GENERAL MAURICE'S VIEWS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue LXXIV, 31 May 1918, Page 7

GENERAL MAURICE'S VIEWS.

THE REAL PROBLEM.

TO WHAT EXTENT HAVE RE-

SERVES BEEN USED

(Received May 31, 11.10 a.m.)

LONDON, May 30. Genera] Maurice, writing in the Daily states that the. latest estianates of the German reserves on the West front amounts to eighty divisions, '-of which seventy are between Rheims and the coast. Assuming that it is true that the Germans drew sixteen divisions for the Aisne attack and others' since it began, it is doubtful if they have drawn in more than a third of them battle rerserve. We must therefore expect furrther developments. The German command may well be tempted by its success •±o' draw -in more reserves and aim at the .Marne and cut the Paris-Chalons railway.- "Unless it reaches the Marne an :advance southward will not materially ;affect the general situation. Moreover, in order to reach the Marne safety requires the enemy to widen his base. He must secure <Rheims and Soissons, which : apparently he is trying to do. Rheims has ceased to have more than a senti:mental value, but Soissons is important 'because it links the Aisne and Somme rbattlefields, and its fall would enable J.the enemy to widen his attacking front ;towards Amiens or Paris. The real problem now is whether General Fooh or the Crown Prince has been compelled to use up most of his reserves. —Aus.N.Z. Cable Association.