AN AMERICAN ON THE WAR,

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXII, 26 October 1916, Page 5

AN AMERICAN ON THE WAR,

| FRANCE'S "INEXORABLE PRESI SURE."

Ea% x'-i September Mr Wythe Willianas- seat to the isevv York Times a statement, ot his observation on the *he bcuime. In doing s<> he said, that *"s statesmen's v ere .not f he e.ciloes ofi offit,'ial declarations matie " "ailltary comnian.ders. but were based m -personal observations, as a neuo^?*- i. • * J*ehm<i the French-armies, *'he says, ' thsm aa'e method and science,, greater >lSOleaee and greater method tha*. in all roach-advertised, clock-work attacks£\Ytl dun- The <?<****»* are trying to fg nt th«,war on lines already laid down y theic Genei'al Staff. The French adapted; themselves and their tactics t o suit each- change in miiitary ciircusas^anc^ s- E*'»7 Frenchman now" Knows ""** *"» _is no,b cannon, fodder, to b« butchered mi the hope that the enemy F' 1^ give way faom sheer .exhaustion, but a unit carefully seelcted^ to accomP lish, a Particula* piece? off work, and i r reason not to be sacrificed useL y est the wholework should'suffer because Parts are undone, -, ', et any°ne who- is- tempted1 to: as k m , French offensive has failed reca;" "that since 1- the" French have advanc^ d alon S a fifteen mile front to depth of from five to; ten miles. /Ever they have won has been against no matter what reaction, eacn. day's obective has always been att'aineclv and at a minimum^, of' loss, and na"-v tne ground thus won defended; by amPle forces and strengthened: withever F device of modern warfare:- --"" may be said by .some-that at Verdun also the Germans progressed regularly for a time only to: far!: a* the' end, but there is this all-important difference. Their, advance was compelled gradually to narrow almost to a point, with the result that the concentrated fire of the French artillery broke the wedge end as often as the Germans triedto thrust it forward. "On th.c Somme the French front has steadily widened, first- in the river' bend, then north of the river, scad now another thirteen miles 1 farther south of the Somme almost to Laissigny and Roye. One jnust not imagine for a moment that" tne French' are trying to break the German line with a sudden rapture as of a dyke through which the whole flood may flow. "Theirs is Grant's method—inexorable pressure steadily, widening and steadily inc'rfeasing—which is .to be maintained until this: whole sector of the German Fr f ont can bear no more and gives way in a colapse that will overwhelm the invaders' whol.e system of fortifications from the sea to Switzerland."