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Timaru Herald, Volume CVII, Issue 16612, 22 August 1918, Page 4

: I. The French have extended ihelis offensive between the Oise and Aisn?/ advancing two and a Lalf miles on a| front of sixteen. .Several thousands of prisoners were taken. On theiif front west of the Oise our allies liaref 3 also been active, and have captured; tVe village of Beaavraignos, four mileaf south of Rove. Local advances hav<3 teen made by the British' on, Flanders front. ; "The German defend sive is bdiig sererjdy bustled all along* the line, and if reports wliidi oomri tliroueh neutral countries of increas-f iug disheartenment in Germany, a, state of depression very, different! from the high hopes of 'five ago, do not rest mucli on observed| evidence, we can take'them to be. w'elE imagined. j The American Chief of Staff an army of four million Americans inV France to win the war nest year. "Rie' : order may seem a large one. to some' sections of his countrymen, hut in -war-; the maximum effort that can l>e made" tends always to he cheapest in tty - long r"n. Americans have done" faV* more than they promised in the ntim), ber of men they have sent -up to tlirt, stage, but the important thing is not' to adhere to programmes, but to geS the war and its over atf the earliest time. The problem forf America, however, is not only; one.- of finding men, which should he very easy with a population of a hundred millions, hut of equipping them, and that is a more difficult matter. • In February last, it has been officially stated, the American General Staff gave General Goethals, Quartermaster General, the military programme which was stroposed to last till June next year. It provided for 100,000 men -to he- called eacfi month" this year. Then came the menace of the Gorman 'offensive, and for three months America has been calling-*-p men at the rate of 300,000 a month. That put a great strain on the supply department General Wood, speakinq for the , Quartermaster General, thought, it..no. small performance <that no soldier had been called up who had not been properly fed, , clothed, and equipped. "It has pulled our stock! in certain articles yory towj" was-his official report,, " but by making some big spofcpureihases we havo;got through.' In Apnl- and May we bought several million suits of summer underwear. Wo. got them from the jobbers, not Hie manufacturers. Wa bought what was on the jobber's shelf. We have got by, and the production , is speeding up.. I feel confident , can get through, even if we call 300,000 i men per month, for the balance" of thia year." ;