The Daily News. TUESDAY, JUNE 4, 1918. THE HARDEST HOUR.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 June 1918, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, JUNE 4, 1918. THE HARDEST HOUR.

_ British nation works best and fights best on truth, and it is the truth about the events of the present crisis that the nation should know. That it has not been fully taken into the Government's confidence is shown by yesterday's cables, wherein it is stated that the censor has been at work in excising material facts from the writings of war correspondents and critics, making them appear more optimistic than was intended, and thereby misleading the public. The British authorities, right from the retreat from Mons, have kept the public in ignorance of the true course of the war, with the result that the nation under-estimated the strength of the enemy, and is only just realising the formidable nature of the task ahead of it. How they could have so misread the nature of the people, whose history is such a sure and open guide, is beyond comprehension. The moral to the material is as two to one, said a celebrated authority, and the truth of the epigram has been demonstrated again and again during the past four years. Today is the crisis of the nation's fate. That fact cannot now be obscured by the censor's excisions. Germany is staking all its available resources in men and guns and munitions upon one final conflict in Prance. The prize sought is the dominion of the world. The fate of the world depends upon the deeds of the Allied soldiers in Prance. They stand between free civilisation and the enslavement of the world to a military empire unmatched in organised might, wide suzerainty, and formidable position since ancient Rome. At no previous period of the war did Britain stand exactly towards Germany as she stood towards Napoleon in those most trying years that came midway between Trafalgar and Waterloo. There is, and will be, as much at stake for human freedom, and especially for the destinies of "Western civilisation, as at any time in the last two thousand years. Let no one be deceived. The Germans are staking everything on the issue of the present gigantic conflict. They r 0 »8 confident as they.

are arrogant. This is proved by the Kaiser's flamboyant and blasphemous telegrams to the Kaiserin, the added peace claims of the pan-Germans, and the boastful nature of their official communiques. But, from the signing of the Brest-Litovsk treaty, there has been no doubt of the attitude of the Germans. Then they showed their hand and made their bid, not only for the conquest of Russia, but for a complete ascendancy over the Allied nations. They believe they can crush the armies in the West before America can render material aid. To that end they have mobilised every available man and gun. They are now being utilised to the fullest extent. "Anxiety is caused," says a commentator in yesterday's cables, "not merely because the enemy in four days advanced fifty-six miles, but what really is serious is that the enemy has still very large reserves to throw in at any point. Until we know where they will be thrown in anxiety will continue." The Allies have reserves, if we can believe the statements made from time to time, as great as the enemy's, but until it is known definitely where the Germans are making their decisive attack they cannot be all utilised. The Allies are on the outside of the circle; the Germans inside. The advantage to the enemy is obvious. If the Allies can merely hold the Germans, without suffering catastrophe, they can make sure of subsequent victory. Behind the Allies are the illimitable American reserves for the further struggle. Napoleon said to Moreau: "Victory falls in the last event to the biggest battalions.'' Moreau asked whether other factors, as efficiency and leadership, might uot compensate and prevail. Napoleon replied tnat it might be so in a battle, but seldom in a whole war. Victories used up armies no less surely than defeats. If the Allies, however highly they may be tried, however pressed and tested, whatever ground they may give, whatever valuable cities they have to leave, keep their armies intact and an unbroken line, they must eventually win the great; game. The enemy's offensive power will in time be exhausted. The Allies' final reserves will win the war. The present is our hardest hour. In the black days of 1914, when the Channel ports seemed lost, General John Gough, subsequently killed, was watching the enemy swarming over a low ridge. One of his staff turned to him and said the fight was decided. Gough turned, with eyes ablaze, and exclaimed: "God will never let those devils win!" He was right.