THE FRENCH PRESS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 1929, 21 January 1919, Page 3

THE FRENCH PRESS.

BRITAIN’S EFFORT PRAISED. Le Figaro, the newspaper representative of the Conservative element in France, publishes a stirring article on the British 'victories in France; — “France in its,entirety, 1 those who know these heroic facts in the front line as well as those in the rear, is following with a passionate attention and an increasing admiration the magnificent victories now being won by the British armies on the soil of France. Since the eighth of last August, when the British entered with so much vigour into the conflict, we have seen the battle extend more and more towards the north. Rawlinson, Byng, Horne, and Flamer participating one after the other in the great movement. The British bulldog has with its terrible teeth seized the Germans by the throat, and wo may be sure that (hey will not let go in a hurry. What is noticeable more than anything else in these British victories is the stern will to conquer and the definite ascendancy over the enemy, now materially and morally dominated. Superiority of means, big guns, aeroplanes, and still more a superiority of energy, revealed by the late successes, justify The Times in its statement that it was not only the Wolan line that we desroved on Monday last, bat also the prestige of the German armies. We, as a matter of fact, are witnessing the crushing of their gigantic defences in ilie West. In deliberately attacking the heaviest part of these defences our Allies have demonstrated in everybody's eyes that they have pierced the German defence line at its most solid pla.ee, and thus thrown to the ground the dogma, of inviolability of the German front. There is not, in fact, a single Frenchman amongst us who (iocs not feel I lie must lively sentiment of joy mid gratil tide on account of these magnificent triumphs on the part of our brave Allies. The immense .-erviecs which England has rendered ns and which, she is still rendering u- are certainly those tilings which cannot he easily forgotten, Who, indeed, amongst us 's unable to remember the dark and tragic day.- at the beginning of the war when the British Government had .not yet made known its will to light at' our side? They promised to her the Fas do Calais with their ‘fleet and to protect us against any naval attack on the part of Germany. This, however, was hut a negative assistance, yet when the tnomv violated Belgian nentraiity, England, I hen fully conscious ol her duties mid of her interests, did no! hesitate to send her ultimatum to Berlin, thus throwing into the balance the formidable weigh! of her -word. She has since given us infinitely move than she had ever promised, and the hopes which her coopera lion awakened within us have more than heeii surpassed. The four little divisions which General French threw upon our soil have become an immense army, and the English legions constantly renewed, have come out ol the soil id Britain like an inexhaustible reservoir, and England is not only lighting in France. She is sustaining the great cause in Salonika, in Mesopotamia, and in Palestine, where she supports large bodies of troops. Lord Xorihciiffe stated tlie* other day that England’s dealli list ahum had reached fiOOJHK) men, this figure requiring absolutely no comment. It proclaims, m laid, with wind intrepid valour England assumed her shave of the load we are all carrying. and at the same lime constitutes the most eloquent reply to the infamous German accusation that England, while sending her Allies to the front, places hersell in the rear. The British Heels have swept from I lie seas all vestige of German influence, mid thanks to this mighty licet all of the great steamers and all of the colossal cruisers of which was -o proud have been forced prudently lo renin in within her ports. England has maintained in a tangible and unquestioned manner I lie sovereignly of the sens. In the meantime I lie infamy of the submarine warfare brought America with her tremendous resources to our side, yet it is the indirect consequence of England’s supromacy al sea that the American soldiers arc able to reach us at the rate ot MOO,OOO per month, and British ships brought over at least twothirds of them. England is the industrial defence of our coalition, a- the coal, the real bread of our workshops, comes for ihc greater part from her mines. For lour years sin* has unflinchingly supported this- prodigious military, naval, and economic effort, mid ns the war progresses her will and certainly of victory affirms itself more and more. Those Frenchmen who have resided a long time on the other side of .the Channel realise that the dominating character of Great Britain is the unquestionable fidelity which the Englishman conserves for his friends. For my part I have old friends in London to whom I have not written a 'word for years, yel were I to arrive in their city to-mor-row, and were I to make known my presence, they would all hasten to receive me in their homes and treat mb as cordially as if I had only left, them the night before. It is, then, this confident security which constitutes the force of the Anglo-French alliance, and which ty rl "y is the gauge of victory and to-morrow the peace of the world.”