The Washington herald., 1918-06-14
Holding.

arrived" the Kaiser asserted last March, the
OF the first blow of the offensive.
THE hour has struck" echoed his psycophants
"der tag has come" Having thus announced to
the world the pan--the ending of the by the
destruction of the enemy-let see about the
execution.
Here we are in mid june, with the edge of the
German sword growing dull. The blows have been
pillowed and pocketed in the allied line There is
no rupture, no breaking through" Today the
central thrust aimed at Paris has been met square
". the shock has been absorbed, and parried Con-
idence that the hours OF darkest trial and gravest
peril for the allied cause is over has almost been
converted into certainty.
We are, then, confronted with this alternative
Either the Ludendorf- -Hndenburg plan has mis-
carried radically, the margin between promise and
performance being great, or the German high
command is committed to the policy of attrition
OF wearing Foch down by slow degrees, by form
OF strategy not dissmilar to that OF the delayed
pass" in football. The Germans may be planning
to iorCc such distribution of allied reserves, to
create so many points OF pressure and of menace,
that Foch will be compromised too deeply to meet
the final and climaxing blow with adequate force
when it falls
Ii the German high command is striving to
match Foch in his Fabian policy, OF holding
back until the allies have relapsed into their old
sin OF ovcrconhdence and OF thinking the worst is
over it is safe to postulate that it will fail. 1t
may be that preponderant power may yet per-
init the Germans force the entente armies into
a dangerous situation than any now dreamed
OF. There have been too many sad surprises in
the past three months for anyone to think that the
Hun has final and supercunning trick to play
No despises-certainy responsible mil
itary in the camp despises-the intellec
tual quality OF the who directing the Ger
offensive. They masters of the art of
warfare They arc driven by desperate necessity
to do things which, doubtless, in their detached
moments, they know TO be d gamble pure and
simple; but it is not to be forgotten that the de-
cisivc battles OF history are ull OF desperate expe
dents that have succeeded, and of best laid sound
plans that have gone utterly wrong.
To know this does not diminish faith in
FoCh in the slightest, confidence in victory.
The German now has made four distinct onsIaughtS
OF which has reached its objective, unless
the German high command is aiming at
mutation of minor advantages which will give its
big blow the most favorable auspices. From the
allied point OF view the situation today is more
favorable than it has been at any time in three
months. We know now, after the experience of
the past ten days, that enemy drive be held
and stopped, practically at its point of origin We
not absolutely certain OF this until the Ger
started his thrust in the Noyon-Montdidier
sector.
Vii this however is based on the assumption
that the present OF things is somewhere near
what the kaser had in mind last March, when he
ir,orrncd his people and his enemies that der tag
vas approaching This we cannot believe to be
the " Nhen he picked viocts for the kaiscrin
thc Chcmin-des-D Danes, and wept the dew
a,tatiou OF France, months later, there was
reference then to great day in German his
t0rs.' cocksurc prediction OF a speedy ending
ot the There is every evidence that the COM
arg German peace offensive will contain the
written history OF the effort break through the
Western front, that it will retract much OF what
the pan-Germans have been shouting and spouting
.ly.
Certainly Germany needs decision before next
winter She is further from it than she was
last April The military clique may find in Won
STEMS inflated speech before the Rcichstag the
drug it needs to wash out the history Of from
March to June, and Try make from June Oc-
Der different story. But secretly Ludendorff
must know that Foch has matched him at every
point; that he has not put over" single thing;
that tie shrewd game he has been playing is
srasped by the tactical genius whose word is law
along the entire frontier Of freedom.