PROGRESS OF THE WAR

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9783, 5 October 1917, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Mr Gibbs’s -prediction is moving crescendo. He got yesterday to the greatest bombardment, and the implication of the greatest battle of the war. To-day he goes .so far as to ask if this is tho last phase of the war? What is more, ho is worth a serious hearing for his hope—it really is something more —because ho cites an authority that no one hail cared to say anything about a s an authority. Of the British soldier everyone speaks in tho highest terms of enthusiasm, as a fighter. His tenacity, .his courage, good humour, and chivalry, endurance, the-indomitahle valour ho has shown by a thousand victories that ought to have been defeats—all this grand combination of qualities, all the critics and the observers and the war students are for ever lauding. But when it cones to the results to b® expected, to the fruit to be taken from this grand tree, to the harvest likely to bo reaped, then Tommy Atkins disappears from the field of the microscope and we have the real authorities. All the scum of the Pacifist cauldron, all the venom of partisan ediitors, all the ingenuity of military critics : writing to order of faction—these are quoted, and they carry pessimism on their shoulders in triumph.' Often the enemy is pressed into thil service, and whatever the Blonde. Beast chooses to bellow, goes. Can we ever forget how his arguments of tpe map, and his jibes at the small acreage ot our great progress, were greedily swallowed and re-echoed by thousands of our bedraggled prints.

The British world believed . everything (including the lies of the German High Command) from everybody except the British soldier. At last Mi Philip Gibbs has discovered tbht the British .soldier who has been hammering the Blonde Beast from th® pilar of ° the Somme I to the post-of the Scarpe, driving him from dug-oiut and blockhouse and trenoh and. shell crater from Lens to Messincn, and from Messines to Ypres, Zomleheke, Polygon, Frezenberg, St. Julien, LiOJig o rruarok, and a thousand - other places; wJio has stuck it in tofenohes under gigantic shell-fire; who has fought his way bleeding but triumphant past half-scotched wire; who in the early stages hammered the enemy consistently in spite of his superior numbers and equipment; who did all these wonders' against the most renowned ‘arid hetrumpeted of all the armies ot ' history, and so doing maintained the record of his magnificent forbears— Mr Gibbs, we say, has at last discovered thflit, this incomparable fighter' ought to be alble to judge how this campaign is likely to go —at all events, better than the armchair critics and the pacifists, and the Bloch pessimists, nil the Liilputians of our race, and all . the roaring swashbucklers of Germany.

So to-day we have the remarkable fact that the opinion about battles of, the man who is fighting our battles is quoted to us. Having asked if / this is the last phase of the war, Mr Gibbs sends us the view of some Tommies. They are terse and much to the point. He says he has heard‘Tommies telling Australians that they only need to make a face at the Hun to make him “hands up.” He adds that battalions of them, dining in the Flemish farmhouses, celebrate the victory which “ppt the enemy down and under, and. very near to hopelessness.” These are the men who have swept the enemy’s then in swathes with their rifle Are who have got him at bay in trenches and dug-outs, who have seen, the wretched remnants of smashed and dispersed counters lurking in shell-holes, trembling under the branches of bat- 1 tored woods, and groping in fuddled haste for lost, roads. And tho peasantry of Flanders, who have seen these , sights, are glad to have the men at. their .tables and to celebrate with them the victory which “put the enemy Mown - and .under and near to hopelessness.”

This is the true reply to that foolish editor who urges poor Fritz to “convince the enemy of our victory.” It gives :ÜB, Fritz’s measure, as: down and under and almost hopeless. Going beyond that futile scribe, the answer reaches Hmdenhurg in his house, passing through the files of youfig girls throwing flowers and jostling the AllHighest in the gracious act of presenting the naver-to-be-suffioiently-be-praised and be-iglorified and all so insufficient of; the great Kaiser the counterfeit presentment. And the reply will stand calmly by while the soldier idol of the Fatherland halt draws his sword, saying, “No more peace talk until the bloody work is done and victory is ours.” The reply will smile, knowing well what kind of a victory “ours” has been so far. The reply will probably discover on the spot the truth which M. Charadame brought from Berlin and _ inscribed in the pages of the “Atlantic Monthly.” The truth he declared to be simply that the great idol was no longer worshipped; that the faithful were then (some months ago it was) pressing in worship round von Ludendorff; that ten portraits of tho new divinity were sold for every one of the man of the great statu© with the nails; that; nil the credit for whatever had been won in the big man’s time was really due to Ludendorff, who had planned, and settled,, and foreseen everything. Von L., the populace axe crying, will be doing great work like Bismarck’s (only better) when the great puppet he worked with his capable wires is forgotten. • • •

All of which is very interesting, certainly very gossipy, 1 and probably in great part true. What we can. however, guarantee to be true is the opinion of our men and the peasantry of Flanders of the state of affairs at the front, which means the British first and the enemy nowhere. Tha soldier has read it the whites of enemy eyes, noted it in the swaying of enemy battalions, confirmed it in the disappearance of green-grey coats into woods and trenches and shellcraters. He has not given himself a time limit. Bnt when the veteran correspondent asks if this is the last stage of the war, we can tell from the soldiers’ remarks that the end cannot ho very far off*

The angry criticism the Vienna press directs at Dr, Michaeiis, the Chancellor, is a precious asset also at this tiao. They denounce him as a stupid pedant who refuses to define Germany’s aims with regard to Belgium. The point is that Germany’s only aim is to keep the war going until something turns up to her advantage. The Wilhclmstrasse is trying to hoodwink the Vatican, hut, if wo judge by the fact that a safe conduct hag been granted to Cardinal Mcrcier to go to Rome, the Vatican is not so easily duped hy the arts which fail to take in anybody nowadays. It- J s, of course, not impossible that an accident might happen to delay the Cardinal on his journey, to put Hi’s Eminence in charge of an eminent physician who will not hear of his patient’s removal for at least sii months. The Cardinal will no doubt bo much the better for the pure air of Germany and the neighbourhood of all that is so sweet and reasonable in Kultur. But that will not get the truth about Belgium to the Vatican, unless it manages to get there over a signature supposed to be the Cardinal’s.

But' the raucous cry of Hindenburg for a fight to a finish implies a Prussian. knowledge that the day for subterranean peace tactics is gone. Possibly that knowledge was quickened to swashbuckler utterance by the news from the International Trade Union Congress (where the only Entente representatives were empty chairs), which left the German representatives cursing the English lies which von Hindenburg suspects to be largely truth flil. #

The enemy claims that he ttas repulsed attempts to recapture the two advanced posts we lost yesterday, out as there is no mention of these on one side, it is safe to conclude that Fritz has had a nightmare.

On the Verdun sector he claims to have cantured 1200 yards of trench_at Hill 314, which is on the front between Samogaeux, on the Meuse, and Bezonvaux, on bite right corner of the French line. It appears that he has held these 1200 yards with great tenacity. It appears also that our gallant Allies have not done Fritz justice, for though they have a good deal to say about liis onslaught/ on the Samogneux-Beaonvaux line, they omit to say that he has stuck fast in any part'of it. They only mention HiJI 344 to say that Fritz got a Isold and wias put out. of it. Evidently Fritz has not got much to show for his money. But he may hope, for the artillery battle in that region had become intense when the dispatch left. Moreover, the whole French front is lively, for the Aisne echoes with artillery, and a German assembly for attack was broken up on the Reims sector by those ’cute “seventy-fives”— the “three score and fifteen” that has established a certain limit in Gorman military life. ' '

One thing the French are doing very consistently. They have established the practice of never letting an air raid pass without a .reprisal. Therefore we have a Roland to-day at Stuttgart for the enemy’s Oliver at Bar-le-I>uc yesterday. Tire opportunity was taken to make a prolonged visitation, and the enemy had to endure seven tons of fireworks,' distributed over many places of sorrow. The British are talking of reprisals, in iflorcible language, which hint® that the output of machines will warrant systematic reprisals very soon- The air defence of Ixmdon has apparently improved considerably, but it still leaves something to be desired, for some of the last raiders got through the guard and killed a•. few peopleThe air work oh the West front, however, is kept up with great energy, showing that the flying power on the West has not been weakened for the sake of London and the Bast Coast. In these latter raids the enemy’s maohines are not enjoying the impunity of the earlier diays of the airplane activity which succeeded the frustrated Zeppelin attacks.

The submarine piracy shows a slight improvement for us. about 8000 to 9000 tons less sunk. Inasmuch as any diminution of loss is good, the week’s report is satisfactory. But the improvement is too small to encourage any hope of immediate victory over the submarine. Victory to Germany with losses on tbfis plane is impossible. For us the inconvenience continues very serious without being a menace.' That, however, is a strong proof that our measures have been substantially effective, as the results, compared with those of the- first few, weeks, when the enemy’s attack was fresh and. energetic, show a very considerable check on hiis operations. He still boasts of coming' victory, but he has to submit to checks which show that victory for him is quite unlikely.

The Council of the Sunday School Union met on Wednesday evening. Mr Alex. Johnston, president, was m the chair, and nine delegates were present. Reports on various meetings that had been held were presented and discussed. It was reported by the president that owing to the prize-list being more than double that of last year, and also to the increased cost oh books and printing, there was a very big deficit in the funds. The president and secretary had canvassed a number of friends and still had a few to see, a liberal response had been made to the appeal for help, and it was hoped that when the canvass was completed the financial position would be satisfactory. It was decided not to hold any special meetings for the days of prayer for Sunday schools, which will be observed on October 21st and 22nd, but it is hoped that the individual schools will hold one or two meetings among their own workers. The long service diploma granted to Mr W. G. Holdsworth was presented by the president, in a happy speech to which the recipient replied. Mr Holdsworth had been superintendent of the Conrtenav Place Congregational School for thirty-nine year*. A very valuable adjunct to the work of the Y.M.C.A. with the New Zealand troope at the front is the travelling kitchen motor-van donated by Mr Percy MoHardy, of Palmerston North. In gratitude for the generosity of the donor and for the free refreshments supplied from it, it lias been christened by the boys “Buckehee Mac.” The van has done excellent service as a rapid means of transport, and also m enabling the Association to carry out many “Bnckshee stunts” when the men have been on the march. The New Zealand Division is so mobile that it » imperative for the association to have means of getting about the country quickly, and “Buckshee Mac” is now an indispensable part of its organisation.