The Daily News. THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 1918. NEMESIS OVERTAKING THE GERMANS.

Taranaki Daily News, 29 August 1918, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 1918. NEMESIS OVERTAKING THE GERMANS.

The remarkable change that is apparent in the tone of recent cables, concerning the effect of the Allies' victorious advance od the people and press of Germany, reveals that the truth of Germany's plight is being realised, and that the beginning of the end is in sight. The easting forth of the pictures of the Kaiser, von Hindenburg and von Ludendorff to be trampled under foot in the streets is a significant sign of banished illusions and an awakening to the fact that the day of reckoning is drawing near. It is all very well for a German newspaper to assert that the German people are not defeated, but that defeat has overtaken the jingos and the policy of the mailed fist. Such statements only serve to emphasise the desperate nature of Germany's position, which is confirmed by the pitiful appeal to the people to put heart and soul into the fight for Germany's existence. The waning man-power of the Teutonic forces h?s caused extreme anxiety and depression. The Germans have lost their nerve and there are signs of approaching dissolution. It is no longer a question of Belgium, Alsace and Lorraine, but a question of what can be saved from the wreck. The exhausted and depleted German armies know only too well that America's mil(lioas of yirile and (kuntlesa &&&

'■iors are assembling to -assist in giving the knock-out blow, and the shadow of that mighty force is getting on their nerves. The initiative no longer belongs to the German High Command: it has passed to the Allied Generalissimo who is calmly awaiting, the right moment and the right spot to deliver his main stroke, to which the present thrusts are leading. The Allies now possess superiority in numbers, in morale, in will decision, and rapidity of thought and action. There has already been a suggestion that the Germans should retire to the Rhine, but when they are there, their resistance power will be affected not only T>y such military fortune as befalks them in their retirement, but by the moral shock consequent on the destruction of the theory of German invincibility—a shoeV that is even now discernible. The question, however, arises as to whether Germany can, without a military disaster retire to the Rhine, and there defy the Allied hosts. "Would not such a move produce such a revolution in Germany as occurred m Russia? It is quite within the bounds of possibility. There is sure to' be more or less speculation as to what will happen, but it is evident that Marshal Foch has already considerable reserves available, though probably not sufficient for the immediate delivery of his main blow. , Still, there is good reason to believe that he has adequate manpower and guns to prevent the Germans making an orderly and successful retreat, especially as his superiority in aircraft would enable-that branch of his forces to | levy a terrible toll on the retiring enemy. We may rest assured that the Allied Generalissimo has carefully and skilfully studied the situation and all its probable developments, even to deciding when and where to let the main blow fall. The German military authorities will also be faoed with two formidable factors that are capable of undermining their hopes of averting defeat or securing a stalemate—the internal situation of Germany in consequence of the newborn fears of the people, and the need for coping with developments in Russia. The accident of a moment may alter the whole war outlook and precipitate its final phase . These are the problems that Germany would have to tackle on retiring to the Rhine, assuming that she can do so without disaster. There is no doubt that once firmly fortified on the Rhine, the Germans would prove very difficult to deal with, and it is probable there will be equal difficulty in driving them out of Russia, but both tasks will have to be accomplished, hence the necessity for direct and prompt •action by the Allies in Russia to prevent Germany obtaining such a foothold as would facilitate the development of her Eastern Empire scheme by which she hopes to become the master of China, India and Africa, and incidentally the dominant power over the human race. That is exactly what the Allies are determined to prevent, and there is no doubt that success will crown their efforts. Although the final decision mu.i' certainly be made on the "Western front, there is a strong link with the operations in the East, and both are equally pressing. The waning power of the Bolsheviks and the active intervention of the Allies should soon have an appreciable effect in Russia. At the same time, on the West front there seems to be likely that a move may be made in the Alsace-Lorraine region designed to cut off the German retreat. This would be infinitely better than driving the Germans back in other sectors where they will be resting on strong defences. Tn the words of Marshal Foch "All is going well," for the position has never been so much in favor of the Allies as it is at the present time when Germany is forced to fight, not for conquest, but for existence.