The Washington herald., 1918-05-01
The Climax?

Has the golden hour arrived? Can it be posi-
BILE that the glorious British defense of Ypres
spells a reverse for the Hun less authentic and
decisive in its bearing on the fortunes of the war
than the immortal victory of the Marne?
Yesterday our heaps were steeled for bad
news-we were braced against the unkindest
cut" that Mars might have brought to US, believing
that Teutonic desperation was willing to pay a
blood price far out of proportion to the value OF
any terrain that might be yielded to him. We
were even ready to hear that the channel ports
vulnerable, confident that they would never
be surrendered until the flower of the enemy's
armies had been shattered against the allied
chine guns and artillery.
To this determined and dogged, but none the
less dismal state of mind comes that darting flame
from the field of battle which tells US that the
enemy is repulsed before Ypres, that of his
greatest armies has been "disastrously defeated"
that his mass attacks were moved down in slaugh-
ter unparalleled even in this offensivel
The news has seemed too good to be believed
and we fighting against instructive inclina-
ton accept it at its face value and to allow our
spirits to float in ethereal ubilation over which
may, for all we know, mark one of the great and
critical hours OF the history of mankind.
The first interrogation that springs to our
minds is: will the Boche return to the attack
again? Will he be daunted by the stone wall which
he encountered Monday-a stone wall which forced
him to silence his guns yesteEday-or will his
leaders decide that Locre and La Clytte and Voor-
mezeele must be taken at all hazards, that the
Ypres salient must be dented2 His challenge al
ready has been met and answered. Will he care
to renew it? And if he does, will the British stand
once more like rock mmovable as Gibraltar?
We are rather inclined to believe that they will.
There is every evidence that the British after
yielding Mount KENNEL and Wytschaete, fell back
o frli a.
enemy tripped into attacking them hastily
and impulsively, without suSpectpg the trap he
was being led into. AS result the Hunnish
wave has been brought decisivey to a stop as
If it were flood forcing itself against the Assouan
dam the Nile. The enemy has tried with a
desperation and a sacrifice OF life that was at once
suPerhumsn and inhuman, to alter that decision
But in vain.
We prepared for the fall of Ypres, if il
were necessary in the strategic program before
toch- How much sweetcr, then, is it to see it
held as securely against the Boche as if it were in
safe deposit vault, after were ready and
willing to see it yielded to the pollution OF bar
oarlan hands. But the history of 1914, the high
light OF British heroism in the war, is to be re-
peated. YPres, the jewel city of Flanders
now shattered is to be held as it was in the really
critical days when "kitchcner's mob" both raw
and puny in number, Wed with the colonials in I'D
holding the traditions of British arms
The channel ports saved-unless London has
spoken prematurcly The entire complexion of the
battle is changed. At Amiens the German drive
was stopped. Before Arras and La Bassee it never
even got under way. The thrust in Picardy is all
but abandoned, and the French are counter attack
ing effectively. In Flanders its initial impetus has
drIbbled away. 1t seems to be held now as surely
as it is held before Amiens.
Yet we know that the German cannot stop He
On
new concept has he in prospect? 1t is not too
much to say that the ruin OF his plans before Ypres
IS the real turning point OF the whole movement
he can never be as dangerous again. Our conf
denee in Foch has been vindicated.