The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1917-03-21
Land Given Up So Complete
ly Devastated It Cannot
Be Used by Allies.
TRENCH WARFARE
HAS BEEN ENDED
High German Official Saws
Trap Is. Being Laid for
kaiscr's Enemies.

Berlin. March iS-(By wireless to
Associated Press from a staff CORE
spondent, via Tuckerton, N. J.,p
March Gothic German evacuation of
Rapaumc, Roye, Noyon and Peronne is
but IA part of a great strategic under
taking which promises to rcvoiutionizc
warfare on the entire western front
and constitute one of the most decisive
moves in tho war.
just month ago the Germans
evacuated an important sector of the
Ancre, but kept tho fact secret for a
week while the British bombarded the
empty trenches. so today's report
shows the most important develop
ment of 1917 on any front. The sector
including the evacuated cities virtually
covers the great battle front. Reports
IRON this section. of the front tell of
effective work of destruction carried
out before the occupied land was given
that 1t Will avail them nothing as cap
tured soil, according to views ex-
pressed here.
Trench Warfare Ended.
with the fronts as long as they are
IN TINS war, and with the enormous
amount of enemy territory held by our
troops said Il high German military
authority today, there is no particular
military Significance attached to any
especial section of the onemy's terri
tory. Therefore we can give up Il por-
tion of the western front secur, our
troops that freedom of movement
needed and end trench warfare. That
Is what this really amounts to. We
arc now getting the enemy out Of their
trenches.
The giving up of this portion Of our
front puts an end to their finely laid
spring offensive plans.
1T is most important to remember
that the new positions we are taking
up back of the old front are built with
the aid of every possible device de-
Heloped in the two and Il half years Of
warfare. The old positions werc tn.
result of breaking off of the unflnish-
cd offensive towards Paris.
Devastated Territory.
"The new positions are laid out In
the best possible locations, with the
finest of observation points and deep
concrete shelter for the battery po-
si'ions. While the enemy Is coming up
to them he will be in the greatest
possible difficulties himself in the de-.
Nastatcd battlefield.
Il srcgrct exceedingly that this move
Is forcing u great destruction OF a
beautiful part of France, yet the de-
struction is not 50 great as the de
vastation inflicted by the British and
the French on the Sommc battlefield
and when tho entente refused our
peace proposal it took the RESPONSE
bility Of this destruction upon itself
1t Is a war measure. We are COM
PEELED to take it to carry out n mill
tary plan to meet the big offensive
the entente had planned.
AN the men Of military age in the
territory relnquished we took back
with us. The remainder we have
turned over to their countrymen and
they arc now in French hands.
Compelled by Necessity.
Il know we will be accused again of
barbarism. but we are fighting for our
existence. We were compelled by the
refusal of the entente to make peace
to defend ourselves against their
promised offensive. We have done
everything we could to avoid needless
suffering but what happens is their
fault, not ours.
we expect the entente to claim this
as Il great victory. They will say they
have recaptured these cities. They
have not. They have not won them
by battle. We are not moving back
because of enemy pressure, but we arc
reshapins the western front lines so
that W" viii have an aggressive initia-
tive. just in this manner Won Hinden-
burg drew back tho lines in Poland in
the winter of 1914 to make possible
IN" great offensive of 1915 and simi-
'hriy we permitted the Rumanians to
sweep across the Carpathians last
summer that we might destroy their
armies when they got out of their own
lines.
yrheo Rumanian q campaign shows
what tho resnop sihitities 10 49, :, 49,
movement are. 1t is the only kind OF
strategy that can make possible a de-
fision on the western front"