Progress of the War.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16221, 25 May 1918, Page 8

Progress of the War.

News from tho "West front continues to be confined mainly to speculation regarding tho next phaso of the great offensive. Tlio latest authority to express an opinion oil tho subject is General Bridges, head of the British Military Mission to the United States, who considers that the German drive will probahly begin on June Ist, around Yprcs and in the vicinity of Flazebrouck, with a subsidiary drive towards Amiens. According to the correspondent of the "New York Times" with tho American Army in France, military officers also believe that tho offensive will bo resumed in tho first week in June, their belief being based, no doubt, upon information gathered from the prisoners brought in as a result of tho frequent Allied raids during tho past few weeks. The same-correspondent is the authority tov the statement that the Germans have withdrawn their crack troops for training in shock tactics, and this is borne out. by a despatch f rom the New Zealand official war correspondont, who states that the troops holding the opposing lines on the Now Zealanders' sector are of inferior moral, and no doubt merely holding tho line, better divisions being ready to move through them to tako part in any onslaught. Of actual military operations on the West front during the period covered by the cable messages there appears to have been nothing beyond minor raids and tho now customary intense activity of the British aviators. A good deal of local fighting has been repofted from tho Italian theatre during the past week, where French and Italian troops, in alliance, have scored several important gains, advancing their lino to a maximum depth of eleven miles, according to a message to-day. The latest roports relating to the position at Zeebrugge indicate that the Germans have been unable to removo the obstacles at the entrance to the canal, while aorial photographs show that the number oi destroyers, torpedo-boats, and submarines in the Ostend' and Bruges Canal is the same as before the raid, proving that tho vessels are immobilised.