Norwich bulletin., 1918-04-17
FACTS AND COMMENT
At last the Jsranese have Ianded

AI la5t rfie JaFAne5e nave landed | on the coast of Siberia. The in11nedi- | ate cause of the move was an out break in Vladivostok on April 4th in which Japanese business houses were pillaged and three Japanese citizens were killed. The next morning two companies of soldiers were landed from the fleet in the harbor, followed the day after by 250 more. British troops also were sent ashore to protect the British consulate at the port. These foreign forces are merely policing the city and no significance is placed on their presence. It is a course that has been followed repeatedly when the local authorities have proved unable to protect foreigners. At the same time the tense state of the Russian
 mind just now will make the native population even less likely to brook
 outside interference in their affairs
 and this may well prove the entering wedge for an active participation of Japan in the great war.
 The French have at last located the. big guns that are shelling Paris. They are in the hills a little to the north west of Laon, something more than seventy-five miles away. Aerial ob- servers and photographs have dis covered what the Germans with smoke screen and canoufiage were doing their best to conceal and French heavy artillery is busily engaged in | the destruction of the monsters. Of course these French guns must be well behind their own front lines, which means that they are firing at a ten mile range. At this distance acru- ate shooting is impossible. yet one of l the German guns has already been | ] II ff<<~. r,f time before the other two will follow. A great naval battle in the near future is a possibility to be reckoned l on. News filters out through Holland | and Switzerland of unprecedented activity at German naval stations, and especially at Kiel, and that coal and ammunition are being sent there in enormous quantities. It will be a natural move on the part of Germany. If ultimately she is to be defeated, her l great fleet will be lost to her; with this intact, she at least has a chance of catching the waiting British fleet at a disadvantage. It will be last des- lperate throw, but knowing the spirit of the Kaiser, we cannot think but that it will be tried. That the Ger man fleet will come out and offer bat Il tie is the desire and prayer of every Il British tar. The battle itself will not fl be half as hard to endure as has been the long period of constant watchful- ness. A blockading fleet must be or the alert and at it's maximum efficiency every moment of every day and night and the nervous strain that this in 7 wolves is the hardest part of the navy's task The blockade fleet has Ions , days of rest and quiet and need onl1 | 17r,s1 of fIa, : 1 moment that its air scouts indicate that the chance to strike has come
 The British navy will hail with grea
 relief the day when the enemy appear
 | to contest the supremacy of the sea. r The battle on the western front zoe r on with unabated fury, but the seen . has shifted sfrom the valley of tn Somme sixty miles north to the Fran co Belgian border. The length of thi = line north and south is about equa n to that of the Connecticut river valle . across Massachusetts and Connecticut a On March 21 the German attempted t e advance along the lower part of thi : this line and in ten days their lei = l flank and pushed westward beyon l. Montdidier, forty miles in all. Tn 5 salient however was too sharp an $ gave too little ground for the move Il ments of the necessary troops. Tn f next move therefore was the attemI 1t to spread out the attack toward tn q north. By constant hammering thi II was effected. until the Germans stoo
 astride the Somne on a fairly wid
 front But though the important city ( Amiens was only nine miles furthe 9 on, they did not dare push on unt = this front was still wider. It was 2 d1-a - denied them for the British held fas - before Arras and on Vinly Ridge, re " polling all their assaults with grievot losses. Thus ended the first stage (
 the battle. The net result was that e the face of enormous losses the Ger e mans had pushed their left flank fort y miles ahead, while their right fan Il was held absolutely in position by th is British defence on Viny
 g Since Vinny could not be taken I - frontal attack, it must be surrounde ,. so that the defenders would have y evacuate it. This fact forced the Gel 's mans to stage the second act far 'e the north. On April they begs Id a series of furious assaults both nori t. and this place had to be abandoned st the British defenders. Just to Il If north of Armentieres, however, u
 British chung tenaciously to Messin
 ridge. the highest ground in all th
 lloW-lying region, so Valiantly won
 the Canadians just a year ago. Thous at Ithe Germans have pushed ten mil W deep into the opposing line, as loI
 as this ridge is held, the new salie
 is a position of the greatest dange is They must therefore widen out tn salient too, regardless of the cost
 acknowledge themselves beaten. ]
 the present writing they are sparil
 l nothing in the attempt. It was t m necessity for holding Viny and Me ed sines that caused Gen. Haig to iss IS. the order to all ranks of the Britt
 army in France and Flanders tn 7e there must be no further retiremel do but with their backs to the wall tn ar must fight it out where they weT
 This order brought home to the ali
 world the critical situation in whi .. their whole cause stands. From En 5" land troops are being rushed aero oo the channel to relieve and reinfoT 'et those who have so long and so valiar
 ly stood their ground. Americ
 troops are being prepared for shipme es at rate unprecedented hiterto. T it new Gereralissirno Foeh, now form; of ly acknowledged by both British a
 French Governments as Command
 in Chief of the Allied Armies oper
 ting in France" is watching the wht ne vast battle-ground, ready to stri iot when an opportunity offers. Mea cn while the British soldiers have ]
 sponded magnificently to Gen. Hai
 order and have denied the Germa 100 any further advance.
 ed ---
 
 The question is asked how the c, si- mans have been. able to make sI]
 progress against such strongly-h,