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Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16309, 5 September 1918, Page 6

Thero will be a feeling of pleasure throughout the Dominion over the news that it has now been decided to

give the members of the First Expeditionary Force from New Zealand furlough to spend a short time in the Dominion. For four years they have been fighting for the Empire, and if ever men deserved a respite they certainly do.

From the beginning of July the German Press, inspired no doubt by the Gorman General Staff, started a series of attacks upon General Foch. The German offensive in the field had not been so successful as was hoped, and it would seem as if the German General Staff were trying to console themselves by this paper warfare. I

In the light of tho events at present happening on the Western front, some of these attacks are distinetly amusing. General von Ardenne, for example, in ' a three-column article in the "Berliner Tageblatt," entitled

"General Foch in the Judgment of His Countrymen and Contemporaries," begins by declaring that General Foch is not ono of the "intellectual giants" of military history, nor even one of the "dominating characters." We venture to say that even German military historians fifty years hence will be constrained to give a different verdict. General von Ardcnne next invents the assertion that English critics have lately called ~~Foch "the commander without initiative"(!) It is further] asserted by this amusing writer that 1 Foch is at the head of a Coalition

army, all the parts of which represent separate interests, while the English and Americans in particular are in constant "rivalry."

An article in the "Lokalanzeiger" is equally funny when read in the light of the cable messages now coming 10 hand from the Western front. It represents the preliminary minor operations with which Foch was then just beginning to feel his way as the product of nervousness which caused the French commander to waste troops when 110 ought to be conserving them. Ihis writer makes the same childish attempt as General von Ardenne to sow suspicion and distrust among the Allies. He then proceeds to speculate on the "possibility" that Foch, pushed by Clemenceau, will continue to play the game of the unlucky gambler, and concludes by saying: It is we, however, who since the beginning of the offensive have dictated to Foch where he shall attack. Ho is no longer master of his decision. When our advanced wedges threaten vulnerable points we see Foch directing counter-attacks against these wedges, protected and secured by which the further plans of our Army Command are ripening in spite of the enemy assault. It would be interesting to know what the "Lokalanzeiger" has to say now. It can hardly persist in trying to persuade its readers that the initiative at the present time is with the Germans, and not jvith the French, and that Focli is still under German dictation as to whore he shall attack.

It has already been mentioned that a "house-famine" is anticipated in England at the conclusion of the war. The 1 Advisory Housing Panel in a memoran- , dum submitted to the Ministry of Reconstruction espressos the opinion that in tho first year after the war 300,000 new hoises will be required in England, and Wales, and 75,000 in each of the succeeding years. The difficulty thus opened up is accentuated by the fact that the cost of building, it is estimated, will still bo very high at least for some years after peace has been restored, so that building houses to let, already an unsatisfactory form of investment, will offer less attractions than ever to the private capitalist. The scheme put forward by tho Panel is that the State should provide the whole cost of the building, and should Own the houses for a period to bo fixed, say, fivo years, at the end of which pTices may bo expected to have attained a normal level. At the end of this "transitional period," as it is called, the ownership of the houses will bo transferred to the local authorities at a figure to be arrived at by deducting from the original cost such a percentage as represents the fall in price of materials and labour, together with a fair allowance for depreciation. The Panel estimates the total cost of providing those 300,000 houses to be in tho neighbourhood of £100,000,000 sterling,, and they consider it likely that £25,000,000 or more may bo the amount the State will be called jupon to provide as grant-in-aid. The schemo does riot include Scotland and Ireland, and tho acquisition of the necessary land is being considered by a separate committee. What would have been isaid before the war, had it been seriously proposed that the Imperial Government should spend £iOi>,UUU,OOO or more in the construction of houses to be lot to those requiring such accommodation P

It is mentioned to-day in the message from lleuter's correspondent at .bntish. Headquarters that tno enemy's barrage when ilorne ana Byng made tha new abtucii on tho YVotan switch was heavy, but so badly directed 'that it caused great damage to his own men. 'lhis is an appropriate footnote to Ludendorff's recent order complaining of the German gunnery. ■ It is apparently a chronic uelect, for Mi* Beach inomas, writing on the second day of *'ociV<s counter-blow ion the Alarne, referred to tiie "Joss of reputation ot enemy's artuiery." Last year, after tno Arras battle, he saw (ierman infantry trying to mob their own artillery in one of our prisoner cages, and similar ill-will, he said, is again apparent. One of the Gorman dug-outs was adorned witn a parouy of Kisiaarck's "Wo fear God above, but nothing else in the world." The parody was, "We fear nothing but God and our own artillery." It seems that in recent attacks so-calledl

"shorts" were very prevalent on the onemy's side, and "men in [German] camps, billets, and hospitals," Mr Thomas doclared, "hate the neighbourhood of any [German] gun, however long its range.''