The Press Friday, November 8, 1918. Rapid Developments.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16364, 8 November 1918, Page 6

The Press Friday, November 8, 1918. Rapid Developments.

Today's messages report a notable in- ' •.•reuse in the rapidity with which the war situation is developing. All the correspondents on the Western Front . agree in representing the German retirement as having become something like a general rotreat on a large scale. ' The Americans'east of the Mcuse have 'made some progress, and west of the .river they have, reached a,line which on the right is within five miles of the railway north of Mj/ntmedy. Further west the French are moving more rapid. • ly' north of the Aisne. ' On the Oise front the enemy, has-rapidly fallen back, ' and -still-more substantial progress has * boon made on the British front. Hare there has been a serious break through. - The Mormal Forest has been cleared, _ and.Haig is pursuing, the enemy towards Mons, now only six miles away. If the weather were favourable, -there is little doubt that we should within a few days 'Witness as "complete a military ..collapse ... of- the enemy here as is possible in modern warfare. • While the "Western _ Front; is rapidly, changing, the German home front, if the roports are not all grossly false, is assuming a very grave aspect. Riots in the cities, open ' discussion of' the possible secession of • Southern Germany, a mutiny at Kiel, . and; many, symptoms of actual revolution,, figure in the news. Desperate \ efforts are being made by the Governxnent to rally the people to a last stand and to-create the impression that Germany is still able to continue the struggle to the end. But German "bluff" has long ceased to bluff anybody, and in any.caso the Allies have on invincible hand. It is apparently a faot that the German delegation, commissioned to ask for an armistice, has been despatched and is by now prob- • ( ably with Marshal Foch. If this. is true, then wo shall possibly receive some definite pews during the week-end, for Foch will doubtless have been instructed to deal, not with mere messengers, but with plenipotentiaries. The announcement, that President Wilson has agreed that the Allies in concert must settle the -.details of the interpretation of the Becond of his fourteen -points—that which refers .to the "freedom of the seas"—is satisfactory evidence that • America and the Allies have reachcd a full agreement.