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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 is
to be vastly strengthened by Ameri
can machines and pilots, 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 French 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 fighting single
seater of this type, in enormous quan
tities.
""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 Noveities.
The French have not disclosed any
striking novelties in aircraft as yet
but it is 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
belief that the Germans hope to find
in their triplane 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
fighting.
The triplane carries two machine
guns, both fixed and firing dead ahead
through the propeller, like the latest
model 8. P. A. D. biplanes. The fuse
lage of the triplane is lightly armorec
to protect 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
spread and will fail to live up to Ger
man expectations. The extra buoy
aney of the third plane permits the
armoring, 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 been refined in certaln
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 either the
S. 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 hag produced his best
new medel, according to the [rench
officer with whom 1 spoke, The D. ¥
W. (Deutsches Flugzeug Werk) is 2
200-horse power Benz motor and car-
P o ‘o oy $ I
$
resitdent of France Cables Thanks to U. S. for Plan to Rebuild Cities II
>
AMBASSADOR JUSSERAND’S LETTER TO MAYOR HYLAN I
1 5 T R Y B AAR a 2 A S 258 353 RAR B B O U A B I
Y R. MAYOR: My Government cables me that you were so good as to inform President Poincare that the American people were about to campaign -
I'“" d 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- o\ 3
;\ "':,‘ N structed to express to-you, Mr. Mayor, the thanks of the President of the Republic for such a new and valuable token of American good-will toward F R ¢
Y I'll As the ally of olden days, now once more in alliance with the American nation in a fight for a noble cause. \I 4 !
<4 &S : 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. * JUSSERAND.
’ {
MAYOR HYLAN’S LETTER WHICH ELICI'IIED THE GRATITUDE OF FRANCE
TO HIS EXCELLENCY 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 I
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
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
This is a first-hand story of the Walking Wounded. John Oxenham
went to the British front. He saw the Walkinp Wounded. He helped the
Y. M. C. A. do things for them. This is what he saw and what the Y, M. O.
A. did. Almost everybody in England knows John Oxenham. He has been
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 30 on. At least three hundred thousand Americans have
taken part in il.
The long rolling sweep of slightly |
elevated land on which stood Wyts-‘
chaete and Messines was once a pros
perous and smiling countryside. Now,
Wytschaete and Messines are only
handfuls of rubble. It is 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 somewhere‘
back there, the camouflaged big guns
are hurling death and destruction I
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.
1t 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 been 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 Canadians 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 Messines
was planned, the British Y. M. C. A,
was taken into consultation, and ar
rying two Parabellum machine 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 2 downward fleld of fire
through a trap in the bottom of *he
fuselage.
Wonderful Speed.
The D. F. W. develops wonderful
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 pilots. The Rumpler-
Mercedes and the Rumpler-Maybach
are two other types of observation
machines used by the Germans, de
riving the latter part of thelr name
from the type of engine used. They
are not so 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, according to
my Informant, indlcates that the
Gothas are being scrapped in favor
of o new bombarding biplane, the
Riesen Flug Zeuge, which is the fu
ture asm for bombardment. The new
raider is equipped with two giant mo-
1111 [ Tot /)
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N\\ s T = A\CE.,,__ —— \
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rangements were made for luccotingl
the wounded on a scale never before
attempted.
The director of medical service had
it all most carefully planned out be
forehand with their leaders. The ad
vance was to be along suct& 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 frear, where,
at %)%M_way 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, field 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
unhindered and ynhindering.
Shacks Nearest the Firing Line.
And so, behind the nine-mile bat
tlefront, the night before the ad
vance, in four-and-thirty different
places little mushroom shacks of
timber, corrugated iron, 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 ?ll necessaries, 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
picked arderlies. v
Chat little Red Triangle on the
black ground hag 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 their appreciation 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
pusher 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 flylng, when
landing is the most difficult part of
Ithe operation, the advantage 18 con
‘slderable. The motors are placed in
Iseparate nacelles, one one either side
of the main fuselage, which {s con
structed to ecarry a crew of three te
five men, Two auto-cannons of one
inch ealiber are mounted on the’R. F.
| Z., and it also carries several machine
guns,
. Further reports from Germany indi
‘cnte that while there is ne lack of
'gasoline for the machines, the avia
tien officials are having a hard time
obtaining sufficlent rubber for their
needs in manufacturing machines for
the coming campaign, It is reported
that 10,006 men are employed in Ger
many collecting old bits of rubber to
be used by the aviation.
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
;tionn, requires no creeds, when it of
‘ters its help. Like the Samaritan in
the parable, 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 fiery 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 battlefield, ar
ranged and ordered by headquarteru,‘
and its leaders were invited to the
medical conferences which settled
the program for dealing with thel
wounded. l
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
toiling like busy ants and—do permit
it!—genial-faced uncles! The fires
were burning brightly, kettles galore
were steaming, chocolate cakes, and
other comforts were all laid out
handy, and the eager-faced workers
waited, tight-strong, for the event
and for their work to begin.
The First Wounded.
The men went over the top follow
ing the traveling line of fire, and a
few minutes later the front postsl
were receiving their first guests, wel
coming them w{th cheery words,
handling out hot drinks, Ccoffee,
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 Jlast at the
railway evacuating post. And how
some of them would ever have reach- |
ed there without the assistance of
the Red Triangle it is hard to say.
Some could barely 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 sonsehow. And, no matter
what their 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 dfed 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 dny.‘
The stretcher-bearers had thelr
hand& full to overflowing of the too
badly broken. But as they came
down all were succored, the German
wounded exactly as our own, To the
Red Triangle a 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 his enemy if he could and
without doubt the German casualties
were of our making.
There wc?ro ghastly enough
woundg even ameong the walking
cases, and soon every one of the four
and-thirty little ald pests was a
blessed center of bleeding humanity,
with cletheg and flesh in shreds, wlthl
faces gory and heggard and twisted
with pain. At times ne face what-l
ever could be seen, nething but
L 3
Inasmuch |
.
4 By John Oxenham.
A& you did it to my bréther,
Yeu did it unto Me.
' His Wounds were Mine, his hard-
I ships Mine, ~
' We bore them all for thee. I
: {
It was I whom you did succor, |
When he trod that toflsome track; |
' He had been in hell, and you knew |
1t 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 ;
EAt such a cost to set her free, ;
And on their painful crosses |
bought
Her Larger Liberty?
bloody bandages hastily fixed by the
stretcher bearers under flre. 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
happier 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 more than
ever needed nowadays. It is that
which will help to rebuild all life,
There has been, unnecessarily, so
much of the reverse of this spirit on
every side since we tumbled into this
hideous world war.
Not One Man Groans.
1 can not refrain from quoting the
words of one good worker up there
that day. He savs the experiences of
the day left indelible impressions on
his mind, as, indeed, how could they
fail to de—"A sense of horror at the
dread price at which even an over
whelming success has been purchased.
The horror of blood everywhere. 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 § next morning.
Constaptly in and out between close
ly laid 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 T accidentally touched
as he sat on a crowded bench, met my
apology by smilingly saying it was
nothing. The 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 thelr parched lips and
thronts as though for a cupful. The
courage and fortitude of the rhen !s a
thing never to be forgotten, And
their modesty! In normal times we
have to limit supplies and no man is
allowed to buy more than three bars
of choeonlate, On this day we were
using Fry's—which breaks most easl
ly into half bars—and almost every
man had to be asked to take a second.
Thelr ehivalry aleo knows no
bounds, as just this inecldent will
shoew, Abeut 2 o'clock we had to re
fuse drinks of water to unwounded
German prisoners, as our water sup
ply was very neurly glving eut and
we could not be sure of the early ar
rival of a water aart, Almost imme
diately I caught a wounded British
By John Oxenham
soldier 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 between
front and rear and between the lines,
a business full of risks and terribly
trying.
The German wounded were amazed
at their unexpected good treatment.
Unwounded German prisoners acting
as stretcher-bearers appreciated it so
highly that one batch, 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 it? It runs beyond the com
putation of all the figures in the
worid, for it touches men's souls.
Here are some telling little inci
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
quivering, and your limbs shaking in
spite of themselves, to your intense
disgust, and are plastered with mud
and blood from head to foot, you can
not fully appreciate the vivifying
wonder of a clean drink of hot lemon
ade or coffee or beef broth or cocoa.
Apart from the actual joy of them,
there is the unfailing 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 sofid 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 his
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,
I
World Not to End:
»
Idea Is Destructi
ea Is vestructive,
Says Chicago Sage
a
T — .
CHICAGO, Feb. 9.—Declaring
that people ir America today who |
believe in and are spreading the
doctrine of the coming destruc
tion of the world are “striking
at the heart of all democratic
ideals,” 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
belles of the destruction of the
world both in anclent and mod
ern times nnd refutes the whole
i€ea throughout. |
Professor Case in the early
chapters of the book discusscs |
the belles in the millennium held
by the Gentiles, Jews and later I
Christians »nd shows their futil- |
ity as proved by later eveits, :
The present-day millennialists,
according to Profeesor Case, nre
pariieu'srly destructive, e gives
three rau%ns for doubting the
validity of their clalms—firat, the
fallure of past millennial pro
grams, the fanciful content of |
these hopes, and their inherent
pessimism |
o SECOND %gI
U MAIN NEWS U
B 9 SECTION B 4
for two and a half days till he died,
and only then staggered down to the
station to be seen to, That will take
a lot of beating, S |
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 coffee 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 b‘nt over him, “Skinny, old
man, I hope you'll pull through.
Good-bye!”—and then staggered back
and drank up his coffee.
' Chum first—then self. That is one
of the many mighty lessons fen are
learning out there. For thig terrible
stress of war, with all its unhuman
and unbalancing conditions, has pro
duced in the minds of men a state of
absolute objectivity. The things that
appeal to the outer senses are the
things that bulk largest—life, death,
ilheltor, food, rest, mud or worse
things—and friendship—palishness, if
you like. That is one of the great
vital and redeeming forces. What
will a man not do for his chum?
Greater love hath no man than this—
and many a man, unknown to all save
One—has proved it in his dying. His
expression of it may be amazing at
times and his language sulphurous
and halr raising, but the newel of
that greater iove is there, like the
pearl amid the putrifylng oysters, and
its surroundings can not impair the
luster of it.
Dr. Kelman’'s text to the men one
day is an old story but worth repeat
ing. “Faint, yet pursuing,” said the
doctor, ‘“Fed up but sticking lit,”
translated the men. And that, from
my own experience, is the spirit of
them all.
No human man but is 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 thode 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 appointed 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 0
CHICAGO, Feb. 9.—Mabel
Johnson, 25 yvears old, 7 feet 6.
inches tall, is in St. Bernard's
Hospital recovering from an op
aration intended to stop her
growth. The operation consisted
of removing two sections of the
femur 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
ley. “There have been but 190 of
such cases reported in all medical
history, and 1 believe that Miss
Johnson is the only one recorded
in America.”
il 1
' ' '
American Soldiers, While Taking
a Small Part in the Movement
at First, Are Expected to Turd
' '
Tide by Increasing Numbers,
The Entente’s Forces Far Oufe
.’ v
number Teutonic Enemyin Mag
")
Power, and the British Army I 9
' ' '
Likely to Strike First Blow
J i
WASHINGTON, Feb. 9.—The Allieg
are preparing to deliver a smashing'
blow at the Prussian machine on the
western front.
This information, coming from Brit«
Ish sources, is based on reports from
the inter-allied war council, recently
in session at Paris.
Both military and political consid«
erations were advanced, it was learn«
edy to make a strong allied offensive
inevitable. ,
~ Thank¥ te the readiness of General
Pershing’s forces to hold a sector of
the front in Lorraine, the Allies now
fee! themselves to be stronger than
' the Germars in men and munitions.
I The plan 6f campaign, according tq
‘the information available here, calls
for a general allied offensive all along
‘the front from the Vosges down
‘through Flanders to the sea. :
~ But the center of the big drive wil}
be in Flanders, with the British doing
the heavy work.
Hitherto, the strong British thrusts
’have been turned aside or repulsed
with inconsiderable gains because the
Germans have been able to strip othed
~sectors of men and guns and rush td
the defense of any local zone.
| French to Bolster Line.
~ With General Pershing holding 4
sector, a great number of ve
French fighters have been released
bolster up the line held by the Fren:
army between the Americans in
raine and the British in Flanders,
- Information from British - sou
here is that the war council consid;
the,whole line strong enough to k
the Germang busy everywhere
cancel the once great mobility of t
Hindenburg services.
Flanders is to see the heavi
fighting at first, partly because o
British strength in munitions
partly because it is imperative t
the Germans should be driven
upon and, if possible, beyond thel
submarine bases off the*Belgian coast]
But if the general attack all alon
the line develops any weakness in
the German decfenses, the weak spot
will be hammered with all the
strength-the Allies can muster, it wag
said.
Americans Are Ready.
Attention was directed by one Brite
ish authority to the fact that the new
plan of campaign is coincident with
American readiness to bear a share in
the fighting and American participa«
tion in the activities of the war coun«
cil. Just what part American staff of
ficers may have had in laying out the
new strategy was not made clear.
The British view is that Generat
Pershing's forces are now holding a
vital part of the line. An officer said;
“If there be no changes, the prov
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.
“T do not know that there was any
definite purpose in so placing the
American army, but the fact is that it
will sooner or later occupy the twao
provinces which have the most prac
tical and at the same time the most
sentimental interest of any territory
in Europe.” .
Depends on Americans.
On the ability of the Americans td
sustain their share of the battle de«
pends the success of the new allied
strategy.
A military expert, discussing the
reason why the Lorraine sector had
been selected for the American front,
said:
“The Lorraine sector fitted in best
for supplying the American forces
without confusion. To have started
in on the front closest to the English
would have caused such a concentra-«
tion on the Channel coast as to
amount to congestion.
“To have chosen a more central
position for the American army would
have meant interference also with the
French defensive system. The French
armyv is so disposed as to constitute
the best defense for Paris.”