GREAT NEWS FROM THE WEST.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue LXXIV, 28 September 1918, Page 8

GREAT NEWS FROM THE WEST.

ffihe brief messages announcing a new British attack along the Sense© River fcjld towards Cambrai are most importBU$, and there is every indication that jjjhe advantage secured by our armies |n capturing the Drocourt-Queant line a few weeks ago is to fia made the most .of. The.new offensive as apparently progressing northwest of Cambrai, and the statement ittuat the British are within three miles if the important junction show® that pome four miles have already" been Covered. The operation, if it conf&nues successfully, must have a -G&rir^aciiing effect. The masses of Gerjnans that have been poured into the great "spear-head" at Laon have pre- ' trented the Allies effectively reducing jfche "hinge," but, it is quite likely Jfiiat the German® will not escape (from jfche great net into which they have jbieen drawn. The great scissors '■ has jagain begun to close, and the two operations at present in hand are closely connected. The Americans and JFrench are gaining difficult ground • aorth-west of Verdun, and though the ileuse Valley has been looked upon for B< long time as an impossible barrier Jtihe Allies have shown that there is jttb place too difficult given the men ■ jiud an abundance of munition®. The {American effort near the frontier has enabled the Allies to harass the great (fortress of 'Metz, and the new. moveiment further west, which probably hag for its objective the important radlway jat Montmedy, which is. one of the great Birteries of the German, armies, /tends jfco narrow the neck of the bottle v through which Germany Has to supply feer forces. So it appears that while ifche British, are busy driving in; ■. the Vestern wall of the salient, the Ameri- ; cans are, with their gallant French comrades, gradually (increasing the pressure on the enemy's iiroat: The Witiook is splendid, and j as we have previously explained, if iihe Germans pan be forced to withdraw from their Hindenburg positions, there is. much hope that they will be •unwilling to face the "winter. Bulgaria'^ real nioye , for peace may yet be .followed by three ni'Ore before the; end of the year. It depends> mainly upon the progress oif the great Allied armies in th© next few weeks. Let us hope that we are on the eve of another great victory, and that the discontent which Count Bertling Ms referred to may ■ lead to practical results.