The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. TUESDAY, AUGUST 0, 1918 THE WESTERN FRONT.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 186, 6 August 1918, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 0, 1918 THE WESTERN FRONT.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

The enemy having reached the line of the Vesle, a slackening in the retreat is inevitable The Vesle gives him a good defensive line, in that high wooded hills, higher than anything in front of them, lie behind it; but it has serious weaknesses. It has no good railway service, and the communications may be seriously interfered with by the Allies' guns on the flank near Soissons. Indeed, the Vesle line is in danger of being turned on both flanks, and it is probable that the Germans intend only to hold the French until they can improve their arrangements for a further retreat. In their rapid advance the French must have out-distanced most of their guns and there may be a comparative lull in the battle for a day or two. But the French will not waste any time. Already they are on the north bank of the Vesle at one or two points, scouring a footing for further operations. It is announced i to-day that General Mangin's army has captured 500 guns since the battle began, but we are still left in doubt as to •whether these totals of captures include the American figures. The official tally of prisoners taken during the last few days has not yet been announced, but the total captures during the battle are evidently 40,000 or over. In guns and prisoners lost this is the severest defeat Germany has suffered in the West. On the western side of the Montdidier salient tbe Germans have followed their retirement on a short section of the line near Albert with a retirement on a wider front between Montdidier and Amiens. In both cases the retirement was the result of Allied pressure; the later movement was made necessary by the success of the French operation a couple of weeks ago, when four villages were taken. Although these arc local operations they are highly significant. They mark the turn of the tide, the. passing of the Germans from the offensive to the defensive. They may not remain on the defensive for the whole of the rest of the summer, for they still have reserves with which they .may decide to make a last desperate blow, but for the time being they have certainly lost the initiative, and for the first time for nearly five months they are defending everywhere. For some time the British have been expecting a heavy blow on the Amiens front, but these retirements make it much less likely than it was. The German Staff has three alternatives: To resume the offensive somewhere else on the Western front; to strike elsewhere, say, in Italy, while standing on the defensive in the West; to stand on the defensive everywhere from the Channel to the Adriatic, exploit Russia, and try to bring the Allies to terms through sheer war-weariness. It seems to us that the third' course would be the most dangerous for the Allies, for, while suffering heavy losses in attacks on the German lines, they would be under the continual temptation of sacrificing "Russia to get peace. General Maurice thinks that next year Germany will probably avoid a battle in the West, and will fall back gradually, devastating the country and asking France how long she will permit her land to be injured for the sake of Britain's Eastern interests. It was reported the other day that Hindenburg did not approve of the continuation of the attempt to get a decision in the West. This is quite likely. Hindenburg has always been an "Easterner," and he could advance a very strong case for making the most of the conquests in

-Russia and letting the Allies exhaust themselves against the German lines in the West. But there has been a strong party in Germany in favour of annexing Belgium and the French iron region in the north-east, and the breakdown of Russia made them, think that they could defeat the French and British and win these Western prizes. The question is what effect the disastrous defeat of the Crown Prince's army will have on the conflicting policies of the two groups. It may bring the "Easterners" once more

I into prominence. There is, however, a vital factor in the contest between the

two schools, and that is the internal condition of Germany. Is this condition such that the Germans can afford to fight a long defensive war in the West? Quite apart from the risk of having their lines broken by the Allies when they are sufficiently reinforced by the Americans, whom Hindenburg affects to belittle, there is the danger of the fabric of Germany cracking under the feet of the army. Reliable evidence as to the state of Germany is hard to get, but -what there is points to the inability of Germany to continue indefinitely unless Russia can be exploited. And if we make a peace that allows Germany to remain in Russia we shall have lost the war.