New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-03-18

weeks still before the true extent Of German
retirement can be determined, 1t now
remains TO examine the possibilities OF
general retreat, which is not in the least
forecast or even suggested by recent oper-
ations. A retreat to the La Bassee-
Cambrai-Laon line would shorten the Ger
man front by at least twenty-five miles,
and would mean reducing by perhaps one
hundred and fifty thousand men the
number required to hold the German front
in France This would be one gain.
Secondly. such a retreat, carried out
deliberately, would take considerable
time, and while it was going on the British
would be compelled TO change their whole
system Of communications, build new
roads and railroads and construct new
gun positions All the work that they
have done of this sort would be wasted,
and it might be late in the summer before
there could be a new general assault such
as took place at the Somme last year. And
il should be recalled that this attack
began too late to be pushed to a decision
Finally, the ground thus surrendered
would have little real value; it contains
no great cities, no material advantages,
save for the coal about Lens, and the
Germans could abandon it with little real
sacrifice except in the matter Of the moral
effect. OF course, the retreat Of the Ger
mans from Noyon, where they are within
fifty miles of Paris, would encourage the
French materially.
As to the other possibility, a general
retreat to the French frontier, we do
know that the Germans have a strong line
from the Mouse right along the old Bel
gian-French boundary through Hirson to
Lille. A retreat to this line would shorten
the whole Western front for the Germans
by at least eighty miles and might release
not less than half a million soldiers. But
a retreat to this line would mean the
surrender of the hold Germany has upon
France, it would liberate most of the
French territory occupied by the Germans
and it would liberate French troops
which might be sent east to attack along
the Vosges and in Lorraine. But such
retreat is, at least, excessively improbable.
We shall do we'll to keep in mind that
the present German retirement does not
yet go beyond a withdrawal to strong
new lines, after having held old lines as
long as it was useful or worth the price.
The retirement does not give up ground
of any considerable value, and the material
advantages are just nil. We may find
that the retreat has been induced by an
artillery bombardment continued over
months which has shaken German morale
and prepared the way for a collapse in
the new lines, but we may just as easily
discover that the German retreat in
Picardy is merely the preliminary to
heavy German attack in Flanders or
Lorraine
The greatest campaign Of the war and
of all wars is just beginning. The most
terrible summer in human history seems
assured, but it is well to recognize that
much, time may yet pass before we see the
coming of the really important operations,
and it is equally necessary not to fall
into the old error and see in a purely
strategic move of the Germans. due TO
Allied artillery operations, to be sure, but
disclosing no collapse in German strength,
the beginning of the end or the shadow
of a recoil to the Rhine. The road from
the Wilderness to AppomattoX was long;
it is unlikely that the present road to
victory will be shorter.