Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial. (Wilmington, Del.) 1878-1928, 1918-10-08
LENS AND DOUA|
VITAL TO GERMANS
Their Capture. Which Seems In
evitable, Would be Fatal to
Kaiser's Ambitions.

From The London Times, Sept q
We are now in n position from which
we threaten either Douai. CT Caubra from
which we are distant respectively some
eight miles lat Etaing) and 10 miles
lat Qucant1. Both of these places are
pivotal positions. Without Cambrai, It
Quentin could not hc held, and with
ii Ouentin would 60 Loan and La Fere
and the great wooded glacis oi the Cob
ain Forest
With us IN possession of Doual We
sbould have achieved one of the great
objects Of British lighting IN the neig =
bmIrhood of Lille There are two ways
TO Lille. Ono Is from the north side
either by Mcnin (tho wayfavoured by
General French and by Marlborough
before HIM or Ivy the Anbers Rldgc,
the other way from the south by the
Douai plain Thus towards Lille We
arr nj last in far way 10 achieve the
objects for which the battles of Ncuve
Chapcllc and 14oos were fought IN vain,
and towards Cambrai we are nearer TO
the true line OF strategy approach than
VIC we're at Cambria itself
In other words. we are for the first
time IN the war beginning To get a grip
on the pillars e German military ag-
gressinn III France. To get a grip IS
not to pull down; We must guard against
over-confidence. But already we have
reason tn lie proud On the top OF this
news comes the news Of the evacuation
If Lens by the enemy. The significance
of this news IS that II shows that the
enemv has for the present abandoned
any idca Of "A Counter-otienslyc.
If he had such an idea. he would
have struggled hard TO MAINTAIN the
narrowness Of our penetration. lie Is.
on the contrary enlarging IT, and on
the north side of the Scarpc where,
- far there has been comparatively
little pressure So far rs Is known.
The alternatives before the enemy
are 10 hold on TO the extrcmitics Of his
Inc and Withdraw his center, or evac-
nation much larger than anything that
le has vet though of N evacuation
that would in effect mean tho sban-
donmcnt of the greater part Of France
that he vet holds II the first alter
native bc thc true one the backward
movement has already been sire chcd
10 its full limit Of elasticity In the
second alternative. what exactly Is It
that the enemy hes IN mind
II VIZ NAV anticipate events somcw hat
cxtravagantly and discuss this second
alternative, It is possible hat the key %
tho now strategy Is political We al talk
of The coming peace offensive. but the only
form that it could take would hc an offer
III peace on the West on the basis Of q
recognition of tiermanN's gains in tho
Hast Surprising that Germany. making
y virtue Of military convenience and
necessity. were to make such an offer,
not as a condition uf cyacuatIng France
hut after. IN fact. cvacuatIng most ct II :
Surprising. further, that she has made
a bargain with Austria hv which. IN re-
turn for serious German help against
italy which will make her frontiers quite
secure AUSTRIA wete 10 promise her
assistance in what would be proclaimed
~ purely defensive war for the defense
If the Fafherland we should then have
a scheme that would. At any rate. iii in
with what has happened 50 far.