St. John's Daily Star, 1918-04-11

              the st john's daily star vol'jme xv 3.00 per anmun thursday april 11 1918 price one cent no 81 germans strike hard in belgium strong enemy attack is delivered in north germans renew offensive with drive in arm entieres region and occupy british front line trenches—port uguese sector heavily assailed by enemy forces—some ground given foe forces way into givenchy eitt 13 driven out by the british the british armies in j france april 10 — another ■ • british theatre sudden '.. use fighting yester rmans delivered a approximately an 1 ween givenchy | - fit east of fleux a.;n en tiers • or is included in j d east of laplantm ..'.'. i trie enemy ap : sined a footing in '. '.: last reports r .! hs front attacked t ■ ji/y arc holding their ': v y fu'hting which j po-'ed to be especially !■: . •*. . bert the portu : portcd by the e ■:. n.l by a vio ].. ••:'■. began yes tc . ' ig and ex tc , . i t affected . r towns l - .'-. have been 1 ■ ■ . , vhat rela t -. m the main - .. f sguth on i fly time will tell whether it was un dertaken as a diversion or whether the enemy has a desirous idea of pushing forward here got into givenchy london april 10.—in their new attack on the front north of the sorrime the germans yesterday forc ed their way into givenchy but the j british recaptured the town the i war office statement says fierce fighting continued during last night on the front north of labasse canal the british troops are standing on the line of the rivers lawe and lys and are engaged in heavy fighting with the germans at the river cross i ing at estares and bac st m.aur enemy attack extends london april 10—(official — the german attack is extending early to-day a bombardment was be gun of the british positions from the armentiers region as far north as j the ypres comines canal on u|6 southern part of the front infantry fighting is reported to have begun the announcement says:—on the froflt north of labasse canal fierce fighting continued during the night our troops are holding the jine of the rivers lawe and lys and are i heavily engaged at the river cross general foch—"he is not merely one of the most brilliant soldiers in europe he is the man who when we were attacked and were in hard plight at the first battle of ypres rushed the french army there by every conceivable convey ance and helped to win the great battle."—lloyd george in the house ! ings at estaires and bac st maur on the southern flank of the at tack givenchy into which the en emy at one time forced his way was captured later by a successful counter-attack by the 50th division which took 750 prisoners in this area early this morning the enemy op ened a bombardment of our positions east and south of armentiers as far as the ypres-comin«s canal . . fighting is reported to have be gun on the south position of this front | on the british front south of the somme there was local fighting yes terday at certain points without changing the situation 5»:;»"»"»:»::»:»::cc^^!»:>:»:>::o::»:m-»:»j»i»::»::c gfmfral txxtr neglected workmen how much longer are we to be treated to the spectacle of a body of deserving and well-be haved workmen left by those in au thority to fight unaided their battle for necessary wage increases against a corporation that refuses even to enter into discussions calculated to effect any compromise on the subject that may be necessar as the situation now stands a large number of the st john's elec tors men whom the government of the day supposedly represents in an especial manner seek the wherewith al to purchase daily necessities for themselves and their families they have exhausted every means of set tling their dispute with their employ ers amicably they have gone on strike and they.opened and are con ducting that strike in sane and sober fashion they still stand prepared to negotiate wage increases through re presentatives of their union but their rights and their representations a»e ignored by the corporation and ne * glected by the government the work \ men of st john's are left to fight i their own battie against unreasoning i and uncompromising capitalism a week or so ago the-country was i treated to the spectacle of the gov ernment of the day exercising its po i wer and its prerogatives to the full to exact from the merchants what it claimed was due value for the pro dues of the sealers by executive en actment the price of seal fat was forced up from 10.00 per hundred weight to 12.00 per hundredweight the government organ boasts that 60,000 in increased earnings were thus put in the pockets of newfound land workmen if the government could thus take such instant and drastic action in the i case of the sealers how does it hap i pen that government has displayed i j absolutely no concern about the small er financial claim of the workmen of | st john's as soon as the merchants ■ made known their price at 10.00 : par hundredweight executive meet j iags were held and executive mcm i hers busied themselves interviewing \ i the merchants and making known to ii that the drctsian of the government i j ts proceed even to the commandeer ing of seal-manufacturing plants in order to force an increase of prices to 12.00 per hundredweight daily the government organ the advocate thundered against the manufacturers as enemies and despoilers of the seal ers and eventually the government got its way and the sealers their in creased price no such anxiety has been display ed by the government in connection with the claims of the workmen of st john's for increased returns or the products of their toil they spen weeks in vain attempts to open ne gotiations with the reids the gov ernment made no move to assist the men or to prevent a breach betweer the workers and the corporation tlv advocate gave them not the shghtes encouragement or support why why should such an obvious di tinction be made between the wage earners of the north and their fello toilers of st john's ? why should el cry power and every prerogative c government be invoked and used t force capitalists to pay 60,000 ac ditional to northern toilers whil these weapons have not been utilise on behalf of toilers of this city is it because most of the sealei are coaker adherents and * therefor supporters of the government of th day surely the government doescn want the men of st john's to under stand their discrimination so appai ent to the most casual observer wa deliberate yet what other conclu ion can be peached the industrial quarrel between th reids and the n i w a did no develop in a single day or in a single week the union men made no pre cipitate move they spent much time and exercised much patience in an endeavor to effect a compromise with the corporation the government knew this but made no move the advocate knew this but made no en couraging pronouncement to the men again why it cannot be urged that govern ment inaction is explained by the fact that the n i w a did not aj peal to the government in the early days of the quarrel there was no critical state of allies is revealed by premier allies can save day only with big reinforcements sir harry wilson.—lioyd george told the house of commons this british general made a remar able prediction regarding the german offensive months before it was launch cd sensational yarn denied washington dubs as false report u s airplane crossed atlantic ( washington april 10.—american aviation officials said today that no american machine had crossed the atlantic and they were at a loss to explain reports in england that a ma chine carrying 12 passengers had landed there from america s:c»:cor*s:co:xtta:ccco huns gained important initial success in drive thru failure of one british army at crucial moment and men are urgently needed at once to turn tide of great offensive lloyd george declares london april 10 a political bombshell was thrown in the house^of commons yesterday by da vid lloyd george when he announ ced that conscription would be ex tended to ireland and the government also intended to extend home rule to ireland the scenes in the house during the course of the premiers speech in reference to ireland were dramatic approving cheers and cries of protest arising from all parts of the house frequent interruptions - during the latter part of the speech the premier was frequently interrupt ed by angry irish members a test of strength soon developed when jo seph devlin nationalist made a mo tion to adjourn the government car ried a closure on this motion and the adjournment was defeated by an overwhelming vote irish approval of the proposed measures was not foreshadowed by the attitude of the nationalist lead ers nor did the ulster faction show any signs of conciliation john difl on the successor of john redmond denounced conscription sir edward carson the ulster leader while ap proving conscription objected to the introduction of home rule at this time the house approved the introduct ion of the government manpower bill by 209 to 80 and it was announced that the time for the discussion of the bill had been extended till next tues day premier lloyd george said the ex clusion of ireland couldn't be justi fied any longer and the character of the war was as much irish as eng lish ireland through her represen tatives had approved the war and vo ted to commit the empire to it , ' lull in the storm • ■ premier lloyd eorge opening his address to the house of commons said there is a lull in the storm but he hurricane is not over and doubt less we must expect more fierce out breaks and ere it is finally exhausted there will be many more the fate of he empire ini ate of lurope arid he fate of iibeity throughout the vorld may oepeud on ne success ith wh'ch tili cry las t these al xks is rested aj-d cour.lr.ie.t the tnerefo/c proposes 3 submit lo parliament to-day cei in recommendations in order to as ist this country and the allies to leather the storm they will in volve i regret extreme sacrifices on * part of large classes of the popu ation and nothing would justify them ut the most extreme necessity and he fact that we are fighting for all hat is essential and most sacred in ur national life emergency measures before i come to the circumstan ces which led up to our submitting hese proposals to parliament i mght to say one word as to why par lament was not immediately summon cd since the battle began the gov rnment has been engaged almost ev ry hour in concerting with the al lies the necessary measures to assist the armies to deal with the emergen cy the proposals which we intend submitting to parliament required very close and careful examination and i think there is the advantage in our meeting to-day rather than im mediately after the impact of the german attack that we shall be con sidering these proposals under con ditions which will be far removed from any suggestion of panic i shall now come to the circum stances which have led to the pres ent military position it is difficult at this time to present a clear connec ted and reliable narrative of what has happened there has been a great battle on a front of fifty miles the greatest battle ever fought in the history of the world enormous forces have been engaged there was a considerable retirement on the part of the british forces and under these conditions it is not easy for some time to ascertain what actual ly happened outstanding facts . the house well recollects the dif ficulty we experienced with regard to cambrai it was difficult to piece together the story of the event _ for some time and cambrai was a very trivial event compared with this gi gantic battle the generals and their staffs are naturally bound to have t concentrate their attention upon the operations of the enemy and until the strain has relaxed it would be very difficult to institute the necessary inquiries to find out exacl ly what happened and to furnish an adequate explanation of the battle however thete are two or three facts which stand out and in staling them i would like to call attention to two things which i think we should notice above all the rest the first is that nothing should be said which would give discouragement to our own troops who are fighting so gal lantly at this very hour and the second point is that all recrimina tion must be shut out beginning of the battle what was the beginning of the bat tie notwithstanding the heavy cas ualties in 1917 the army in france was considerably stronger on the first of january 1918 than on the first of january 1917 at the end of ireland is to have home rule and is to be called upon thru conscrip tion to furnish hen quota of recruits — war crisis is gravest yet faced and utmost self sacrifice is called foe from britons 1917 up to say about october or november the german combatant strehgth in france was two to one of ihe allies then came the mili tary/collapse of russia and the ger rrrans hurried up their released di visions from the russian front and -<£■ brought them to the west they had a certain measure of support which austria had been according them owing to the great growth of the i strength of our armies in 1917 when this battle began the assemblant strength of the whole german army on the western front was only ap proximately though not quite equal to the total combatant strength of the allies in infantry they were slightly inferior in artillery they were inferior in cavalry they were considerably inferior and what is very important they were undoubted ly inferior in aircraft the enemy organisation the germans therefore organis ed their troops so as to produce a larger number of divisions out of tho slightly smaller number of infantry one advantage always commanded by the offensive is that they know where they mean to attack they c'.oose the ground they choose the ocnlion where they mean to attack they know the width of the attack they know the dimensions of the at tack all that invariably gives the in itial advantage to the offensive the defence has a general advan tage owing to air observation at the same time in spite of all that owing to the power of moving troops . at nir-ht which the germans exercis ed to a very large extent there is a margin for surprise even in spite of air observation and of guns they had fewer battalions in a division1 ; and fewer men in a battalion this is entirely a question of organisa lion and it remains to ec seen that their organisation is better than ours it is necessary to explain that in oidei that the house should realise why vj h approximately the same number of men the germans have a j larger number of divisions on that j front all the facts which have come jto hand as to the battle roughly rep j resen ihe relative strength of the j combatants the germans had one or two important advantages the firs uas the initiative advantage this the enemy took full advantage ■>! 1 should like to say one word lo the difficulty with which hied generals were faced in thi | respect when the battle started th i ircalest german demonstration was j ir i rent of out troops and there was j proof-that the full weight of the at ' tack would fall on us there was a j very large concentration opposite | the french lines lam referring now to the german reserves on the north i cm part of our line german dispositions after the battle began the ger .; m by night brought their divi ions from the part north of the point ;£ where the attack took place and '•£ they also took several divisions from'l ; opposite the french in the same m j way and brought them to our front sbui it would have been equally eaiy1 for them while concentrating troop opposite our front to manoeuvre j them in the same way opposite the french i am orily referring to that in «&■ der to show now exceedingly difficult it is for generals on defensive to de clare exactly where in their judge " ment the attack is coming and wher they ought to concentrate their w serves i may just say this word | here this problem was consider very closely by the military staff at y gen 3ir henry * wiuson lloyd george—the brilish premier has just delivers kus ni i striking speech in the hbusfe of commons outlining an irish home rule measure irish conscription a man-power bill calling out thousands of additional army reinforcements and announcing unity of allied cocunand on the french front what lloyd george stated . o peaking in the house of commons yester i \ & day.the british premier made the following \ ! important points in one of the most significant 1 i addresses he has ever delivered treland is to be granted self-government , j ireland is to be called upon thru conscription j \- to.furnish her quota of men for the reinforce j [ mcjit of the british army ■ dining the opening stages of the german ! drive the british line was almost crumpled up •! % . thru the failure of the fifth army under general i i gough i french reinforcements saved the day i boys of less than nineteen years of age had to | be rushed across the channel to support the brit p ish line ■■■'. . j america has consented to the use of her troops jj whenever and wherever necessary in the great j t battle ~ | ■ *..'■- i britain stands badly in need oi more soldiers j ]! and men up to fifty years of age must be called \ || upon to take places in the firing line |[ general foch's appointvwent to the supreme i )(. allied command was a measure of the utmost i . military necefesity ¥. ' ' . * \ continued on page 2 z .:: tpfpiai ? r 1 yi lullilo foh this week s >■ ——< ■ = ~ v ... == i new , i dress muslins j see window for special biscay j pj : —: — j — g i middy blouses i | in white and wt he | with fancy collars i 1.70 2.50 st 2.75 ea | i job curtaikschimsi gream and wkite 1 with flora border | clearing at ibc b€f yd i 180 wring bros ltd j