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Timaru Herald, Volume CVII, Issue 16524, 20 April 1918, Page 6

The cyclonic battlo continues on the Western Front. Tho Germans have attacked all along their salient, from U'ivonchy. to Messincs, but no now ground lia.s been won by them, or hi won, it lias been regained by counterattacks'.. .Southern Givenchy has been as impregnable to their efforts as tho Kemmel ridgo on tho north. Mr Gibbs reports that "the whole of tho British front is now more secure than it has been for several days.' 1 Tho Germans have merely daslied themselves, wiithout avail, on a wall of flame and' iron, and while they continue to do that General Focli can resei'vo liis counter-blow. ...

The famous "leaning statue" of Albert, which lias been brought down, with the tower supporting it, by Octman shells, is described by Mr Mawfield in "Tho Old Front Line." Of tho little, straggling, red brick town he says, "its most important building was a big church lniilt a few years ago, through the energy of a priest, as a shrine for the Virgin of Albert, a, small, probably not very old image, about which strango stories are told. Before the war it was thought that this church would become a northern rival to Lourdes for tho working of miraculous cures during the' September pilgrimage. A folded statue of the Virgin and Child stood on an iron stalk on tho _ summit of tho church tower. During a bombardment of the town at a little after three o'clock in tho afternoon of Friday, January 15th, 1915, a shell so bent the stalk that the statue bent over the Place as / though diving. Perhaps few of our soldiers will remember Albert for anything except this diving Virgin. Perhaps half of the men engaged in tho Battle of the Somme passed inderneath her'as they marched un to the line, and, glancing up, hoped that sho might not come down till they were past. From someone, French or English, a word lias gone about that when sho does the war will end. Others have said that French engineers have so fixed her with wire ropes, that sho cannot falK" j

Tho announcement that tho War Loan for 9}- Millions has been nn dorsubscribed, so far, by a million pounds oomcs as a disappointment. Sir Joseph Ward ascribes tho imperfect response to tho holding back of many people, who were unwilling to subscribo until compulsory powers had been enforced against sharkers. Thoso powers iairo now to be enforced, though they may still bo avoided "by subscriptions at this last hour to the loan, whose period has been extended for tliel purpose. Tho powers, as laid down by tho latest Act, go further than tho compulsory clauses passed a year before, since they can bo applied to anyone who does not oontributo six times • tho amount of his average land and 'income tax for the past three years, and reduce tho interest for enforced subscriptions. Contributions to past loans will'count for reduction of this obligation, but Sir Joseph Ward would have done better if the clauses of last year's Act, now repealed, had been , enforced, against past shirkers, before calling for tho present loan. Another obstacle to the loan's complete success must havo been tho uncertainty of many married men as to how the ballots will affect them. Its deficiency should, bo much reduced, however, when tho Minister makes his next announcement.