TIME FOR A NEW VICTORY OF THE MARNE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 131, 3 June 1918, Page 5

TIME FOR A NEW VICTORY OF THE MARNE.

COUNTER-STROKE TO RELIEVE PARIS AWAITED. PARIS, June 2. The Pans newspapers are impressed with the gravity of events on the Maine, and anxiously await a counter-stroke to relieve faris. The "Matin" states that the last two months have shown that defensive tactics are a failure, and asks, "Has not the hour arrived for attacking':" M. Gustave Herve says* To be victorious to-day, as in 1914, it is necesasry to believe in the superiority of the offensive over the defensive. Everybody knows that the enemy can be driven out of France only»by a new victory of the Marne." The announcement that the Crown Prince had reached the Marne and the Ourcq startled the British public It shows that the optimistic opinions of military critics in London and Paris were not justified. The "Westminster Gazette,' in a leading article, protests against the censor excising all qualifying crucial passages in its military correspondent's article. It adds that General Maurice the "Daily Chronicle" critic, also complains that the censor's excisions made the comments appear more optimistic than they were intended to be. lhe latest messages from the front show that the armies of yon Boehm and yon Bulow have been swollen by fresh and important reinforcements, and are attempting battering-ram blows.towards Paris by two routes, the first to reach the main railway from Paris to Nancy, and the second along the valley of the Oise. (The two manoeuvres hang closely together, as the Crown I rtnee cannot follow up the drive towards the Marn.e without assuring his right flank.—(A. and N.Z. Cable.) B