CRISIS YET TO COME.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16847, 11 May 1918, Page 8

CRISIS YET TO COME.

ANXIOUS WEEKS AHEAD. HINDENBURG'S FALSE HOPES. LONDON, April 29. A Faei3 message states that a French correspondent interviewed a. prominent Spanish statesman who hag returned from Germany. The statesman gives an intereating view of the effect the offensive has on Germany. He states that military leaders anticipated enormous sacrifices, but promised that the massed attacks would early crush the British and French. Hindenburg expected to take Amiens and sever the British and French, or at least to bombard Paris from 25 miles. It is believed that" the destruction oi Paris would finish the war. The statesman fixes the middle of May as the time of the severest crisis, adding that the German public view is steadily turning agakist the official viaw, of which the Kaiser still does not approve. Router's correspondent at French headquarters says: The enemy so far has engaged 140 divisions, or nearly 2,000,000 men. He has beside, in France, fresh divisions which can still bo brought into the fight, and also reserves in the depots in France and Germany. Therefore it must be assumed that he can reconstitute his exhausted divisions rapidly. What he cannot do is .to refill the depleted units with officers and men of the same quality and degree of training. Months of intensive; battle must be reckoned with before the enemy is reduced to a pitch o? exhaustion, * s :., . ■ . , ' > We have, several perilous Weeks before to but we have every reason to await the issue calmly. The battle as it progresses , presents' analogies to -that of Verdun, which is, of the. best augury for the future. The Germans' " present objectives . are Picardy and Flanders, "'and if they are attained "they, will probobly serve as a , departure line for the final great effort. As their striking power was exhausted on the Mease in - 1916, so will it be in 1918 on the Somme, the AvreSand the . Lys. ■ ■