Norwich bulletin., 1918-08-14
FACTS AND COMMENT

1Ae aaVaAtage or the loug-deSlred and long delayed unity of command has been clearly shown in Foch's new attack on the Amiens front As the going became harder on the Soissens- Rheims line-no longer the Marne sa- Eent-the allies great leader shifted his attentions from the crown prince, to his royal cousin, Prince Rup- Precht. Rupprecht's army had al- ready been depleted of several divis- ions in answer to the desperate call of the crown prince further south, and possibly this accounted for the German withdrawal behind the Anere and the Avre rivers even before they were attacked These two little streams flowing from the northeast and the southeast respectively meet the Somme few miles east of Amiens. From before them the Ger mans were in position to make arl- other try at Amiens and the shore of the channel; their abandonment sig n;f1ed the abandonment of any fur
 ther German offensive in this region.
 A few months back the allies would have been content to let well enough alone, but now things are different Thursday morning the British army north of the Somme and the French 10 the south started forward. No af- tillery bombafdment announced their coming, merely the barfage that reg ularly preeedes advancing troops. But as at Cambrai last fall there were tanks, not the few dozen slow clurn
 sy creatures of the earlier battle but fleets of fast powerful cars that ceuf6 keep ahead of the infantry and flat ten out all opposition. The Germans were taken completely by surprise and the British made a record for first days attack by going through them for clean seven miles The French to the south were rot so sue eessful but the British from their newly won position so outfianked the German line that it had to fall back before the French as well. Five hun dred guns and forty thousand prison CTS were taken in the first three days. By Saturday Montdidier had fallen and now NoYon, Rove and Peronhe are again being mentioned in the days news, towns from which the now victorious allies were so summar fly swept in those terrible days of last March.
 It is one month today since the
 Germans struck south across the Marne, sanguine in their belief that the French were done for, the Amer jeans few and insignificant Paris ia their grasp and final victory in sight. Their advance carried them across the vital railway line between Paris and Verdun. just as their guns opposite Amiens already dominated the Paris
 Calais line. These two important railways extending from Paris at right angles have now been completely re- stored and, running unmolested be- hind the allies lines for their entire lar arfh positions of troops on which Fneh may decide. The men. the means. the initiative are at last all in his hands.
 Even the rahid Junker papers of Germany are admitting that their army has suffered serious reverse and are venting their spite on von kuehlmann and politicians like him, who, by doubting the possibility of ultimate military success, have weak ened the morale. of the nation. Other 1 papers, less arrogant in days of pros | parity, are now frankly pessiTnistic. With troubles gathering thick and 1 fast on both east and west the truth | can not be concealed mu2h lengeF. 1 What will the Germans do when they { realize that they are not only beaten but bankrupt? Already the national debt is 3S billions of dollars, nearly i ten times the debt of the United | States at the close of the Civil war Interest on this huge sum, pensions ordinary pre-war peace-tine expenses
 will take four billions a year. The
 whole national income Of the German people before the war was but eleven
 billions, yet that was in the day of | great manufactur:ng, an enormous
 overseas trade. a rapidly growing pop
 ulaton and the blessings of a lons | continued peace. With all this gone
 with the good will of the entire world | thrown away with two millions o1
 Ter best men dead and as many more perma nently crippled, with a home
 population sadly weakened by hunger privation and disappointment, Witf I Belgium and Serbia to be rebuilt anc recompensed, the financial burden vii
 weigh down the German people fol generations to come.
 Things in Russia are moving fast
 including the Bolsheviki. American troops were among the allied force that has landed at Archangel an6 were greeted with great enthusiasm by the Russian population. Already a stable government has been estab
 lished and the Bolshevixi are no long
 Ter in power. The allies army eaSill
 overcame the resistance Of the S.oe
 troops at Archangel and IS rapidl. advancing southward along the rail way to Vologda The American aTt
 other ambassadors are now located a Archangel, which with faFaway Vladi vostok will continue to be the eente
 of entente influence and activity an,
 the source from which the reha bilita tion of Russia will proceed.
 The CZecho Slovak forces in Rus
 sia and Siberia are said to hay
 grown to 300.000 all political partie : hostile to the Bolsheviki are joinin !. them and at last there seems to be nucleus about which the forces c good government can rally with , good prospect of success. Many citie
 of Siberia have been freed from tn incompetent Soviets, which in som , cases have attempted to make a sta Il l but in others have simply melte
 away before the organized force of tn | Czecho- -Slovaks.
 Following President Wilson's de - cision that the United States was { participate in a joint expedition t :. eastern Siberia, the force for V1adi e vostok is even now making ready. 1
 keeping with interna tional custom, n Japanese will be in command, inas c much as Japan is in position to ful '' nish the largest force. Two regiment
 now in the Philippines will form tt s backbone of the American contingen
 that will number all told 1000 men. y small number of British troops froi @ Hong Kong has already landed ar = French from Cochin China will soc 4 be on the ground.
 Wholesale assassination of the |: political opponents has not saved tl a Bolsheviki, and L4enine and Trotzl o are already in flight from Moseo,