Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-10-25
BY FRANK Il. sIl1oNDs.

It was on July Is that Focr &C.
cepted the German, callenge and en-
gagged in what was to be the second
battle Of the Marne. On next Tues
day. therefore. will have. =. arrived
the end Of the hundred days" Of the
French marshal. In an equal period
Napoleon landed from Elba, regained
France, fought and lost Waterloo
and took the nnal step which led to
st. Helena. It may be doubted It any
other hundred days since that ia
nous and fatal period have equaled
the latest. . IS -.
In this period Foch has accomplish
ed three things by three geat bat
ties. In the second Marne he defeat
ed the Germans, wrested the initia-
tive from Ludendorn and brought to
an end the German advance, which
had lasted from March 81 until July
IS. In the third Somme he broke the
German resistance upon the lines Of
the old struggles Of 1916, and COM
PEELED a hurried retirement. to the
Hindenburg line. with the evacua-
ton of substantially all OF the
ground conquered in the German Of
fensive of the year. This third SOM
me opened on August 8; it closed In
the middle of September.
Last Phase Still Progresses.
Last Of all has been that grandiose
struggle, which. for want Of a better
name, may be called the battle Of the
Hindenburg line, the last phases OF
which are still in progress: In this
battle, which began with the anglo
Belgian offensive in Flanders and tho
F,ranco-American thrust in Lorraine
on September 26, and eliminated In
the gigantic and magnificent British
thrust between Cambria and 81. Quen-
tin on October s, Foch broke the Ger
man hold upon France, shattered their
whole colossal defense system and
compelled a retreat which has al
ready released ,Laon, Lille, st. Quen.
tin, Cambria. Douai, and cannot
now terminate before practically all
of France has been liberated and not
less than two-thirds of Belgium:
In this period the armies fighting
under Foch's supreme command have
captured upward of 100000 prisoners
and not less than 5000 guns. Ihey
have already liberated more than S,ooO
square miles of French and Belgian
territory. More than this, in winning
tie battle of the Hindenburg line they
have won the war-won 1t on the
confession of Germany herself. All
that now follows will be the exploit.
tation of the victory to the hour OF
the final surrender.
Turkeys Power Broken.
Nor is this all. Not only has there
been a supreme victory in the west.
but in Syria a British army, acting
in strict coordination with western
operations, and also under the COM
mand of Foch, has broken the military
power of Turkey and liberated Syria,
Mesopotamia, Arabia-has sealed the
doom of the Osmanli empire.
Again, in Macedonia, another army.
commanded by a French general, but
composed Of contingents from many
nations, has achieved a tremendous
battlefield success, compelled the sur
render without condition of Bulgaria,
abolished Mitteleuropa and is advance
ing to the Danube, sweeping before it
the last vestiges of German control
in the Balkans and carrying with it
the doom of Austria-Hungary.
In sum, the whole gigantic German
conception. the colossal German
scheme, which for four long years has
threatened civilization and democracy
with ever-growing might and with
ever-expanding frontiers, has been
abolished German armies are re-
treating and leaving behind them the
wrecks of that world empire which