THE ALLIED OFFENSIVE

Evening Post, Volume XCII, Issue 40, 16 August 1916, Page 7

THE ALLIED OFFENSIVE

WAS IT FORCED TOO SOON?

LONDON WRITER'S OPINION.

(UNIIED PRESS ASSOCIATION.—COPYRIGHT.)

SYDNEY, 15th August. The Sydney Sun's London correspondent, writing on 6th July, gives an extremely interesting resume of most of the facts which forced the Allied offensives. "These," he said, "were not the carefully-planned general attack which was to be the beginning of the end, but were due to the necessity of relieving other positions against Austro-Germau attacks. When the Austrians were within sight of the iVenetian plains, Italy appealed to Russia, who wanted some months yet before the vast effort which the General Staff was preparing could be made. Russia sent the word along the line, General Brusilcff accepted the hint, and struck and shattered Austria's southern armies. Meanwhile the enemy was within an ace of taking Verdun", owing to his new artillery methods. Germany was still far better supplied witii heavy guns than we, and she struck so hard in her first attack that the French decided to evacuate the fortress. • This decision was countermanded when General Castelnau arrived, and ordered the famous counter-attack which drove' the Germans out of Fort Douaumont. Gen-

[The cable news in this issue accredited to "The Times" hue appeared in thiib journal, but only vlterc cxprefoly elated la bucu ncv.'s the etUtoriid ontninn of "The Timns-"!

era! Joffre had been, fiercely assailed inthe French Parliament for ordering the evacuation. A fortnight ago (that is, about the third week in June), Verdun had all but fallen, and the French troops in the outer lines were completely exhausted. The supreme crisis arrived, and if three days' heavy rain had not fallen, and so enabled the French to change the companies in the outer works, Verdun would have fallen. This was the time that strong appeals were made to Britain for an offensive. Germany knew about these appeals—few things in Paris are hidden from the spies. Before M. Briand (the French Premier) and General Jofl're arrived in London upon their mission, the news was published in the German press. We would have liked at least another two months for preparation. We had not nearly reached our maximum strength ; the conscripted drafts had not been trained to their full efficiency, nor had we all the supplies of heavy guns and shells desired before we' embarked upon a supreme effort. We were ready for a serious, solid push, but the offensive nevertheless was forced by the German offensive elsewhere.