The Clio messenger. (Clio, Mich.) 1907-current, 1917-10-12
British Again Smash Germans
East of Ypres and Capture
important Positions.
ENEMY'S MORALE is BREAKING
Austria's Warning to the AIlies-Re.
peated Air Raids on London Final
ly Determine England on Re-
prIsals - Americas War
Tax Bill Now Law.
BY EDWARD w. PIcKARD.

Field Marshal Haig began his week
ly forward movement as usual on
Thursday, the advance being again in
the district east of Ypres on a line
that seriously threatens Prince Rup-
recht's communications with Ostend
and Zeebrugge. This salient Of the
British front has been giving the Ger
mans much anxiety, and all the first
part Of the week they directed at 1t
furious though futile attacks th2t
proved very costly.
BY Saturday the British offensive
had developed into one Of the most
pretentious yet undertaken and prom
ised to result in victory unequalled
since the battle Of the Marine. On a
nine-mile front Haig's troops rushed
forward for about mile and half,
and gained possession of many Ger
man strOngholds, including the ridge
between Passchendaele and Zonne-
beke. Great numbers of Germans
surrendered.
The allies doubtless hope to cut in
between the submarine bases and the
main German army, but according to
the belief of well-informed army men,
it is not their intention to force the
Germans back over any very wide
area, because the territory they would
be forced to abandon would first be de-
vastated. Rather do the allies plan to
demoralize the enemy with the contn-
uous bombardmcnt by guns of all cali
bers to which they have been sub
jecting them of late, and most of
Haig's advances are made for the pur-
pose of gaining possession of COM
handing positions, from which this
terrific gunfire may be directed. That
the morale Of the German soldiers al
ready is beginning to break down is
evidenced by their readiness to surren-
der and the complaints of some divi-
sions when ordered back TO the front
after a rest.
Germans Short of Shells.
Reports from the front during the
artillery duel that preceded the Thurs
day advance were that the British fired
twenty or more shells for every one
that came from the Germans. The al
lies supply of munitions is now unlim-
tied, and there is good reason TO be-
lieve that the Germans are running
short of shells and guns, owing part
ly to reduced productivity caused by
the poor food of the workmen, and
partly to a shortage Of certain metals.
The denial of General. Schuech, the
kaiser's new minister of munitions,
that there is any such shortage, Is not
convincing. Copenhagen dispatches
say the leaders of German labor
groups were called to main army head
quarters a few days ago, not to cele-
brate Won Hindenburg's birthday, as
was intlmated, but to discuss plans for
speeding up the production of NUM-
tions. Probably IL was necessary, also,
to take steps to appease the wOrkmen
Of Essen and their wives, who held a
riotous meeting recently, demanding
peace and better food.
In Frankfort, too, an immense peace
meeting was held on Sunday, but that
was engineered by political groups.
and therefore may not have been so
indicative of the sentiment of the peo-
pie.
Czcrnin Warns the Allies.
In the way Of peace movements, the
most important event Of the week was
the speech of Count Czernin, Austto-
Hungarian minister of foreign affaits,
in which he threatened that unless the
allies speedily consented to a peace