"SIEGFRIED LINE”

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9632, 12 April 1917, Page 6

"SIEGFRIED LINE”

iIIIIDENBOiiG'S ORDERS SACRinOES WITHOUT REMORSE. LONDON’, April 2. When passing through Aix-la-Chnpellc, von ilimlonburg enunciated tJio dogma that while German officers regretted the loss of Ido that the war had involved, they must con‘linue to sacrifice men without remorse. Tim Germans eall their new positions ihu Siegfried line. •Siegfried. the hero of various German legends, slow the- dragon, and then rendered himself invulnerable by bathing in its blood. In the end dea h oamo to him. He was treacherously killed h.y Hagen, who learned that (Siegfried was mortal between the shoulders. .Ur Beacli Thomas, correspondent of the “Oailv Mail'’ on the Eastern front, slates that the enemy is holding village fortresses under the, direct orders of 11 inden.burg. who reviewed tho line three weeks ago- ■ The captured fortified village of "Beaurains provides excellent obseivation. At tl.is point the Germans have •tin- thickest and thorniest 1 wire entanglements, 1100 yards wide, and little fm ther pursuit is possible here. At Ncuvillo Bonjourval the correspondent saw Germans playing hide-and-seek in a quarry bristling with machine-guns. Our patrols attacked them with rifles and machine-guns, which are now found to be a better find more successful formula than artillery. Horses pulled heavy guns upiiill over ivnutzin# doptliß of mud *ui« varieties of abysses. The enemy’s rearguards arc poorly supported by artillery. St. Quentin is surrounded by wired trenches, into which the Hindenhurg line runs. Further south the delences are unoro vague. Considerr.hie forces of cavalry, cyclists, and armoured cars are still in action. The work boWna the Australian lines .s intensely interesting, because none know when streets and buildings will he blown up. An explosion nt the Town Hall of Bapaume, wherein 28 wore killed and Seven were buried alive and later saved, is a typical case. Numerous dug-outs and two houses which had been occupied and vacated by a brigade headquarters, blew up days after the Australians’ entry. Those included Captain Bean’s dug-out, which, happily, was empty, hut the explosion wrecked all his belongings. The Germans use sulphur, which gradually establishes an electric connection. Just •now none go near the Gorman’s magnificent dug-outs. All accounts agree that the Australians are finding open fighting fascinaiing. The losses are light—at least ,iue-third of the German losses. Tho men are filled with resentment oi Hunnish tricks. Two Australians wore bringing in a captured German officer, who pulled' his pistol from his pocket And shot one Australian who was bending. The other immediately knocked cho brains out of the German. All the men are finding German bombs slid flares scattered everywhere. They delight in exploding bombs and flares until the front is sometimes like a gigantic fireworks. Brigadier-General Gollibrand Issued .in order. “This must cease,” hub ho [•.•me next day upon a man throwing a Gorman bomb. Replying to Brigadier Gollibrand’a castigation, the man scratched his head, and then roroarkek! innocently, “I throw the bomb because it might explode when- some poor French child found it years ij-hcad.” The correspondent of “The Times” at headquarters described the Kaiser’s ~-iait as ‘‘blood’ and thunder.” Ho informed tho troops that they must hold rvery village at all costs, but he did not tell them how to do it. He then went off to Homhurg. in Bavaria, to take the diabetes cure.’

OPTIMISTIC HYPOCRISY SFJOUBITY OF CENTRAL POWERS. INTERVIEW WITH VON HINDBNBTJEG. i3y Tslegraph—Press Awociation —Copyright Boater's Telegram*. (Received April 11, 6 p.m.) AMSTERDAM, April 10. General von Hindcnburg, mtervimvsd by the Berlin correspondent of the Spanish newspaper “Vanguardia, said that in deciding upon unrestricted submarinism Germany regarded the possibility of American assistance to the Entente as being without weight Ho admitted that America’s financial .assistance could not be- dismissed, but contended that tills was money which had not boon proved tho most important factor in the warfare. He believed that tho American supply of war material to the Allies was already so great that an increase was hardiy possible. On tho contrary, supplies were likely to diminish in consequence of the necessity of tho United States to equip her own enlarged army. He did not anticipate much material help to the Allies from America within a mea■surahle time, and it "'as the submarined’ task to diminish it. He declared that in view of tho fact that the English, assisted by tho Allied fleets, lii.l been ,unable to overcome the TTboni's the American fleet would not succeed Ho boasted that the Entente was weaponless against submarines. Von Hindonbnrg referred slightlying to the possibility of the American army being in readiness to proceed to Europe before next year, while the Entente announced that the decision of the war would be this year. He assert’-.! that the East front was so strang that General Brnsiloff’s most ruthless sacrifices had not enabled him to make headway. He claimed that recent events in Russia had promoted the Gorman plans. Despite the necessity for Germany to concentrate her forees last year to repn’se Brusiloff. with the limited resources then available on tho West Germam" had repulsed the Anglo-Ei-nn mi .attack. Things to-day we,'e fundamentally different on tho Western front. The Germans had’ become so strong that they could withstand every ' attack Von TTmdrnbnrg spoke complacently of the Central Rowers’ absolute security on all fronts and their unprecedented strength and preparedness everywhere. Tho submarinism calculations were turning out correctly. The General concluded with an expression of confidence based upon the consideration of all human possibilities.