FRITZ WANTS AN ARMISTICE.

Free Lance, Volume XVIII, Issue 948, 12 September 1918, Page 6

FRITZ WANTS AN ARMISTICE.

Don't You Wish He May Get It ?

TMGEIITZ is feeling more and more uncomfortable as Foch and Ha.ig. ruthlessly smash dawn one line , of defence after anotlier and pertinaciously push on and on until the retreating .tiOuns axe, at some points at • least, in danger of being finally expelled from French, soil. Wei must not expect the present big push, or series of big pushes, to proceed unchecked, for every push, no matter, however successful, must necessarily come to a temporary stop, some day sooner or later, through its own impetus. To bring up big guns and supplies, to shift forward all the food depots and field hospitals, to reorganise all the transport for aji army of half-a-million men requires time, and this very time affords the enemy a chance, to get his "second wind. jftrite, however, has been Lit so hard that as yet, at least, all breathing time has been denied him. We regard it as practically certain that not only St. Quentin but Douai 2? will ba in the hands of the Allies before many weeks are over, and it will then become a very debat- ? <? point whether BVitz can continue to hold Lille. If he loses Idlle his right flank on the sea board will be imperilled, and it would not be long before his line of defence would be from ;™ n^® r P through Ghent right away to the Meuse. That would be the beginof the end for so far as his occupation of Belgium is concerned. Again the French and American pressure on the forces once called the Prince's Army is becoming so increasingly sever© that the Hun snows signs of grievous anxiety as to

-his position at Laon, a point of great strategic importance. If he loses Laon he will have to retire in'hot haste from the Rheims sector. Altogether, the outlook for Fritz is very much the reverse of rosy.

Hence, no doubt, the proposal for an -armistice which Amsterdam reports credit the .Emperor Karl and the Kaiser with having l decided upon. According to this report the enemy —"at the end of the present campaigning .season," will propose an armistice, "offering the unconditional evacuation and partial indemnification of Belgium • and the conditional evacuation of Northern France." How very good, of Fritz to be. sure! When dear brother Hun was on what he considered was to he a triumphant march through to Paris, the junker and Militaristic Party opened their mouths so wide as to include the permanent annexation of all Belgium, all the iron-fields of France and the Channel ports as far round as Havre, to say nothing of collaring all Belgian and French possessions in Africa, and titbits of territory -all the woi-ld over.

A change has come over the tenour of the Hun dream, and he now talks •of an armistice. But an armistice does not necessarily end a war. It is merely a cessation of hostilities, a prelude it may be sometimes to peace, but not always. There can be no armisticei of any kind for Fritz, for thfe very reason that the Allies are not insane enough to give him a spell wherein to' recover his health and get what "second wind" he may be able to pump into his now sadly shattered physical system. And certainly no armistice which provided for only "the partial indemnification of Belgium" would be agreed •to by the Allies. As to the "conditional evacuation of Northern France," Fritz is being expelled from that region at a rate so rapid that it looks very much as if he will soon have nothing left to evacuate, "conditionally" or otherwise. This armistice proposal proves that the EDun is after all a naif and humourless beast.

In our Society Gossip last week casual mention was made of the fact that Mr. G. B. I>all (Assistant Secretary of the Post and Telegraph Department) is departing over-seas shortly and that the office he is to fill.in London carries with it the military rank of major. Mr. 3>all, who is the most modest of men, will no doubt submit with, due resignation to his proposed militarisation or martyrdom, as a sacrifice to* his sense of duty. At any rate he goes Home to take the position in London of Director of Postal Affairs

M.P. for Wellington Central, who died on Wednesday last week

connected with the New Zealand Expeditionary Forces. The present incumbent of the office is Mr. F. D. Holdsworth (formerly chief postmaster at Auckland), and the change is being made at Mr. Holdsworth's desire, as he wants to get back to New Zealand after two years' service in London. It is uncertain whether Mrs. Dall will, accompany her husband_ as restrictions are imposed upon ladies going Home just now, ■ and besides that, Lieut. Bruce X>all (eldest son of the family) is at present on his way back to New Zealand invalided.