The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, MAY 29, 1918. REVIVAL OF GERMAN OFFENSIVE.

Taranaki Daily News, 29 May 1918, Page 4

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, MAY 29, 1918. REVIVAL OF GERMAN OFFENSIVE.

Once more the German hosts have been assembled with the object of delivering a crushing blow on the Angle-French forces. It may be that they are buoyed up by the hope that the third try will succeed. At any rate, there is 110 doubt they will strive to the utmost to gain their objectives. Apparently, they are attacking at two points, one of which is supposed to threaten Paris, but it is far more probable that the Channel ports are still the goal to which their real efforts will be directed. The only reason for considering that a part of the renewed operations has Paris for its objective is the dangerous salient between Arras and Rheims, the Germans holding the inner, and therefore the much .shorter, line, while the Allies would hasve to bring their reinforcements right round the salient, provided they had made no preparations to hold considerable reserves at the danger points. It may, however, be reasonably assumed that they are quite alive to the necessities of the case. The first German offensive indicated their desperate gamble for victory before America's aid developed into a determining factor. It was plainly evident that a successful Allied defence depended on a sufficiency of reserves of the right stamp, and it was upon Britain that tha -main mpoiuabiUty for provid-

ing those reserves fell. In this as in any other great crisis the people of the Motherland found themselves again, the emergency leading to the best moral uprising since the beginning of the war. The spirit of 1914 took on greater strength; Labor nobly responded to the appeal to work through the holidays; strikes ceased; women realised that the call on them was as great, if not greater, than the call on the men, to hold the breach for civilisation until America was ready; thSre was a resurgence of the national soul. We know that the losses in war material were not only made good, but the supplies were much increased. We also know that very large numbers of reinforcements have been sent across f ; >" Channel. Naturally the total has s: . _>n disclosed, but we may rest assured that the Britiali Premier and the War Board have acted with due regard to the gravity of the military crisis. The Allied forces on the West front are now facing the supreme test of the war, and facing it with absolute confidence that is supplemented by intense loathing for the barbaric enemy's latest outrage in bombing the hospital, where wounded comrades were killed by shock or injuries resulting from the wilful ignoring of the Red Cross. In the first rush of this present offensive the enemy has pressed back the Allies to their second position, but this was expected, it being the custom to hold the front line lightly, and then to contest every incli of the way, making the enemy pay a heavy price, and this is what is happening. Both the French and the British know they are up against a tougli proposition. There are bound to be fluctuations in the struggle, positions lost and regained. Already the French have had this experience, and it will doubtless be repeated. But that the enemy will be held may be taken as a sure article of faith. The two great points are holding the enemy and inflicting the utmost possible losses, and we may look for both these to be carried out. The position of an offensive of this kind does not lend

itself to definite analysis, for changes are constant; but attention will be keenly concentrated on every event connected with the struggle, the issue of which is pregnant with vital consequences.