REAL PEACE COMING.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15193, 13 April 1917, Page 7

REAL PEACE COMING.

WAR MAY BE ABOLISHED. MR LLOYD GEORGE'S VIEWS (Australian and N.Z. Cable Services.) Received April 13. 2.30 p.m. LONDON, April 12Jii the course of his speed) at the American luncheon, Mr Lloyd George said : "The peace conference will settle the destroy of nations ami the course, of human life for countless years. I sec pea or- coming now. real |>eace, which would never know the strange things that happened in this war. Stranger things are coming, and rapidly. Six weeks ago Russia was an autocracy. Now it is one of the most advanced democracies in the world. To-day we arc waging the most devastating war in history, to-morrow —and perhaps not a distant to-morrow—war may he abolished from the- category of human crimes.' 1 GERMAN PEACE OVERTURES.

U.S. OPPOSED TO SEPARATE PEACE. (Australian and N-Z. Cable Services.) Keceived April 13, L>.35 p.m. WASHINGTON, April 12. Nothing is officially or unofficially known here regarding the German peace overtures. The feeling expressed is that the United States is opposed to separate peace. Colonel House also denies that he is involved in the overtures. THE GERMAN RETREAT PBILLIAtfT FRENCH ADVANCE. The most picturesque lighting in the great retreat (cables the. Sun's correspondent, under date March 24) is where the French are following up the advantages that arc denied to the British,, in open, firm country. From St. Quontin downwards the land has not been devastated by the terrible "winter, the shell-hre, and the great havoc which are everywhere manifest en the tiomrae front. Th? French, taking the utmost advantage of the prevailing conditions, following up the enemy with astonishing speed, using chiefly the spelndid national road through Noyon and Chantry, till on March 21 they forced the passage of the Somme, and thus threatened to turn the German positions on the French right, between the Oiee and the Aisne. The speedy adduce apparently surprised the Germans, who turned too late to stop the forcing of the canal. ■Realising that this advance threatened the whole line southward, the Germans made efforts to chock the advance in the vicnity of Hani and Chauny, in order to extricate the troops between the Oise and the Aisne. This resulted in the mest dashing open lighting. Correspondents agre-j that tho I'rench advance was a rcnrarkable co-ordination of forces. The artillery rapidly followed up, supporting the infa.ntry. and the Engineers' work was wonderful. In on?, night they repaired IGOO yards of the destroyed road, laying down a plank road, over which the whole army, with guns, munitions, and supplies, passed safely. The representative of Ileuter at French headquarters, writing from Soissons on Monday, March 2ti, said that the plateau of Crouy,.up the southern side of which the French are fighting their way in the teeth of fierce opposition, is the south-western projection of the vast 'Laon plateau. Its surface is broken by countless ravines, which are frequently wooded. Under a clear sky and a bright sun, hot enough in the afternoon to tempt weary men to iic down and bask in its ray-, the French are steadily driving: the enemy from position to position. The wilderness of mud lus disappeared, and men and guns advance over the fields, taking cover as men did in wars a decade ago. The frequent fusillading shows that the rifle li"« come into its own again. The brilliant French capture of Tied Bridge, over a ravine on the Maubeuge road gave the French the key to the whole of the Crouy plateau. The attacking regiments were mostly peasants, infuriated by the sights of ruined farms and orchards. They stormed the position with irresistible fury, and repulsed 1 liree counter-attacks in two days. The enemy ha« not abandoned hope of re-taking the wrecked bridge, and fighting is still raging. The French are also pressing forward on the left, in the vicinity of Margival, and on the right, in the vicinity of Vregny. .Every gain is followed by a counterattack, in which the Germans recklessly and fruitlessly sacrifice men. The enemy's position at Vregny is the strongest," his guns and machine-guns sweeping a natural glacis.

The Times' correspondent on the rench front predicts that the enemy shortly will make a. desperate stand, resembling that of the Marne.