THE WESTERN OFFENSIVE.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 February 1918, Page 4

THE WESTERN OFFENSIVE.

A recent cable' stated that military authorities suggest that the Allies may anticipate the German drive on the West front by a great Allied offensive. Discussing the possibilities of the Western front, the war correspondent of an American paper, cabling on Boxing Day, said:—A culminating Austro-Genr.an offensive on the Franco-British front is a matter of general expectation here now. Warnings of it have .been published in the Press for the last few days. Premier Clemenceau has adopted ihe wise policy of trusting the people in regard to coming perils, and prefers that they should face the future with their eye's open rather than have a great offensive sprung upon them suddenly. From a military viewpoint signs are not minting that the Germans are preparing a stroke which they hope to he decisive. Along the British front, in Champagne, and especially around Verdun, and farther cast, the German guns are thundering loudly, jhiH German raids are of almost nightly occurrence. The question every one is asking here, a question which even drowns out the discussion ox Caillaux's mysterious past, is, on what part of the western front will ths Wow fall? That it will fall no one ventures to doubt, buf where and when remain the points of interrogation, Marcel Hutin, military critic of the Echo d» Paris, disfM« : ng the subject of a German offensive, writes:— Apart from the active cannonade north of Verdun there is nothing to indicate, the intentions of the enemy on our front. But one certain, which I know from excellent channels of information, and that is that unremitting laibor for the last six months has l lean expended on our whole front from the°Yscr to Alsace so as to meet an enemy offensive wherever it may occur. The Bolshevik negotiations for a separate peace bring flo new element into the Allied military situation in comparison with the way we looked at it a few months ago in full confidence of handling it victoriously, while awaiting the decisive aid of America. In my opinion. Germany and Austria will think twice before' throwing their available forces into an offensive on the French and British fronts, while continuing to attack Italy. As for the locality, the Germans might be expected geographically and above all, railroad conditions point somewhere east of Argonns, where the Germans can most easily tfraw men and supplies from Motz and Strafiburg. Possibly Verdun itself may lie once more the scene of a gigantic struggle.