NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16267, 18 July 1918, Page 7

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

To General Otto von Below appears to' have been entrusted the task ot attempting to break the Allied line m the latest German offensive. Von Below was one of the three Army commanders who conducted the greac German offensive of March 21st,' the other two being General von der Mar'wttz and General Oscar , von Hutier. All three are over 60 years of age. They obtained their commissions m 1875, attained tho rank of lieutenantgeneral before the war, and during the war have spent most of their time on the Russian Front. General von Below, after having been engaged in numerous operations in the East, was given command against Italy last October, *nd acquired a great reputation by his anocessful breaking of the Italian front on the Isonzo. He is believed to have been transferred only recently from the Italian front. As he is undoubtedly the favourite German genera] of the moment, his selection indicates tho 'onportance attached by the Germans to the present operations. General von Below is an infantry officer. Immediately before the war he was in command of the Second Division at Insterburg.

General Oscar E. von Hutier, who wa3 responsible for the enemy's recent offensive along the Noyon-Montdidier front, has not played a very prominent part in the earlier stages of the war, and has not received anything like the same amount of publicity as have such German heroes as Hindenburg, Ludendorff, Mackonsen, and Falkennayn. He is a man of just over 60 years of age, having been appointed first lieutenant in 1886, captain in 1890, battalion jommander in 1900, and lieutenant-general in 1902. It is interesting to note that he is related to the Ludendorff family on nis mother's sid@* Xl© &ppo&rs go have experienced most of his fighting m the present war on the Russian front, and attracted special attention during the later operations, which -osulted in the fall of Riga. Together with Generals von Below, who directed the Italian offensive in October last and von dcr Marwitz, whose cavalry corps did much to cheek the All'cd pursuit after the battle of tho Marne yon Hutier figured prominently in the Western offensive of March 21st last while in command of one of the armies of the German Crown Prince's ffronp. It was his army which broke through the Allied lino westward of St Quentin, and was mainlv responsible for brinuing about the retirement towards *Amiens.

The Zionist Commission has selected j Tel Aviv, the modem Jewish quarter of Jaffa, as its headquarters in Palestine. Its immediate task is the reconstruction of tho Jewish communities and agricultural colonies as they existed before the war, in preparation for larger schemcs after the war is over Dr. Weizmann, tho head of the Commission, after a visit to General AllenD.y's headquarters, expressed himself highly satisfied with the results of h>s interviews with the military and rolia j chiefs. "But tell the Jewish world, he said, "that it would be childish to expect the land immediately •to now with milk and honey becaupe a Commission has arrived. Aiid especially tell them that of all the needs of JraJestme the supreme need is victory xi a complete and definite liberation • n coun £ r y* All other wants must yield to this imperative necessity. \* ltinn these limits the field lies open before us; we are sure of the friendly help of the authorities and the devoted collaboration of the Palestinian Jewry. We have secured complete unanimity with them and hope to attain :ho same unanimity with our Arab neighbours. _ If the Jewish peoples abroad do their duty, tho dawn of peace will

unveil Palestine possessing a wellorgamscd and healthy frame work for j coloiiisaton." Occasional -references in the cablo messages to the campaigp in East Africa serve as a reminder that there is still at liberty in this theatre a /guerilla band of Germans and Askaris, who made their cscape • across the boundary lino of Portuguese East Africa after the defeat of the main German Last African force by the mixed British and Belgian army. According to a cable message yesterday General Aor they, who is in command of the British column, said that, the campaign might continuo for perhaps another two months, as the naturo of tho country would facilitate tho escape of tho enemy. The territory which they have, entered is indeed such that a woll-or-ganised band should bo able to subsist on it indefinitely. It is larger than German East Africa—larger, in fact, than France and Germany taken together; very much of it is in dense forest, with a broad malarial plain runnmg down to the coast. "In this vast forest," states a writer in'"Current History," "it .may bo as difficult to find them as it is to find the proverbial needle m a haystack; far more difficult than it would bo to locate a small party in a more open northern forest of 200,000 or 300,000 miles in extent, becauso llie African jungle is, much of it, an impenetrable tangle. So ionj as thoy are well supplied with cartridges, there is not the slightest reason why they should not subsist on the country indefinitely, as, for example, African explorers like Sir H. SI. Stanley or Sir Samuel Baker did for many months at a time."

Tho valuable assistance afforded hy the tanks to tho Australians Rhould finally dispel nhy doubts as to their importance as an adjunct of the fighting machine. "They proved astonishing in their methods of manoeuvre," writes Mr Philip Gibbs, "and aroused the wildest enthusiasm among the Australians, many of whom were a little prejudiced against tho land-ships. The ordinary ranks of the Germans surrendered helplessly wherever the tanks crawled round, but a number of German machine-gun nests used their weapons with their usual courage jid deadly resolution. Tho tanks were extremely useful in destroying these strong points. One tank trampled down six machine-guns in action. . Another r three, and seeing a fourth still firing headed straight at it, and crushed it into the earth with tho gunners. Elsewhere a tank destroyed the teams of five heavy machine-guns, and took the weapons inside as trophies. Tho most startling adventure a pitot steered for a mound which he suspected to be a machineneSv" £ e * aQ k rounded the hillock, when 40 men surrendered, run+™nohP™t£tncilen f r? m a concealed trench on tho other side.

"The Australians frankly say they could not have advanced with such ease without the tanks," Mr Gibbs continues. "Their enthusiasm is Buch that some of them vow that the end of the war is in sight if tanks are used m this way, giving continual possibilities of surprise. It is a return to tuo old enthusiasm with which the first appearance of the tanks was greeted ui September, 1916. After their quick success on Thursday, the tanks cruised round the captured ground, which the Australians were preparing for defence The pilots came out of the man-holes for a little fresh air, and enquired if the infantry wanted help, llie Australians pointed out some sniping from a cornfield, and suggested that a tank should root out the sharpshooters. A pilot replied, 'Righto' and manoeuvred his engine, and sent some small shells into the corn. Immediately a number of men jumped up, . k m f ell , under . a spray of gun bullets from tho tanks. One group of tanks captured 30 machine-guns and « caused 200 men to' surrender. When the tanks returned to the assembly place after the battle a large majority were ready to return t 0 action without repairs, despite 48 hours' heavy, exacting work."