The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-06-01
Cen. F0cH COOL
He Is Meeting Germans at
Their Own Game.
Holds Reserves To Use in Fu-
ture Emergencies.
ALLIES KEEP UP MORALE
President and Secretary of War
Hold a Conference.
Every Effort Will Be Made To
Save Paris.

Washington, June President
Wilson and Secretary Baker held a
lengthy conference as the news ar
rived, indicating that the Germans
are at last thrusting straight at Paris.
This turn of events is recognized
thruout Washington as the develop
ment of the crisis of the present
battle.
Oficials who knew what went on
between the president and Secretary
Baker. asserted they regard the situa-
ton as grave. But they see no reason
for panic
This attitude was borne out by views
of the battle obtained in allied mill
tary quarters.
If the Germans elect to make drive
on Paris down the valleys OF the
Marine, the Ourq and the Disc, 1t is pre-
dicted here that every man in Foch' s
command will be thrown in TO meet
them and there will follow the great
est stand-up-and-fi finish fight of his
tory.
Foch Knows Best.
The cool refusal of General Foch to
whirl his forces around the Picardy
angle and into the AiSne- Marine fight
ing was greeted with admiration by
allied soldiers here. A French veteran
thus expressed it:
He is performing in the truest
sense the function of the commander
d
the gallant troops before the Marine
that they must fight it out alone. But
General Foch alone must make that
decision. He must first ascertain that
the present drive is the greatest of
which. the enemy is capable at this
moment. Then he must move his re-
serve to meet it. 1t is admittedly a
difficult problem. Its solution in this
way is costing us territory which is
valuable and lines of communication
hi ONUN -
not vital 1t is better to lose them
than to make wrong decision on the
grand strategy of this battle that will
last all summer"
To the straight-out question has
General Foch reserves" this man re-
piled with a single emphatic yes"
There is evidence, too, to show these
reserves are being rapidly built up.
New British increments are pouring
across the channel as the older men
caught in the extension of the British
draft age are brought to the training
camps. All critics here declare that
the American troops now arriving in
France are in prime fettle to go into
the battle almost Immediately.
Morale Is Good.
In line with this information the
belief is gaining ground in Washington
that General Foch is following a plan
as coolly calculated as that of the
Germans. 1t is expected that he will
let the Germans drive on as best they
can against the forces opposing them,
up to the moment when their advance
threatens the morale of the allied peo-
pies. There is no such indication of
breaking morale in reports received
here today from London, Paris and
Rome.
Diplomatic dispatches from all three
capitals indicate that opinion there is
hardened to the necessity of retreat
before overwhelmingly concentrated
forces.
The Germans have gained three
prizes in their drive. The first is the
Chemin Des Danes ridge. which
threatened their flank so long as il
remained in French hands. The sec
ond was the Paris-Rheims railway
which they cut at Ffsmes The third
not yet clearly within their grasp, 1,
the great Paris-Chalons railway line
All of them, in the opinion of French
critics here, are important but not vi
tai They possess no military value
which cannot be replaced.
The loss of Paris even would be OF
little military value. But it would bt
of incalculable value in changing the
relative morale of the allied and the
enemy peoples. So, it is predicted, a
stand will be made before Paris, wei
before the city, to save the allied NOR