeks and Trip* l "' . jj. ago, and whose general characteritH ' dieated early in the year in Ma '*"£ interview with the (FrenA jonnplMaii - J The Kaiser gave von Hindenftorg ta Ms ' \ authority for the statement .tiwl offensive on the 'Arras front kg *ii - J but one may venture :r. the old German Ti 11 TiTii i illnl bi«|Aii<[' ; s care to experience very mmjty ';H •'failures" of the tjame Mml, t The %hting lihe"*lasi 'itvty&j/Wik -! lu» eat«B into the «amrtf ¥#e3w TO 1 tl aiKXtenj. whisti may yet -J fame? on s>» future wowo V: Already it tea tonight to lnrngti *n9 M ifea that may have been eatertaiwi a ■% Berlin'of a great oSwsive-ogaiasi Ban ,-w ,«r Susaift. Moreover, it ha» &IteMlt: th| «jj entire position of tba cppoetßg qttniM .$ in the Western theatre At fie fwM M ■ninff of the year the Gmvmra Qana!' r, pugtuis, along the iacM, » %§no| V| ■sad even on the Anas tamt, tad Mb ® advantage of position. They tame '; J, advantage ho longer, and raWng Imi 'M -weefojese they JJO W.« '' ' J mwnUin in wS teak«i a gm ms* of infJtatry prepared fct «Sf Qi r y ment to rend a «&an lwpok (bnm| - ' J the Allies. Von mffVUt off divisions from th<j Russian ftvot, mj' > ; ! J hw Uno in the West lnta been, so ened by the Allied attacks timit only be now by « tration of troops aftmgti* enSrvlPOig. ;m frwn Anas to •S«i-iCSii*apagne s GHRJSAN mim .."a This aspect of the mtbatifiri. «9iaatel /-M by the masterly: stm%y the Jgifar&nti - /|| pursued, has not hitherto received, gerj t haps, all the attention it deserves. Germans have claimed victories vHmh '«\j they actually suataiaed <MeAta, be^raeS, 'M they asaiuned, or affected tp ' that the Allied pirpoee ww ft) «fte£ 1 '.*U| ideas hmi through, The»9 break through, but the m, er occupy po.sitkwa oi «uch enozsKW strength thaf they caa : %« bold up any determined 3PrenA or ißcw 'H tlsh thrust such time, at "Al lug concenti'ation con lie effected fepebam il the advance alid psweni ttet through of iwhich the CtecsWHß nert stand in such obvious dr«Q& 7 . Every exteußioa «f the! ftgfcftiig tends, therefoi'e, to inexdaae v«a BiiV jtm denburg's embarragsmente. So long H the Vimy Ridge }ield ton, and tbe tb» of defences along the Aisne nMIBM intact, the German Higher could regard these seetom as safe, ana *elt under no ooapidalni iramoliilise huge forces for tMr 4etoai4 'j=l The position now is very cßEEemit, 'k tlcally »Jl tie way from Lena to CfessM "v t J| pagne the Allied armies are tip tflwhwi w'hat has come to bp known w tlse Blul".. jj deubiirg line, and so far as w&aj»fßWWl*'.|g tliia is the last serious tion which confronts us aythw; te| tween the ground Wo now the lino of the Mease. "'^al Even though, nUfW-'M a temporary wwwsteo tit acCMtgr fej \M these areas, you aiaiuWrt '■¥& in regard to them are ve» Itr toafeu ing ended. The difchtrag »*y 'Vttaoi aorthward, but whilst wb attention dioutel frop&ty be i-M ed wtirely on euch new. prints <3 w' v| tack as may "be seleeted, Juj ways fe casting aarions ways at tie old! sectors les have heem driven beck on their wfll'Mi line of defease and new oocmiy posffiioni fM afordiog nothing like sie strength of the cJd *| they ftftv® been Jfflwed. |,\| TJIE KLY IN TOB 'iflOPR.' J \ 3 (But though the gstem (dßWlte S:-S the We»6 is ae salisiadnar SM ,]k Any itason to expect. saA tin opem<4. taoina (*f libe test eigfet- wMIMV swaif. J ly weakened the enmnr. the &Bk» ptenf "'"*"4 have/ amiss in one -fl through ciicumstaneos over iw nm 'hff ther Sir Douglas Ocfejg nor QmtralW' voire nor General Petein had any ««H '$ troi We have forced <4» Otermans te| (I use up their reserves to a greater tent even than we hoped- We qivptured nearly seveaty oners, with nearly 056 guns cod 120 i machine-guns. Tlm Germans, nK*eowri 4 have lost over. air nacbiqnP) exceed.? by 25 or 30 per cent. ' of tie 'Allies—a splendid reeuit -when IAJ U remembered that aerial l has bejen far more necessary 1 to us Giant .''"'fj to the enemy, and lias outf fai- more eonsfetently. . Germany, however, haa teen able td^ 1 • auitain ail th.ese referees without snf4 'a fering anything in the nature of an nb J ■ solute military disaster, becaoMP alj© !■ | bean aWe to reinforce the W#a*inmi tW ' V C| East. *fte position in this wgwd lh»» '-ij ieen summed up vy Major Moraht, W'-ftf. ■most able of the <&rman ailitwy-wdfc--''il ei's. "No danger," ho told hi» rasderf -.g two or three weeks ago, "any Wigif threatens the Central «>\yer# fr«n tk* Jpast, and'we «iha tt»s» Mb JpJSfc 1 * I! , tary and political of tU* -;,,| fact." iritis represents at pmmt iwthg' ang moral than .tbe Dimple truth; TfajH /.J (illied plans in the West, arranjpd, 0 r - s § U hardly necessary to say, ■ft»o, were closely co-ordinated witbi wal Oadrona's plan 3 on-tiie SfeiH«i'fr(inti , l J| and with the Rtwsian plans from tlx ° "J sea to the Carpathians. The Bjagsurlj* c ,_as (fehslve, whi«h nad been planned to "ii ture on a certain date, necessarily etui-' "?M not materialise at least until later IrtvOiai "jiear. Germany has Wt it safe, fore, to denude the 'Eastern theatre troops to an ostent she w«ld have dared to venture but for the tainty, as Major Jtfor&ht says, that nfl Jfl danger threaten* from <3iat quartet «# , jS present. It seems to be a fact that , M more than a hundred CermM and 4kw< ,«s tro-Tlungarian divisions still staNt 1® front of the Russian armies. But tjkew are divisions and divlskaa. ThOJW i". ;',h the East consist in the main of XtMoA" turm or withdrawn fromi furnace in t.ie East to roflt and nii after being badly out abwt i» Sjs cf tho Allied offensive. If all tad work- : c 'fi ed smoothly, and Russia had seea' «)il«.. in the to eo-operate witii the -. .J liVenolv Italians and British itt West, there wa» t reasonable at least, that we should be to 8&{k« etas Germany to lwr hu«M> An things a*tf. aimo»6 tSie entire burden of the.war is- ;A| fallixig at present on the WwM*", Allies, -,S and this may involve a {wsty^pptas oi flw