VIEWS ON INITIAL THRUST.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16909, 23 July 1918, Page 6

VIEWS ON INITIAL THRUST.

FIEST ESTIMATE CAUTIOUS. A. and N.Z. (Beceived 7.35 p.m.) WASHINGTON. July la-Delayed. Be general opinion is that the crisis of he German drive lias passed. It i* believed that -it degenerated into local actions at intervals ( on a 20-mile front and also that the German flanks are ex' posed and communications with those who crossed the Marne seriously menaced.

T) v K^ W YORK * Jnl7 18—Delayed. The New York Times says that it is very encouraging that the speed of the man Offensive is slower than in the first and second phases of their summer ***«*£

rB The New York Herald states that the thaf 1h« fie T- day ' 8 fightin & Bhow «™ « enemy , d " V 0 has been stopped fin 9in ts commencement. The costly .failure will have its recoil at home where , the German people have been deluded by vain promises of victory. rpS, 0 a NeW York Sun says that 80 far the German armies have failed in their objectives Their initial movement wag shattered, and readjustment of their forces necessitated, which will materially affect the general plan. 1 NW V Frank Simmonds > writing In the New York Tribune, says that the German offensive was not pursued with the violence of the March or May operations, but it may be that only the preliminary feints preceding the real drive have been witnessed. The immediate threat to Rheims was real, and considerable. The wisest comment to-day was, " So far so good." The New York World says that whatever the eventual result, the fact remains that the drive was blocked on the second day, and that the Germans have practically nothing to show for their enormous losses.

Washington military students say that it is too early to make a final decision, but it looks as if the German offensive had broken to pieces.