Arizona republican., 1918-10-13
GERMANS PREPARE
 ID GIVE UP DOUA|
 AND LILLE ID HA|G
Although In General Re
 treat Enemy Still Shows Desperate Rear Guard Fighting On The Muese
(Bv the Associated Press)


 Germany declares itself ready to comply with the propositions of the president of the United States with re- Spect to the evacuation of occupied ter ritories. and in this associates itself with Austria.
 Dr. W. s. Solf, the newly appointed foreign secretary, in replying to Presi- dent Wilson's recent note, accepts the terms laid down by President Wilson in his recent addresses lon the foun dation of a permanent peace of jus tice" Future discussions, the reply asserts. would be for the purpose of agreeing upon the application of these terms.
 The present German government, it says, assumes the responsibility for this step toward peace and has the support of the great majority of the reichstag
 The imperial chancellor, declares the note, speaks for the German govern ment and for the German people.
 The president of the United States it is suggested, may occasion a meet ing of mixed commission to make arrangements for the evacuation.
 Huns Prepare Retreat
 lle <AilCl -AlittIlCdI IOICeS OH lHt southerly side of the great wedge that has been thrust into the lines south east of Nalenciennes, are halting mo- mentarily before an extemporized Ger man defence line running from Valen- ciennes to the Disc.
 Both to the north and south of this area. however, the Germans are either retreating or preparing to fall bach hn l,p, Marshal Foch is applying.
 Douai, the most important of the northern French cities within the i'm mediate scope of the allied thrust, witt the exception of the fallen Cambra and the threatened Lille, seems abou to pass into British hands. Lille Now Insecure
 Lille itself the greatest of tht French manufacturing towns, is il none too secure a position. The wedge below Douai is threatening the whol, line running north past Lille into Elan ders and the Germans are palpabl, worried, also, over the prospect O. General Runners second British ar. my and King Albert's Belgian forces or their right flank above Lille, springin; into renewed activity.
 In the south, General Petain's armie. and the Americans under Genera Pershing have struck renewed heav, blows against the German left in tn, great pocket formed by the German positions from Verdun around tn, Laon curve to the sea. The ChemiI des Danes no longer stands as a bul wark for Laon. In the Aisne regiol and to the east in the Champagne. tn, French by a swift advance of iron three to four miles in day, have en tered Nouziers and carried their lin, so far north that the communication between the German northern armie and those east of the Champagne bid fair to be cut.
 Threaten Communications On the extreme silied right. in tn active battle area, the American frs army is keeping up it's hammering tao ties and daily gaining more of the mos valuable ground remaining to the Ger mans in northern France-that pro tecting their communicating lines iron the home soil through the Metz an, | Montmedy regions.
 | But the Germans, although they ar 1 in general on the retreat, by no mean are yet in state of broken resistance l This is shown by the desperate figh they are giving the Americans fror the Argonne to the Mouse, by the stan they appear to be about to make be fore Field Marshal Haigs armies sout of Nalenciennes. and by the persist ence with which they are clinging t their positions around Laon, althoug 1 doubtless aware of the peril to whic they are exposing their large forces i this area by so doing.
 1 Douai, and perhaps Lille, they seer to have prepared themselves to giv up. But they are still holding on { most of Belgium as well as to the Lao pocket and are throwing everythin they can possibly mass into the effor to keep their vital left flank north C the Nerdun area protected