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SECOND
MAIN NEWS
SEETION
ALLIES PREPARING TO TAKE THE OFFENSIVE
Kaiser s Experts Feverishly En
gaged in Production of Tri
planes to Offset, and Beat if
Possible, Coming U. S. Drive,
French Aero Service Agent Tells
American Correspondent What
Has Been Learned of Teutons’
Activities Along This Line.
By HENRY G. WALES,
Staff Correspondent of International
News Service.
PARIS, Jan. 9.—To meet the Allied
aviation program for 1918, which s
to be vastly strengthened by Ameri
can machines and pllots, Germany has
adopted an intensive building cam
paign, specializing on a few stan
dard types, one of which is distinctly
different from anything they have
used before.
A FPench aviation officer attached
to the intelligence department, has
told me that Germany has seized upon
the triplane machine for scout work,
which the British Introduced more
than a year ago in the Sopwith model,
and that the enemy is bending every
effort to produce a flghting single
seater of this type, in enormous quan
tities,
T'he Sopwith triplanes used by the
Royal Flying Corps were highly suc
cessful but did not revolutionize aerial
fighting as had been hoped, and al
though many of them are still in use—
they are very fast and rapid climbers
—the ‘old-style biplane is still con
sidered the standard type by the
British,
No French Novelties.
The French have not disclosed any
striking novelties in aircraft as yet
but it {8 no secret that their new
Morane monocoque—a monoplane—
is the most wonderful machine ever
produced to date by any country,
both in point of speed and climbing
ability, and is also capable of acro
batics impossible in a biplane or tri.
plane. My informant inclined to the
belles that the Germans hope to find
in their tripiane a weapon against the
new French monoplane.
The German triplane is built by the
Fokker concern which produced a
monoplane two years ago—the light
niag-swift little machine that wreak
ed havoc among the French and Brit.
ish escadrilles until Nieuports and
early model Sopwiths appeared in suf
ficient numbers to equalize the aerial
‘ghting.
The triplane carries two machine
guns, both fixed and firing dead ahead
through the propeller, like the latest
model S, P. A. D, biplanes, The fuse
lage of thertriplane is lightly armored
to protéct the pilot.
Powerful Motor.
A very powerful fixed motor oper
ates the Fokker triplane, but French
and British experts who have ex
amined a model of the machine which
was shot down almost intact inside
the British lines recently, believe thai
it is too heavy for its short wing
soread and will fail to live up to Ger
mén expectations. The extra buoy
tncy of the third plane permits the
wrmoring, and also gives a certaln
stability to the machine which bi
planes do not possess.
The Albatross type D-3 model, the
former flghting machine used by the
enemy, has bagen refined In certain
parts to insure a speed of more than
120 miles. an hour at 10,000 feet ele
vation. This is considerably below
the best speed attained by elther the
8. P. A. D, or the Sopwith Camel. The
Albatross climbs to 14,000 feet In 24
minutes,
But it is in observation machines
that the enemy has prodiiced his best
new model, anccording to the French
officer with whom 1 spoke, The D. F
W. (Deutsches Flugzeug Werk) is a
200-horse power Benz motor and car-
President of France Cables Thanks to U. S. for Plan to Rebuild 'Citiies:
e AMBASSADOR JUSSERAND’S LETTER TO MAYOR HYLAN |
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'MAYOR HYLAN’S LETTER WHICH ELICITED THE GRATITUDE OF FRANCE
) TO HIS EXOELLENCY RAYMOND POINCARE, PRESIDENT OF FRANCE: augurated by William Randolph Hearst, is being directed as a holy crusade by many of
The American people, inspired by gratitude and love for the great French nation, are his influential newspapers all over the United States. It gives me great pleasure to assure ‘
{ throwing themselves with energy into a movement to rebuild by popular subscription the you that the City of New York will play a leading part in the remarkable national tribute 3
{ - cities of France that have suffered such cruel damage in the war. This great movement, in- being prepared for your gallant country. .JOHN F. HYLAN, Mayor of New York. }
- The Epic of the Walking Wounded ---. By John Oxenham |
This is o first-hand story of the Walking Wounded. John Ozenham
went to the British front. He saw the Walking Wounded. He helped the
Y. M. C. A. do things for them. This iz what he saw and what the Y, M. C.
A. did. Almost everybody in England knows John Oxenham. He has heen
publishing stories for twenty years. America knows him best for his mis
sionary ‘“‘Pageant of Darkness and Light” produced in Boston, Baltimore,
Cincinnati, Cleveland and Detroit, as the “World in Boston,” the “World
in Baltimore,” and 80 on. At least thres hundred thousand Americans have
taken part in )t‘ .
The long rolling sweep of slightly
elevated land on which stood Wyts
chaete and Messines was once & pros
perous and smiling countryside. Now,
Wytschaete and Messines are only
handfuls of rubble. It {s all an abom
ination of desolation and death—a
cratered, crevased land, pited and
pockmarked with shell holes. Its on
ly harvest is mud, barbed wire, the
remnants and refuse of the great bat
‘tle—and many never-to-be-forgotten,
memories,
Now indeed it is busier than ever it
‘was before, but now with death as
once with life. For, from somewhers
back there, the camouflaged big guns
are hurling death and destruction
into the driven-back German lines,
night and day without ceasing, and
the enemy does not always take his
flaying quietly. The ground we now
occupy, after driving him out, has
suffered fiery torment from both sides
and bears the tragic marks of it.
Walking Is Hard.
Tt is arduous walking there even for
a fit and healthy man in full posses
sion of all his limbs and his wind. To
the broken men coming down from
the fight it must have heen a verita
ble purgatory, a Via Dolorosa from
which the imagination shrinks, I was
wading through its mud and dodging
its pitfalls but a few days ago. So
I know.
But a great and imperishable mem
ory of good deeds nobly done attaches
to Messines, and thousands of men
will recall them as long as they live.
But for them, indeed, many of the
men might never have had the chance
of ever recalling anything again.
Before this, the Canadlans in their
magnificent fight at Vimy Ridge, and
the Australians at Polygon Wood
and Glencourse and the Menin Road,
and the New Zealanders before Pass
chendael, had received the prompt as
sistance of their Y. M. C. A's as they
came out of their fights, and the value
of that assistance had been so ob
vious, and had received such grateful
recognition from headquarters, that
when the great advance at Maessines
was planned, the British Y. M. C. A,
was taken into consultation, and ar-
rying two Parabellum maghine guns,
one of which fires through the pro
peller, the other being mounted aft
for the gunner and firing almost in a
circle, with a downward fleld of fire
through a trap in the bottom of ‘he
fuselage.
Wonderful Speed.
The D. F. W. develops wonderfu
speed for a two-seater machine and
can climb fast. Several have _al
ready apreared on the front and have
proven themselves very troublesome
to the Allled pllots. The Rumpler-
Mercedes and the Rumpler-Maybact
are two other types of observation
machines used by the Germans, de
riving the latter part of their name
from the type of engine used, They
are not s 0 fast as the D. F. W. and
are very difficult to land, owing to
the excessive weight of their motors,
which tend to drag them down Ly the
nose,
Information reaching the French
intelligence department, accerding to
my Informant, indicates that the
Gothas, ‘ape being scrapped in saver
of a new bombarding biplane, the
Riesen Flug Zeuge, which is the fu
ture arm for hombardment. The new
ralder 1s equipped with two glant mo-
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S, T RERORE TR ey
R. MAYOR: My Government cables me that you were so good as to inform President Poincare that the American people were about to campaign
M for the collecting of funds in view of the rebuilding of such of the French cities as have most severely suffered from Germanic barbarity. lam in
structed to express to you, Mr. Mayor, the thanks of the President of t he Republic for such a new and valuable token of American good-will toward
the ally of olden days, now once more in alliance with the American nation in a fight for a noble cause.
The value of this proof of friendship, in which you stated that your great city will not fail to take part, is still enhanced both by its spontaneous charac
ter and by the touching sentiments toward France which you were so good as to express in your own behalf and in that of those who kindly interest them
selves in this plan, With heartfelt thanks to them and to you, I have the honor to be, Mr. Mayor, Very truly yours,
Hon. John Hylan, Mayor of New York. ' S JUSSERAND.
rangements were made for succoring
the wounded on a scale never before
attempted. s
The director of medical service had
it all most carefully planned out be
forehand with their leaders. The ad
vance was to be along such and such
lines. The wounded who could walk
would come down from the advance
dressing stations, about 100 yards be
‘hind the front, by such and such
tracks to the Cors collecting posts
halfway down, and so, by other clear
ly indicated tracks to the rear, where,
at the railway evacuation stations, the
ambulance trains awaited them.
Every road at the rear would be
packed and jammed with the where
withal to consolidate the advance, the
success of which was never for one
moment doubted—ammunition wag
ons, service motors crammed with
food, guns, limbers, fleld kitchens,
men, horses, mules. No room for
wounded men in such a maelstrom.
So they were to keep to their own
marked tracks, where at all events
they could take their time and walk
unhindere{i and unhindering.
Shacks Nearest the Firing Line.
And so, behind the nine-mile bat
tlefront, tlie night before the ad
vance, in four-and-thirty different
places little mushroom shacks of
timber, corrugated irén, sods, any
thing that would afford a semblance
of shelter were hastily erected and,
with the help of limbers, service wa
gons, and motors, were amply sup
plied with all necessarles, and above
all with the choicest spirits among
those men who carry their lives In
their hands and their hearts on their
sleeves in the device of the Red
Triangle. There are two or three
leaders to each post and a number of
plcked orderlies.
rhat little Red Triangle on the
black ground has done more to win
this year, and still much more to
save men’'s bodies and souls, than we
at home as yet fully recognize. But
the army chiefs out there know It
to the full and theirfappreciation is
large and warm. To hundreds of
thousands of our men it represents a
new evangel—the gospel of practical
tors and each motor operates twin
propellors, one in the rear and one in
advance,
Night Flyers.
Thus the R. F. Z. is a combination
wausher and tractor. They are much
easier to land than other types, be
cause in descending the pilot shuts
off his forward propellors and leaves
only the rear ones turning, thus sta
bilizing the machine, As they are
used principally in night flying, when
landing is the most AiMAMIt part of
the operation, the ndvantage !s con
slderable. The motors are placed in
separate nacelles, one one either glde
of the main fuselage, which la con
structed to earry a erew of threes te
filve men, Two auto-cannens of one-
Inch ealiber are mounted en the R, ¥,
Z., and it also carries several machine
guns,
Further reports frem Germany indi
cate that while there is no lack of
gasoline for the machines, the avia
tien officials are having a hard time
obtaining sufficlent rubber fer their
needs in manufacturing machines for
the coming campaign, It is reported
that 16,6600 men are employed in Ger
many cellecting old bits of rubber to
be used by the aviatien.
ATLANTA, GA., SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1918.
and most genial Christianity, It has
come to a new birth, and has opened
its lusty new-born arms wide enough
to take in the whole world.
The Red Triangle asks no ques
tions, requires no creeds, when it of
fers its help. Like the Samaritan in
‘the parn.bze, it sees simply the need
‘and to the uttermost of its power‘
supplies it. Wherein is a mighty les- |
son for the churches and for all of
us, If we have the wisdom to learn
it—well! The Red Triangle has
learned on flery flelds the way to
win men.
The nearest posts were not more
than 250 yards from the actual battle
front. The Red Triangle had attain
ed one among its many summits of
desire. It wag no longer merely an
adjunct to advance camps and rest
camps. At last it had its regular
place of service on the battlefleld, ar
ranged and ordered by headquarters,
and {ts leaders were invited to the
medical conferences which settled
the program for deallng with the
wounded. .
At 3:30 a. m. on June 7 the curtain
went up to the tune of the explosion
of the great mines, and the roar and
crash of the barrage began. All night
long the Red Triangles had been
tolling like busy ants and—do permit
it!—genial-faced uncles! The fires
were burning brightly, kettles galore
were steaming, chocolate cales, and
~other comforts wera all laid ouE‘
‘handy, and the eager-faced workers
‘waited, tight-strong, for the event
and for thelr work to begin. ‘;
| The First Wounded. )
The men went over the top follow- i
ing the traveling line of fire, and a
few minutes later the front posts‘
‘were receiving their first guests, wel- ‘
coming them with cheery words,
handling out hot drinks, cofl'ee,‘
cocoa, lemonade, beef broth, choco-‘
lates and cakes, and speeding them
on their way down the slippery
‘tracks to the next house of call,
‘where just the same attention await
ed them—and so to the next, and the
next, till they arrived at last at the
railway evacuating post. And howl
some of them would ever have reach
ed there without the assistance of
the Red Triangle it 18 hard to say.
Some could harely stumble along,
faint with loss of blood and dazed
with the horrors of that rush through
the hell-fires of No Man’'s Land.
Some had to sit down every hundred
yards. They helped one another and
got along somehow. And, no matter
what thelr injuries, the Red Triangle
put a bit of new life into: them at
each stopping place.
One irrepressible joker indeed ex
pressed the belief that if he died on
the road ‘“one of you blooming fel
lows would be waiting at the gate of
heaven with another cup of cocoa for
me.”
Every man whose wounds permit
ted of his walking walked that day.
The stretcher-bearers had = their
hands full to overflowing of the too
badly broken, But as they came
down all wera guccored, the German
wounded exactly as our own, To the
Red Triangle n wounded man is a
man in need, and they are there to
supply the need. of every wounded
man, even though this one may have
blown off half the face of that one
alongside him a minute or two be
fore, Our man would have done the
same for hig enemy If he could and
without doubt the (German casualties
were of our making.
, There werse ghastly snough
woundg even among the walking
cases, and soon every gne of the four
and-thirty lttle ald posts was a
blessed center of bleeding humanity,
with clotheg and flesh in shreds, with
faces gory and hgggard and (wislmll
with pain. At time® ne face whut-‘
ever could be seen, nething but|
z Inasmuch
3 By John Oxenham. 2
‘g As you did it to my brother, }
‘ You did it unto Me. ¥
{ His Wounds were Mine, his hard- i‘
l ships Mine, S 1
We bore them all for thee. §\
It was I whom you did succor, ¢
When he trod that toilsome track; §
He had been in hell, and you knew |
5 it well,
When you gave us welcome back,
[ am there with all my brothers,
Who give their all for Me,
Can Life grudge aught .to those
who sought
At such a cost to set her free,
And on their painful crosses
bought !
I Her Larger Liberty? ‘
bloody bandages hastily fixed by the
stretcher bearers under fire. 'But in
most cases there was a mouth some
where, and if it could by any means
drink and eat, it felt 100 per cent
happler for these things and thou
sands per cent better for the broth.
erly love that had provided them
right there in the very thick of things
and just at the exact moment when
they were most needed. It is doing
exactly the right thing at exactly the
right moment which is wmore than
ever needed nowadays. It {s that
which will help to rabuild all life.
There has been, unnecessarily, so
much of the reverse of this spirit on
‘every side since we tumbled into this
‘hldeous world war.
| Not One Man Groans.
I can not refrain from quoting the
swords of one good worker up there
‘that day. He says the experiences of
‘the day left indclible impressions on
}his mind, as, indeed, how could they
fail to do—"A sense of horror at the
dread price at which even an over
whelming success has been purchased.
The horror of blood cverywhere. It
is horrible, horrible. A sense of
amazed admiration at the fortitude,
courage, and modesty of our men.
Not one groan or whine did I hear as
I moved about among them, from 4 in
the morning till 6 at night, and again |
from 12 at night till 8 next mornir.g.‘
Constantly in and out between close
ly lald stretchers, not one man made
a groan, not one man pitied himself.‘
but even the most sorely wounded
endured their pain and the additional
pain of redressing without a murmur,
The man to whom the lifting of his
head and shoulders, so that he might
drink, must have given additional
pain, gave no sign save of his grate
ful apyreciation, The man whose
wounded foot I accidentally touched
a 8 he sat on a crowded bench, met my
apology by smilingly saying It was
nothing. Mhe man whose jaw was 8o |
badly smashed that he could not have
a drink, did not repine; the men
whose wounds were such that drink
must not be given them were just as
grateful for a spoonful of water with
which to wet their parched lips and
thronts as though for a cupful. The
courage and fortitude of the men is a
thing never to be forgotten. And
thelr modesty! In normal times we
have to limit supplies and no man is
allowed to buy more than three bars
of choeolate, On this day wa were
using Fry's—which breaks most eas!-
ly inte half bars—and almost every
man had to be asked to take a sacond.
\Thelr ehlvalry nlso knows no
bounds, as just this inecldent will
show; About 2 o'clock we had torre
fuse drinks of water to unwounded
German prisoners, ag our water sup
ply was very nearly gilving out and
we could not be sure of the early ar
rival of a water oart, Almost imme
diately | caught a wounded British
=oldier offering, before he had touched
it himself, a drink of his cocoa to two
unwounded Germans.”
Risk of Work.
Roughly speaking, all the wounded
had first claim, next them the stretch
er-bearers, whose work is as risky
and taxing as any, and lastly, the
battalion runners who keep up the
difficult communications botweon‘
front and rear and between the Hnos.]
a business full of risks and terflbly‘
trying. ‘
The German wounded were amazed
at their vnexpected good treatment,
Unwounded German prisoners acting
as stretcher-bearers appreciated it so
highly that ong bateh, who accident
ally got lost by their guard,” came
back to one of the stations to carry
more wounded—and get another
drink,
The actual cost to the Red Triangle
of that three days’ service was 2,000
pounds sterling, or about SIO,OOO. The
actual gain to humanity—who shall
assess {t? It runs beyond the com
putation of all the flgures In the
world, for it touches men's souls.
Here are some telling little inel
dents: After his refreshment—and
until you have been through the fire
and smoke which has left your throat
like a lime kiln, and your nerves
lquiver:ng, and your limbs shaking in
‘spne of themselves, to your intense
disgust, and are plastered with mud
and blood from head to foot, you can
not fuily appreciate the vivifying
i wonder of a clean drink of hot lemon
‘ade or coffee or beef hroth or cocoa.
Apart from the actual joy of them,
‘there is the unfalling glory and won
der of being still allve after going
down into hell over there, the magical
flavor of life and safety which adds
its keen and dearly bought zest. After
his refreshment, one man emptied his
pockets of every farthing he pos
sessed, three francs and fourpence—
halfpenny in English money, and in
sisted on giving it to the Red Tri
angle by way of acknowledgment. An
officer who received assistance at the
same time laid down a 50-franc note)
All honor to them both, but the Tom
my gave even more than his master,
Like the widow, he gave his all.
A man came staggering in, on the
third day, one sofld cake of mud from
head to foot. His story was very sim
ple—as the greatest deeds are. He
was badly wounded In the arm. His
chum at the same moment had hig
legs shattered and rolled into a shal
low trench half full of water. The
other followed to see what he could
do, and found his chum’s head under
water. He held it up lest he should
drown, and sat by him, holding it up,
World Not to End;
»
Idea Is Destructip
ea Is Destructwe,
Says Chicago Sage
CHICAGO, Feb., 9.-—Declaring
that people ir America today who
believe in and are spreading the
doctrine of the coming destruc
tlon of the world are “striking
at the heart of all democratic
idefls,” Professor Shirley Jack
son (Case, of the University of
Chicago, in 'The Miilennial Hope,
issued by the University of Chi
cago Press, takes up in detail the
.&ellef of the destruction of the
orld both in ancient and mod
orn times and refutes the whole
i€ea throughout. 4
Professor Case in the early
chapters of the book discusscs
the belles in the millennium held
by the Gentiles, Jews and later
Christians »nd shows the'r futil
ity as proved by later eve Itae,
The present-day millenninlists,
according to Profersgsor Case, nre
pariieculsrly destructive, 'le gives
three reasons for doubting tle
valldity of thelr claims—first, ‘he
fallure of past millennial pro
grams, the fanciful content of
these hopes, and thelr inherent
pessimism. ‘
(PN {
et ||B ‘
E\itili“ f |
IR
s
for two and a half days tfll he died,
and only then staggered down to the
station to be seen to. That will take
a lot of beating,
Chum First.
Another—a burly Australian, badly
wounded, head all bandages, shaking
with fatigue, was brought down in an
ambulance. He was handed a cup of
hot coffees and was needing it badly.
He had put it to his lips when he
glanced round at the ambulance and
saw a chum just being carried out,
more sorely wounded even than him
self. He put down the coffee un
tasted, staggered back to his friend
and bent over him, “Skinny, old
man, 1 hope you'll pull through.
Good-bye!”-—and then staggered back
and drank up his coffee,,
Chum first-—then self. 'That ls one
of the many mighty lessons men are
learning out there. For this terrible
‘streu of war, with all its unhuman
and unbalancing conditions, has pro
‘duced in the minds of men a state of
‘l.bsoluto objectivity, The things that
‘appenl to the outer senses are the
‘thlnts that bulk largest—lifs, death,
‘shelter, food, rest, mud or worse
‘\thlngu-—and friendship—palishness, it
vou llke. That is one of the great
vital and redeeming forces. What
will a man not do for his chum?
Greater Jogve hath no man than this—
and many a man, unknown to ail gave
One—has proved it In his dying. His
expression of it may be amazing at
times and his language sulphurous
and halr ralsing, but the newel of
that greater love is there, like the
pear! amid the putrifying oysters, and
its surroundings can not impair the
luster of it.
Dr. Kelman's text to the men one
day !# an old story but worth repeat
ing. “Faint, yet pursuing,” sald the
doctor. “Fed up bdut sticking it”
translated the men. And that, from
my own experience, is the spirit of
them all.
No human man byt s sick of the
horror and waste of it all. But we
are in it, not of our own will, but
of direct necessity, and the men in
tend to see it through. You see it
in every hard-set face as you pass the
soldiers in mudcaked thousands
tramping steadily to the front.
They also intend something more—
that, when this dread thing Is over,
the world shall be a better place to
live in, for those who are left and for
those who are to come. And in the
still greater work which is to follow
the job on hand, the Red Triangle
will have its }v’h‘minted work, It may
prove the salvation of the State as It
has meant the salvation of her broken |
sons, ‘
.
Girl, Seven Feet 6,
Continues to Grow
Despite Operation
espite Op
CHICAGO, IPeb. g.-—Mabel
Johnson, 25 years old, 7 feet 6
inches tall, is 4n St. Bernard’s
Hospital recovering from an op
wration intended to stop her
growih. The operation conslisted
of removing two sections of the
fcmur bone,
“We were partially successful,”
said Dr. Hurley, “but another op
\ eration may be necessary.”
Miss Johnson is a pretty bru
nette and is unusually bright.
Her parents, it is said, are both
undersized \
“Miss Johnson is a sufferer
from aeco-meglia, a very rare
disease, where growth is con
tinuous,” explained Dr. Hur-
Jey. “There have been but 190 of
such cages reported in all medical
history and [ believe that Miss
Johnsen s the only one recorded
in America."”
SECOND
MAIN NEWS
SECTION
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American Soldiers, While Taking
a Small Part In the Movemenf
¢
at First, Are Expected to Turff
. . v'"
Tide by Increasing Numbergy'
“ iy iy
The “Entente’s Forces Far Ouffe
number Teutonic Enemy-in Marg
Power, dnd the British Armydg
Likely to Strike Flrst Blows:
Sm——— “
WASHINGTON, Feb. .—The Allles
are preparing to deltver a smashing
blow at the Prussian machine on the
western front. =
This information, coming from Brite
{sh sources, s based on reports from
the inter-allled war counecil, recently
in session at Paris. e
Both military and political consid«
erations were advanced, it was learn«
ed, to make a strong allled offensive
Inevitable,
Thanks to the readiness of General
Pershing’s forces to hold a sectop ot
the front In Lorraine, the Allles nove
feel themselves to be stronger than
the Germans In men and munitions.
The plan of campaign, a.ccordlpm
the information avallable hers, calls
for a general allled offensive all along
the front from the Vosges down
through Flanders to the sea. .
But the center of the big drive will
be in Flanders, with the British deing
the heavy work, i
Hitherto, the strong British thrusts
have been turned aside or repulu‘ _
[wnh inconsiderable gains because the
Germans have been ables to strip othex
sectors of men and guns and rush tg
the defense of any local zone. :
French to Bolster Line.
With General Pershing holding ’
sector, a great number of v
French fighters have been rel #
bolster up the line held by the [
army between the Americans in [
raine and the British in Flanders. «
l Information from British so:
‘here Is that the war councfl co E
' the whole line strong enough to &
the Germans busy everywhere a
cancel the once great mobility of the
' Hindenburg services, i
¥landers is to ses the
fighting at first, partly becauss :
British strength In munitions
partly because It is imperative pe
the Germans should bs driven Back
upon and, if possible, beyond thelg
submarine bases off the Belgian coast,
But if the general attack all
the line develops any weakness
the German defenses, the weak s
will be hammered with all
sirength the Allies can muster, it
said, g
Americans Are Ready.
Attention was directed by one Brije
ish authority to the fact that the new
plan of campalgn is colncident with
American readiness to bear a share in
the flghting and American participae
tion in the activities of the war oomz
cil. Just what part American staff o
ficers may have had in laying out the
new strategy was not made clear.
The British view is that Gen.l'l.l\
Pershing’'s forces are now holding &
vital part of the line. An officer saids,
“If there be no changes, the prove
inces of Alsace and Lorraine will
probably be the scene of the hardest
fighting in which any of our army
corps will be engaged up to the end
of the war
[ do not know that there was any
definite purpose in so placing the
American army, but the fact is that if
will sooner or later occupy Lhorm
provinces which have the most p!
tical and at the same time the moa
sentimental interest of any terri§
n Europe.”
Depends on Amerlcans. ;
On the ability of the Amenoaum‘z
sustain (heir share of the battle
pends the sucqeess of the new allled
strategy.
A military expert, discussing®
reason why the lL.orraine sector he
been selected for the American fi
said
v The Lorraine sector fitted in hgh
for supplying the American so
without confusion To have stal .
in on the front closest to the Engl ;
would have cansed such a concen
tion on the (hannel coast a 8 ? 5
amount to congestiofl ‘ M
To have chosen a more oShtssl
position for the American army w_f
have meant interference also with the =
French defensive svetem. The _.):,;
army is so disposed as to constitute
the best defense for Paris,” L