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Timaru Herald, Volume CV, Issue 16080, 29 September 1916, Page 6

The Somme offensive still goei. forward briskly. Tlie Germans appear to li.ave been too mucli demoralised by tlie.long bombardments and successive Allied victories'to liave mti clx stoma r-'k for counter-attacks. tlious-li one lias been made, unsuccessfully, on tiro Frencli front.. Their resistance

Has been less determined as the: onensivo jj.u.B luuyiesseu, and woi can nope, mat tne lilies wjJi boon be through liie great area of closo entrenemuents and redoubts, and ngntmg on more open g- nd„ Unce tne (icrmans are got into that position tne Allies' superior- ' ity ot lighting forces, human and material, can be expected to tell an emphatic tale.

For the third day in succession] now Sir Douglas Jiaig is able to report "excellent progress." New, trenches have been carried by tho British on a I'ront of *wo thousand yards northward of Piers, whero their position is now level with ff,., side of Eaucourlh Abbaye, which is only 3* miles irom Bapaumc, just below the mam road which runs to it from Albert The road slants gently down hill to Baoaume, broken! n J i y of Le Sars and Ligny-Thilley ls about one mile from Bapaumc, on a converging road. The British have also, stormed a strong redoubt moro than a mile north-east of Thiepval. In that direction the village of Grandcourt, on the Ancr« stream, may be the nesjb strong obstacle to their progress. Tho Fr-ench have advanced east and south-east of Rancourt, on the Bothune road directly east of Combles, and ,kaye penetrated the ad.foining- wood- of St. Pierra Vaast in addition to making orogress below the Sonrme. Hin-< denburg must be wondering where he can get men on the eastern front to stay the process that threaten sf "to become one greai downfall on the Sbmme.

.. On the eastern front General Brusiloff is waiting for the "propitious moment." Meanwhile there is no definite news from that theatre, and none of special interest from others. From a number of unofficial messages dealing with tho Greek position we can conclude safely that the King is in communication with M. Venizelos. That he has been persuaded alreadv to make common cause with tho Allies is scarcely credible, though there seems to be •increasing pressure from his subjects to make him take that course. Venizelos may be anxious to see the Greek Government restored to its proper constitutional basis, which would mean first of all a free election, before there is any talk of intervention. The German Reichstag reassembled yesterday in most aloomy circumstances, with the Germans'' western battle P-oin'g wrong, tho submarine campaign an admitted failure, the blockade a death grip, and the zeppelins as disappointing as the other, German nhms. Possibly the story of the Bremen's safe arrival at America has been invented to create' one ray of lights for the relief of doom. America certainly does not seem to know of the arrival of the Bremen, and she lost no time in announcing tha arrival of the Deutschland,.

That diplomatic relations should not ■ be renewed with Germany until after her crimes have been punished is the conviction of Sir .-Edward Carson, which will be very generally endorsed. In a! "recent interview which he awe to a'French journal Sir Edward Carson stated : "The Germans aro barbarians, whom we should treat as such. Every Allied Govern--meht ought to declare to the Ger,man people to-day that,' when peace is' signed, we shall not Send auv diplomatic representative io Berlin or receive anv diolomatid representative from Germany so .long as the Germans have, not' themselves punished all those 'e/m'ltv of murder durinon the war, and all who have vir/litf>d tho international laws established in' / the interest of humam'fv j n fr lo course of past centuries." .Sir' Toward Carson pointed out fm'£ +f>e fact that neutral, nations Ti'aa passively looked on _ while Ig.ws were boing .broken the* stron crest reason for tiieir ■HLndipation.by belligerents, if breac l of them wgre. not. Dunisiied *>"- tiong wonlfl spp> no. sense. i;i sendniQ'J'o.lecrates +0 future diplomatic! conferences of any sort.