Evening star., 1918-04-14
Ry pAUL SCOTT MOwRER.
Cablexram to The Sunday Star and
Chicago Daily News. Copyright. 1918.

Cab1egram to The Sunday Star ana
Chicago Daily News. Copyright. 1918.
PARIS, April IL (delayed).-The bat
tie continues to rage on thirty-kfi-
ometer eighteen -mile) front from La
Bassee to the Ypres canal. The Ger
mans are attacking In a Northwestern
ly direction. which. II continued far
enough, would bring them to Calais.
The question of the moment is
whether this new attack is really a
offensive or merely a diversion. If 1t
Is a diversion it certainly is a power
full one It was prepared for by a vio-
lent bombardment lasting day and a
half and carried out by a large num-
ber Of troops.
Hindenburg's Possible Plan.
It seems to me to be Hindenburg' s
so as to leave the British front at Arras
in a dangerous salient, which could ul-
ttmately be attacked on both f1anks and
reduced, thus joining the new battle
field to the old one in one long battle
front from the Malmaison plateau to
Ypres, a distance of more than 200
kilometers (120 miles). In any case the
British are holding well. The ground
relinquished is not greater than was
to be expected in accordance with Gen.
Foch's plan OF an elastic defense.
In the meantime the bulk of the Ger
man army continues to be concen-
trated before Amiens. What is hap
pening on this front? Not much actual
fighting. but each side is digging as
hard as 1t can. The result is that the
adyersaries are already pretty well en-
trenched. Studying this front in three
sectors we find 1t somewhat as follows:
From the Malmaison plateau to Mont
didier. a distance Of sixty-hve ktlome-
ters (thirty-nine miles) 1t has been
relatively calm for nearly two weeks.
Hero the trenches are assuming a nm
ished shape. Heavy artillery has been
brought into position and even GER
tain amount of barbed wire has been
strung, which Is the longest and hard
est task Of all.
Conditions Elsewhere.
The sector from Montdidier to the
Somme, thirty kilometers eighteen
mi1es) in length, the scene of the great
German attacks on April 4. is still
somewhat unsettled. The trenches
here are rudimentary. There IS little
heavy artillery, but a big concentration
of field guns and trench mortars. The
sector from the Somme to Arras, forty
five kilometers (twenty-seven miles)
long. which has also been relatively
quiet 1Or fortnight, Is ncdily 90
strongly fortified as the Malmaison-
Montdidier sector, with good trenches.
barbed wire and heavy artillery. The
first sector is held by the French, the
second principally by the French and
the third by the English.
Here Is a curious detail. All military
men admit that the Germans do more
digging than any other soldiers and are
indefat tigable. The French dig consid-
erably more than the English but per
haps less than the Germans. The
speciality of the French is what Is call
ed the Civilization of ground" that is
to say. the French soldier understands
better than any other how to make
cunning defensive use of every ditch,
stick, stone, stump. mound and broken
wall which the battlefield offers.
Germans Perfecting Defenses-
Photographs taken from aeroplanes
show that the German defenses on
some parts of the new line. notably
along the Disc toward Noyon, have
reached remarkable degree of per-
fection considering the short time they
have worked on them. From the fact
that the new German defensive is the
most solid between Malmaison and
Montdidier one may safely deduce that
no Immediate offensive Is contemplated
here HindenburRS Idea seems rather