THE H.B. TRIBUNE. MONDAY, JULY 3, 1916. THE NEW MOVE.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume VI, Issue 171, 3 July 1916, Page 4

THE H.B. TRIBUNE. MONDAY, JULY 3, 1916. THE NEW MOVE.

At length the expectations aroused by the intense artillery bombardment which the British have for some time been directing upon the German trenches facing their lines have been fulfilled, and the messages through yesterday and 'to-day provide an entirely hopeful augury for the ultimate success of the combined British and French offensive movement north and south of the river Somme. There is some little “embarrassment of riches” in the volume of news from various sources that comes through, but, confining attention more especially to those which appear to have official sanction, it is broadly stated that the British have secured possession of the German front-line trenches over a section variously stated at sixteen, and at twenty, miles. The British penetration has, at some points, undoubtedly reached beyond the foremost enemy trenches, in fact Sir Douglas Haig reports an advance of over 1000 yards on a stretch of seven miles. It was a little difficult to gather with assurance from the earliest messages whether the French advance covered an additional length of the front, or was included in the twenty miles mentioned. But a press message just- to hand as we write would indicate that the French mobile front is probably, if anything, longer than that of the British. This message tells us that the combined effort commences from the neighbourhood immediately to the south of Arras and reaches as far south as Roye, giving us a total front of attack somewhere in the neighbourhood of forty miles in length. This takes us down as far as only a few miles from the elbow where the enemy entrenchments bend eastward near Noyon, running thence a little north of Rheims and on to Verdun. The information to hand would suggest that the French, operating in country which lends itself less readily to defence, have succeeded in securing a footing to a depth of two kilometres, the equivalent of a mile and a quarter. In the meantime both British and French continue on other sections of the front the raiding operations designed to keep the enemy from transferring big reserves to the more seriously threatened section. All of this, after so long a period of comparative inactivity in the western half of the Anglo-French lines, makes very good reading.

I At the same time, however, it is | always to be borne in mind that in all the greaeter rushes of the war, excepting those where marked inferiority in numbers, artillery, or munitions, had its inevitable consequence, initial successes have been followed by very much sterner opposition and by much slower progress, and in these cases the French proverb that “it is the first step that costs” has been frequently falsified. It is therefore well for us not to allow ourselves to be unduly elated, but rather to restrain ourselves to a feeling of deep satisfaction that one of the most important operations of the war, so far as the British have participated, has been so well begun. It is a fatal mistake to underestimate the strength of the enemy, and while we may feel quite confident that we have in the west a very appreciable preponderance in numbers, it must at the same time be remembered that the expert attempts at assessing Germany s remaining human resources have varied so materially as to make them all quite unreliable. We have also to bear in mind that, however well we may think of the personnel of the British forces, a very large proportion of them is quite new to the game of war, and that we should, in justice, give Kitchener’s new army time to settle into its stride and not expect too much from it until it gains some experience in the field. In the reserves there must necessarily be a very large number, both of officers and men—and, in this, special importance attaches to the. officers-— who have as yet seen but little of the stern realities of war or had opportunity to learn all that is ultimately to be confidently expected from them. As against this, of course, we know that, whatever may be the relative numbers of the enemy, the individual value of his fighting men has been greatly reduced oy the severe culling which two years of war must have effected. The Germans who have now to be beaten are not the Germans who swept like an irresistible avalanche from Mons down to the Marne, nor are they inspired with the supreme confidence which then bore them forward to. certain and complete victory. That s P*r lt of supreme confidence has been sadly shaken, but it is as well to count upon it as having been replaced by one of stern determination to resist what may lead to the invasion of the Fatherland, for, whatever other good qualities we may, with every good warrant, deny to the Bosches, they are at least intensely patriotic. W e have also seen how, when numbers were badly against us, the most violent German efforts failed to break our defences to any appreciable extent, and we may rely on it that those which the enemy has prepared at frequent intervals behind his present lines are no whit inferior to our own in strength and ingenuity. We should, therefore, as we have said, prepare ourselves for a long and desperate struggle, in which progress may appear to be slow, relying upon it that, with a little experience added to the weight of numbers, the Germans, if not sooner brought to their knees elsewhere, will eventually be driven out of France and Belgium.. The time needed may be long, but it can and it will be done. Meantime we may content ourselves that the movement in which we are so intimately interested has got a very favourable start, and is taking place where pronounced. success have a very vital influence upon the whole situation in the west. Meantime, too, our very good friends at Verdun, in Russia, m Galicia and Bukowina, in Italy and in Western Asia, are making it

extremely difficult for the enemy to spare reinforcements for "Western Europe. It is probably not too much, either, to hope that, ere long, we may see the Russian offensive spread northward from the Pripet to Riga, and perhaps we should be keeping an eye open for a movement in the Balkans, where all has been quiet so long. Even Rumania may be beginning to realize what way her own interests lie.