The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1918-07-27

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February II, again addressed con-
gress, laid down what have come to
be known as the -Four Principles"
upon which peace can be based.
Briefly, these principles were:
Final settlement must be based on
essential justice.
Peoples and provinces are not to
be bartered about like chattels.
Every territorial settlement must
be for the benefit and in the interest
of the population concerned.
All well-defined national aspira-
tons shall be met with the utmost
/ satisfaction with the future peace.
Pope Benedict, in pastoral letter,
issued at Easter. made another ap-
peal for concord among the peoples
of the world, but it brought forth no
tangible results. At the Pope's be-
hest, prayers for peace were offered
in Catholic churches throughout the
world on St. Peters day, June %.
In April there came revelations
from Paris that Emperor Charles of
Austria had written letters to Prince
Sixtus of Bourbon, relative. In
these communications the Austrian
monarch conceded the claim of
France to Alsace and Lorraine and
limited that peace overtures would be
welcomed.
AS the result of this, Count Czernin,
the Austrian Foreign Minister was
removed from office.
i The most recent addresses on the
subject of peace have been delivered
in the German Reichstag, one by DR..
Richard Won Kuhlmann, the foreign
minister and the other by Imperial
Chancellor Won Hertling The for
mers sensational admission that the
sword by itself could not bring peace
resulted in his resignation, and Won
ment that as long as the allies were
intent upon destroying Germany" the
war must 60 on.
Then Enemy offensives.
Last winter it became known that
the Germans were massing forces on
the western front. Reports came that
large units were training behind the
lines and that new and more terrible
engines of war than had beyl known
before were to be used in German
effort to break the allied lines, crush
their armies and force them to make
peace. The drive was we'll adver-
tised and even the place where it was
to be launched was known with COM
parative certainty.
On the morning of March 81, the
Germans began their attack from the
vicinity of Arras, on the north, to La
Fere, on the south, and centering their
heaviest columns against the British
forces, under General Cough, at St.
Quentin.
Staggering from the impact of the
blow the British army fell back rap
idly. For eight days the Germans
poured through the old allied line in
an effort to crush the British and
drive wedge between them and the
French, who were holding the lines
to the south. Then came period of
reaction and the Germans came to a
stop. They had driven ahead for
thirty-f1ve miles, along a front extend
ing more than fifty miles before they
were halted.
Hardly had their legions been held
before Amiens than a new offensive
was begun in Flanders, on April 2.
1t swept the British back through
Armentieres, but did not break their
lines. The British, with the French
who were rushed up to the front,
stopped the Germans after they had
reach,d the hills southwest of Ypres
ed a terrible defeat that halted their
offensive in that quarter.
Foeh in Supreme Command.
In the midst Of the drive in the
sector toward Amiens, the allied ma
tons took a vital, important step.
They named General Ferdinand Foch,
hero of the first battle Of the Marne,
generalissimo of the allied forces on
the western front, which includes all
the lines in italy as well as in France.
Even the Thurman coast. in northern
Russia, has been held to be under
his command.
After period of quiet, the Germans
attacked once more, this time on the
Aisne river, and in seven days they
reached the Marine at Chateau Their
ry, making a penetration of about
twenty-eight miles. At the Marine
they were checked and the impetus
of the blow was broken.
With hardly a days pause for the
reorganization of their forces, the
Germans again attacked, choosing the
sector between Montdidier and Noyon,
on the southern side of the salient
driven into the allied line during the
March offensive, as the stage of the
Onslaught. This offensive ran for five
days and was stopped north Of Com
peigne after losses which were des-
crihed as unprecedented had been in
f1icted upon the Germans.
From June IA until July Is the Ger
mans were engaged in shifting their
forces and then they again struck
This time the line of attack was from
Chateau-T hierry eastward, around to
the north of Rheims and then down
the Vesde river to Prunay and from
that village eastward to Massiges.
This attack at the close of the year
developed into one Of the most am
bilious of the German strokes.
German forces crossed the Marine
over a wide front, but were unable to
make ground against American troops
near Chateau-Thierry and could not
advance rapidly further east. They
did, however. forge ahead on the north
side of the Marne and between that
stream and the mountain of Rheims.
n apneared for a time that thew might |