WESTERN FRONT.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 September 1918, Page 5

WESTERN FRONT.

AN IMPORTANT OFFENSIVE. Largest Yet Undertaken. Extends Over 54 Miles. New York, Sept. 20. The French and Americans on a 40mile front in the Moselle district have [gained the German first lines.—Aus. N.Z. Cable Assoc.

Paris correspondent of the Chicago News says that the French and American offensive is the largest they have yet undertaken and extends 54 miles. There are enormous concentrations of artillery and gas shells.—Aus. N.Z. Cable Assoc. London, Sept. 20. A French communique states: Between the Ailette and the Aisne the enemy renewed his attacks last evening in the regions of Allamont and Moulin-de-Laffaux. He succeeded in penetrating our lines at the latter point, but our energetic counter-attack re-established the situation. Further south we extended our gains east of Saincy and took prisoners. At 5 o'clock this morning we attacked in Champagne in co-operation with the American army operating further east.—Aus. N.Z. Cable Assoc.

AMERICANS ADVANCE SEVEN MILES. North-West of Verdun. Eight Towns Captured. Received Sept. 27, 9.35 p.m. Ottawa, Sept. 27. The Americans, north-west of Verdun, have penetrated tie enemy lines to an average depth of seven miles and captured eight towns. They also secured more than 5000 prisoners. Tho towns captured are Malancourt, Bethincourt, Montfaucon, Cuisy, Nantillos, Les Zeptzarges, Dannevouxo, and Gerconrt.—Aus. N.Z. Cable Assoc.

AMERICANS CAPTURE 12 TOWNS. Progress of Some Miles. Received Sept. 27, 11.55 p.m. « London, Sept, 28. The Franco-American offensive is on a forty-mile front, between the rivers Suippe and Meuse. The attacking forces progressed to a depth of some miles. The enemy voluntarily abandoned their forward positions. Consequently there was little artillery resistance. Received Sept. 27, 11.25 p.m. Ottawa, Sept. 27. The Americans in the Verdun region have captured a total of twelve towns. FOURTH FRENCH ARMY ENGAGED. GERMANS GET WIND OF IMPENDING ATTACK Received Sept. 27, 10.50 p.m. Paris, Sept. 26. The Fourth French Army is engaged. The new battlefield is the same as in the battle on September 24, 1915. The Germans seem to have got wind of the attack during the past week and multiplied their raids, and special rations were served out to the men.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assoc-

GERMAN OFFICIAL REPORT. London, ept.S 20. A German official report states: The enemy temporarily gained a footing on the heights between Pontruet and Gricourt, but our counter-attack recaptured the position. The French made a small breach in our positions between Francilly and the Somme.—Aus. N.Z. Cable As"sociation. SUCCESSFUL LOCAL ACTIONS. London, Sept. 20. Sir Douglas Haig reports: We successfully continued our local operations in the afternoon and night north-eastward of St. Quentin. English troops made progress and captured certain strongly defended localities in the neighborhood of Selency and Gricourt, and took a number of prisoners. Besides the counter-attacks launched by the enemy north-west of Fayet he also twice unsuccessfully attacked us north-west of Gricourt. English troops were successful in minor operations north-westward of La Bassee and advanced our line. We repulsed a strong counter-attack in this locality. At night-time we improved our positions slightly north-westward of Armentieres.—Aus. N.Z. Cable Assoc, and. Reuter. NO CESSATION OF FIGHTING. London, Sept. 20. The report of an interview with General Foch is interpreted to mean that there will be no cessation of operations in the winter.—United Service. ENEMY FLOODING CANALS. London, Sept. 20. Owing to dread of the tanks, water is playing an increasingly large part in [the German defences. The engineers are busy flooding the canals and rivers in the Souehez Valley and Sensee, south 1 of Douai.—United Service.

GERMANS DESERT, ! __ BRITISH SLIGHTLY IMPROVE iFOSITIONS. Received Sept. 27, 4 p.m. London, Sept. 26. The United Press correspondent reports that Germans heavily shelled manypoints at St. Quentin and towards Carabrai. The British slightly improved their positions. Three German "officers and 102 men deserted west of St. Quentin last night, and slipped across to the British lines.—Aus. N.Z. Cable Assoc.

Between Longwy and Briey is the great ironfield of France, and if' the French could have held it, and established themselves between Luxembourg and Metz, and maintained themselves there, Germany would perhaps have been defeated by now. For the basis of 7 a great war is iron ore, and Germany depended upon the Lorraine deposits for 80 per cent, of her home requirements. According to an article in The Suddcutsche Monatschefte, Germany has an insufficient iron supply within her own borders, and the writer says that the enormous needs of German industry will exhaust the existing supply in fifty years. For this reason the Germans are anxious to get permanent possession of the Longwy-Briey basins.

When the war broke out and Germany's oversea supplies were cut off, she would have come very quickly to the end of her tether but for her occupation of the precious deposits, and there are not wanting those who believe that the desire for French Lorraine, or rather for the iron there, was one of the motives inspiring Germany's decision to make war. There are influential sections of German opinion who hold that Germany must annex this region in any case. On January 14 last The Cologne Gazette said: "Germany must extend her boundary so as to bring the Longwy and Briey basins into her possession." About the saue time the German Association for the Protection of Industry declared that "the ore region of Briey must be our salvation in future wars." The memoir presented to the German Chancellor in May, 1915, by the six great Geraan industrial associations, stated that "the security of the Empire in a future war necessitates imperiously the possession of all the mines."

It is thoroughly characteristic of Germany that, needing iron, she should leave out of account any such consideration as that there are human beings in the ore region who may have desires of their own. A writer in The Times suggests that in any event Germany may be following a mistaken policy: "No economic factor is immutable; electrometallurgy and the use of concrete may at some date render valueless the French ironfields, as the discovery of the rudiments of chemistry substituted an iron for a bronze age, and the use of iron discounted the sought-after, fought-for, flint-besring chalk outcrops that delimited frontiers for Mousterian or Aurignacian man. In this present age, nevertheless, myopic and destructive as her policy may be, Germany is 'out after' iron, and her neighbors must take the fact into their reckoning, and look to their stores. The experience of Alsace and Lorraine shows up Germany's designs on her Scandinavian neighbors, veiled as they now are under the grins of a false friendliness in a grim and sinister light."