THE CAMPAIGN.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16646, 3 September 1914, Page 6

THE CAMPAIGN.

The reason for the shortage of news from France during the last few days is. clear now, for we. are told that the jeoond section of the British Expeditionary Force has already been in action. The transportation of the troops, of course, was responsible for the story '■'that Boulogne had been abandoned, fjome imaginative journalist doubtless ' that inference from the fact that the cross-Channel service between Folkestone and Boulogne had been tem- ; pprarily suspended. There was a period, following the rapid retreat from Belgium, when the position looked dufilous from the Allies' point of view, ,v6ecause if the German attack could , have -been pushed home the retreat *. aaight have been converted into a rout. ' Bili the retirement must have been .conducted with remarkable skill, con- '. "iidering its rapidity, and the manner * ; ialwhich it was covered seems to have been as solid as anything of the kind I tin "the history of war. It was, no ydoubt, 1 the fact that.:, the Germany Army of the, Centre had broken across the frontier that compelled the retirement, and surveying the operations of the past few weeks we are entitled to tßaoma that it was this Army of the

Centre that failed at the critical time. | If a great blow could have been struck simultaneously in the centre and on tho right wing, the Germans might have been able to start discussing the probable terms of the settlement. But the Army of the Centre was held up, and it was left for the Army of the Right to hammer the Allies. Possibly the Centre had been weakened to provide tho enormous hitting force that wa> needed in Belgium, but the blow that was struck there, though it inflicted serious damage' on the Allied armies, failed to push its attack > right home, and the vast turning movement-that was planned failed. The second phriso of. the campaign has now been reached. The German Army that invaded France by way of Belgium was deployed as soon as it had crossed the frontier, and at one stage it seemed likely that the Allied left would give way. But a new force was brought up ,in timo to save the position, and apparently the Germans themselves are now, in danger of being outflanked. . The fact that the coast is held by the Allies is of the utmost importance in this connection, for it means that tho reinforcements that have just been sent across from •Britain have been able to join at once the force that is occupying the Allied left flank, and it is on this flank, apparently, that the heaviest fighting is still to be recorded. Tho latest news we have suggests that the extreme left has been severely handled by the Germans, but is still holding grimly on, and that, of course, is all that is a6ked of it. If the reports are reliable—a very necessary qualification—the Ger-' mans must be making, extraordinary sacrifices in their effort to smash the Allied force, and no army could conceivably continue to make daily attacks at the cost the invaders are alleged to be paying.