The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-06-12
Prussian War Minister Says
Allies Are Hard Hit.
Declares Foch Reserve Army
No Longer Exists.
.BELITTLES AMERICAN TROOPS
"Eew of Them Thrown Into
Battle and We're Lost"
Immense Amount of Allies Ma
terials Captured.

Amsterdam, June IA great
part of the French army has been
beaten" General Won Stein, the Prus-
sian war minister, declared in a speech
to the reichstag, according to Berlin
advices.
The so-calIed Foch reserve army
no longer exists the minister as
serted.
Capture Enormous Stores.
1.-THE success of the crown PRINCES
carefully prepared attacks against the
French and British on the Chemin-
des-Dames front on May 27 inflicted
one of the gravest defeats the entente
has suffered during the entire war;"
General Won Stein made these state
ments in a review of the military situ-
alton at the second reading of the
army budget in the reichstag yester-
day.
Besides his losses in men," con-
tinued General Won Stein. 1.-The enemy
terials and equipment. Immense
stores of ammunition which were
heaped up along the lines of COM
munications behind the front of the
defeated French army, likewise fell
into our hands just as previously we
captured enormous stores from the
British army"
General Won Stein said that the
cumberland strength of the American
troops up to the present was far be-
low what reports spread by the en-
tente had led Germany to expect. He
added that American troops made
their first appearance on the battle
front only at the moment when the
German advance had come to halt
on the Marine. "They too, like the
French reserves" he declared, "were
thrown into the battle in vain counter
attacks and suffered the same fate.'
Other American troops. the minister
said, are on quiet sections of the front
Saved the British.
In al1uding to the recent German
successes, General Won Stein said
THE ground for these successes was
prepared by the mighty blows deal,
the British army in the battle of Ar
mentieres and before Mount KENNEL
Only by throwing in French reserves
on the Somme and in Flanders was
the enemy able to patch up the torn
British front.
The French divisions tied up ir
support of the British army were nat.
urally lacking on the Chemin des
Danes and the exhausted British di-
visions put in at this point could no,
stand the weight of the German at.
! tack. With unexampled rapidity, ex.
the Italian front the previous autumn
the attack was carried victoriousl,
across the Aisne to the Marne."
Washington's Side of 1t.
Washington, June 12.-Announce-
ment by the Prussian war minister to
the reichstag that THE so called Foct
I reserve army no longer exists" is re-
garded by officials here as designed to
encourage the German population.
i Mt 70 he
impression that the allied reserve
power had been exhausted from the
German assault, the actual situation
p, at the front stands as a flat contra
diction. His words, however, might
mean a wholly different thing, althc
designed to be construed as the an
nouncement of great victory.
No Real Reserve Army"
/ Before the German attack was mad
/ the supreme war council at Versatile.
/ had worked out program for limitet
| pooling of mobile force of some 80O.-
! 900 men composed of 100000 French
100000 British, 10000 Americans ant
100000 italians. which was to havt
] been employed mainly to support of
fensive operations on fronts selected
/ by the Versailles couEcn.
! The organization of this army wa.
never completed. however, the emer
gency created ty the German offensiv,
causing a wholly new pooling agree
ment, under which General Foch be
: came supreme commander. He nov
directs the employment of all activ,
as well as reserve armies. No arm,
now exists which could be called 9Th,
Foch reserve army" because as su
preme commander that officer has un
der him all of the forces facing tn,
German onslaught.
/! No Depletion of Men.
The Prussian war minister's state
ment, however. admittedly touches tn
very heart of the problem facing Gen
,eral Foch. The fact that, aItho unde
{ unceasing attack since March 81, tn
allied and American forces have no
struck back in anything approaching
: a major operation, is regarded as con
elusive proof that the supreme com
mander, backed by the supreme wa
council, is striving by every mean
in his power to stem the German rusl
and exhaust It's offensive power, with
out depicting his own forces.