GERMANS' HARD WINTER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16763, 1 February 1918, Page 6

GERMANS' HARD WINTER.

':,..,„ • LONDON, J»n. 22, Thh Times correspondent at British headquarters on the west front states that the Germans are spending their worst winter of the war, owing to the loss of high ground and of their comfortable trenches. The British have secured a corresponding advantage by the change. Prisoners who come into the British lines are so mudcaked on arrival that they need scraping. They describe many of the trenc'ies as being knee-deep in mire, and say that it is necessary to bail out the leaky dug-outs. The hardships the Germans are suffering tend to increase malingering among the men. A favourite method is to sham the effects of gassing. The Germans in some portions of the lines are distinctly inclined to fraternise with the British. This is the outcome of a growing anticipation of an early peaco compromise. Information received at Amsterdam is that the German troops on the Russian front are employed to the utmost in order to keep their minds off the Maximalist doctrines, the prevalence of which is causing anxiety to the commanders. One German division has been sent from Belgium to Russia.