The Washington times., 1915-03-14
is THE BIG PUSH" DUE

to break the deadlock of the Ger
mans and allies along the line of
trenches through Belgium and the
north of France. That is for one
side to outflank the other, enfilade
the line Of, trenches, and roll up
the enemy.
This is what the Germans tried to
do when they made their smash
through Flanders at the channel
coast towns. If they had succeeded,
they would have outfanked France,
showed themselves in between France
and England, cut off communication
between the islands and. the conti-
nent, and begun the business of in
vesting Paris.
But they didn't succeed. They
will not now succeed, for the time
will never return when their num-
bers and resources will be so nearly
equal to the task as they were in
October. Today, the Russians are on
the offensive in the east, the French
in Champagne, the British in Flan-
ders.
Probably there are million Brit
ishers on the continent now; most
of them, we may imagine, massed
out on the extreme west end of the
German line. Their business, we
may further imagine, is to bang
through the flank of the Germans,
reaching out to the coast; to do to
the Germans, in short, exactly what
the Germans, in October and No
vember, tried to do to the British
and Belgians; to turn the coast flank.
Can they do it? 1t is reported that
the British attack last week at
Neuve Chapelle gained four miles,
which is tremendous, an unprece-
dented advance. 1t is admitted even
from Berlin that important advances
were achieved by the British.
But this is not all. The advance
seems to have been accomplished al
most with ease. The British turned
loose an artillery fire which is de-
scribed as so heavy and so whitening
that it was as if giant machine
gun were playing. The whole line
of German trenches was swept by
this leaden hail for half hour; then
the infantry moved forward, and the
rest was soon done.
Away last autumn it was permit
ted to become known that the Brit
ish were turning out a tremendous
number of new field pieces of the
best type, and that these would be in
France, by the hundreds, in time for
the spring campaign. There is no
doubt that the British artillery, SO
far as it went, was most efficient
arm during the retreat from Mons;
but there wasn't enough of it. That
deficiency is to be remedied just as
fast as possible; to a large extent it
has already been remedied.
This massing of the great British
force at the west; the crowding on
this flank of the huge artillery re-
endorsements; the opening of the
spring season with such a terrific
bombardment, followed by a long ad-
vance; all this suggests that the
spring campaign is on, and that the
spring campaign is going to be de-
voted to the business of forcing the
Germans out of their well-nigh i'm
pregnable trenches by the f1anking
process.
In such a campaign, the post of
honor appears to have been turned
over to the cooperating British and
Belgians. Which is proper enough
as these have made the violation OF
Belgium their special justification
for being in the war. For months the
understanding has been that the
spring would see desperate effort
of the allies to force the Germans
back. Now it is on; and the Ger
mans are under pressure in every di,
rection. They cannot take men from
east to help in the west, because
the Russians are too busy east; they
cannot draw from Champagne, from
Flanders, from any part of the west
ern line, because they are under the
utmost pressure everywhere.
The spring movement seems tc
have begun; and its character anc
direction seem pretty accurately in,
dicated at the start.
kIICTALEC IN rnI npAnO