Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 212, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 September 1918 — MONDAY WAR SUMMARY. [ARTICLE]

MONDAY WAR SUMMARY.

Overshadowing in interest even Marshal Foch’s hammer blows against the harried Germans, is the Teutonic bid for peace made through the imperial government of Austria-Hun-gary. The formal plan of Emperor Charles to the belligerents for a confidential and non-binding discussion on the basic principles for the conclusion of peace comes as the first sensational move in the “peace offensive” which has been expected since German arms began to stagger back from the fierce thrsts of the British, French and Americans. Washington and the allied capitals hailed the call for a conference on neutral soil as another German ruse to get better terms than they might exipect when the war has been carried to the Rhine. They were convinced ;hat Austria, whose people have long >een war weary, has been called upon to bear the onus of making peace overtures and thus save the face of Germany. Not only in Washington, but in London and Paris, pacifists found cold comfort. None of the involved were inclined to take seriously the request that delegates be sent to such

a conference as that proposed by the Austrian ruler. It was pointed out that the United States and entente allies Have made their peace aims so clear there can be no mistaking them. The assertion that the “central powers leave it in doubt that they are waging war of defense for the integrity and security of their territories was greeted with added skepticism in the face of the' Washington disclosures unmasking completely the intrique which has wrecked Russia. Publication* of documents proving .beyond.all question that Germany had waited only for a plausible preftext to plunge the world into war, cast a sinister shadow over the be-' nevolent protestations of Emperor William’s closest ally.

It was accompanied also by the announcement that a German marine had sunk the Brittish steamship, Galway Castle, with the loss of 189 lives. Ninety of those perished were women and children. At the same time U-boats renewed their attacks upon shipping on this side of the Atlantic, shelling only eighty miles off the coast a transport carrying Canadian sick and wounded. Grim meaning was given the overtures by the announcement from Paris that Austrian troops which tried k to block the way of the Americans rwere utterly demoralized and surrendI ered to a man. I www •« . v • i <

While the peace kite was in flight, British, French and American troops continued their relentless pressure against the Germans. Pershing’s men advanced from two to three miles on a thirty-mile front. Haig’s forces advanced northwest of St. Quentin while French forces made progress south of the same city. Mangin’s army simultaneously struck a new blow at the German salient north of Soissons. Wherever the allied troops attacked the German lines moved back.