The Cambria Daily Leader

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF I GUILLEMONT. If it be a repetition of old-time foolishness to expect the conquest of Guillemont to lead to a collapse of the German line on the Somme front, it is equally mischievous to under-rate the significance of the victory. The enemy, although we know that he was prepared for the offensive of July 1st, and apparently was fairly well aware where the British blow was to fall, excused its success by declaring, with seeming frankness—and the German is never lying more than when he is in his cand.id admission" mood—that the result was one of the accidents of war. A high military commander explained the other day to a neutral journalist that the taking of Pozieres was due to the blunder of one regi- ment which did the wrong thing at the crit;inal moment. But Ger- many was comforted by official assurances that the British and French attacks had been broken, that the new line would hold and that the old would be regained speedily. It was essential that the spirit of the country should be maintained. The German is a bad loser. He wages war upon the theory of frightfulness because he realises that no chances must be given; ho ignores the rules of decent warfare because he knows that un- less he strikes with every weapon, fair and foul, he is lost. Now, face to face for the first time with the definite prospect of defeat—for the first time, one says, as Loos, as it was presented to the German people, was a distinct heartener— he will be hard put to if he means to trump up some other ingenious tale. Eor columns have been writ ten to the effect that the British could get no further. And desperate efforts have been made--efforts so savage that the oSicial commu- niques convey little idea of their in- tensity—to regain the lost ground. "The important ground taken by the enemy in certain pl aces will be retaken by us as soon as reinforce- ments arrive, said an Order issued to the Second Army on July 3. It1 is essential, for the moment, to keep at any cost the positions we actually hold and to improve them by small coftnrfcer-atfcaeks- The fury of these counter-attacks has been amazing. Reinforce- I merits arrived. Von Falkenhayn. apparently had his way at that time, and stripjked the Eastern front of troops in order to smash through. Heavier artillery was brought up. Nothing was left undone to clear a way through to the old positions. Men who are seasoned in battle- sounds have said that they remem- bered nothing more violent than these successive attacks. The writer has an undying memory of an even- ing in a village which boardered the old line, an evening when it ap- peared as though the very heavens were crashing in upon the wearied earth. Over and over again came these counter-attacks, meant to prove to the German people and the neutral world, that the Allies were impotent on the Albert-Ancre- Somme front, that the armies which had bent before the first weeks of July, were able to spring forward and overwhelm the British and the French. All in vain. We lost trenches occasionally; it is truer to say that we gave up trenches where nothing was to be gained by retain- ing them under the concentrated fire oi hundreds of guns. But at the front no one was discouraged thereat. The humbkst soldier in the ranks knew that our main posi- tions were safe and unassailable. So the German spent his metal prodig- ally and uselessly. So wave after wave of infantry advanced suicidally upon our line, to be reduced to the dreadful ruin which covers no man's land. And now, the long-expected combined effort, delayed for days by weather whieh made a serious offen- sive impossible, has dri-ven the enemy off from country which he boasted to the people &t htane he held im- pregnably. Our boys are pa6t Pozieres on the long straight road to the goal of Bapaume; they are at last in what remains of Guillemont,; the little hamlet Le Forest to the east of Maurepas is in the hands of the French Bind Cmnbles-a. fair- sized village—is menaced; Clery on the Sotnme has been taken and the river line straightened. To-day comes a magnificent French com- munique which bears out the hope that this new offensive is to go far and achieve very defi- nite results. What will Major Moraht say to the readers of the Tageblatt" to comfort and reassure them? What will the Kaiser offer to the deluded people as excuse for this further break in in the invincible line? It will be remembered that one of the alternative messages of chr given to the Gennan population was that, even supposing that the army could go no further, it could bold its I gains in France. One theory, widely circulated in neutral coun- tries, was that Germany could face I years upon the defensive, upon the ]pres>ent lines, organising its internal resources with Teutonic inventive- ness and thoroughness, and working for its benefit the rich industrial de- partments of France it held in its grip. The revelations now pub- lished c?acetming tb? Gerin?ni trenches enable us to believe that that theory was seriously advanced. The Allied trench, as the pictures with which we are familiar show, looks in every way like the work of men who hoped and meant to move on before long; the German trencii looks like the work of men who hoped or feared that they would be in it for years. Our trench housing has been much more of a makeshift, a sort of camping out, with some in- genious provisions for shelter and comfort. Theirs was entirely differ- ent.. The German front in the west is like one huge straggling village, built of wood and strung out along a road 300 miles long. Of course, the houses are all underground. Still, they are houses, of one or two floors, built to certain official de- signs, drawn out in section and plan. The main entrance from the trench level is, sometimes at any rate, through a steel door, of a pat- tern apparently standardised, so that hundreds may come from the factory on one order, and missing parts be easily replaced. Past these fortifications our boys have gone. All the labour is in vain. These underground villages are now in the rear of our positions—monuments of German industry—and futility. The moral of Guillcmont is written large. How soon will it be before Germany reads it? We have, indeed, come to one of those definite, clear stages of the war which tell us how it is going. Until the entry of Rumania, there were doubtful Thomases who won- dered whether the neutrals were [seeing things through our glasses, whether we were getting all the truth. They bee now that the war is steadily progressing to one des- tined, certain eiid. How nervy Berlin is growing is shown by the fact that the ",Tagel)latt thinks it necessary to seek official denial o[ the rumour that Denmark is joining tho Allies-a rumour which is greatly upsetting political and financial circles in Berlin, Frank- furt and Hamburg. Ill news is crowding in. Romania first, and now Greeool It is impos- sible to say how the Hellenic, situa- tion will work o-at. The Piraeus ever was the native home of rumour. A Levantine tale is always suspeet. But if it is true that King Constan- tine has expressed a desire to aban- don neutrality-and we repeat the report merely as an Athenian fact— it is significant of much. For, as one very acute observer pointed out last week, the King and his Staff have believed in a German victory and have wished to be on the win- ning side. The whole of King Con- stantino's proceedings," it was pleaded, may most charitably be in- terpreted as a muddled effort to pur- sue German real politics in their own sphere, to ignore sentiment, to be on the side of the big battalions, not to be led astray by scraps of paper." It is even a kind of in- verted compliment to us that King Constantine appears to have con- sidered German frightfulness to be far more formidable than the wrath of the Allies. •— The restrictions imposed by the Government with regard to the supply of steel bars for the tinplate industry has seriously effected the trade, very large numbers o<f men being obliged to work only four hour shifts. Were it not for the calling up of those under 35 years of age the position would, of course, have been further aggravated. Thanks to the intervention of Mr. Owen, of the Labour Exchange, an import- ant scheme has, however, been ar- ranged at LianeJly whereby the de- pression will be minimised. Nego- tiations have for the past few weeks been in progress between the em- ployers and representatives of the men, and these have been attended by the happiest results. No sooner had the Government's restrictions been announced than Mr. Owen called a conference for the purpose of discussing the new situation that had arisen owing to the exigencies of the Ministry of Munitions. Other conferences followed, and finally a deputation waited on Mr. John Hodge, M.P. The employers were then interviewed by -Air. Owen, and they gave the matter not only their sympathetic consideration, but showed their anxiety to co-operate in anv steps which would alleviate the distress that would inevitably have followed the stoppage of so many tinplate mills. Under the scheme approved of, men released from the tinplate works will be employed at the steel works, the foundries and the de- tinning works, the understanding being that their new employers will permit them to return to their old employment us soon as the neces- sity arises without the customary notice being given. The arrange- ment does not embrace the works controlled by Messrs- Richard Thomas and Co., for the obvious reason that this firm has a steel works of its own, and can transfer ite men as required. The position of the women employed at the dif- ferent tinplate works is slightly dif- ferent from that of the men, but the employers have agreed to grant leav- ing certificates to all the female hands than can be spared. It s pleasing to reeord that the arrangs- ment is already in vogue, and is giving satisfaction, a number of men having been transferred from the tinplate works to some of the other works mentioaed. By thus depleting the staff at the tinplate works, those that remain will he able to earn a better livelihood than would otherwise have been possible.

As a protest against non-unionists the ironstone minors at Loftus Mines, North Yorks, whftre a large number of men aro employed, have tendered notices to c-qaoe I work.

THE NOISE. OF BATTLE. A PROGRESSION IN SOUIDS THE ORCHESTRA OF THE SMME FRONT U I remember! I remember 1" How many things does one remember as he sits now amid the old, familiar Swansea scenes, and hears the rattle of its trams, and looks out upon the dear familiar drizzle that is falling! How many recol- lections flood in upon one; some that the mind tries to banish resolutely, others tender and sweet that come back with the grace of a noble benediction. Some tragic and unutterable, some joyous and full of laughter; aome like a fantastic nightmare woven in the pit itself, feome touched with the light of heaven. I re- member, I remember!" I remember the first, faint elusive sound, just a dim dull note upon the evening air, they told me was the sound of the guns--fo faint, so mysterious, that it conveyed nothing to one's ears until tie knew what it portended. A far-away boom that seemed to blend with the deep sough- ing of the wind among the trees. The ,!n tl 'I 'l'h guns!" they said. The guns somew here about Albert. N)e- heard them whilst we walked in the deserted village street, and we stood, silent and awed, hearing them again, and yet again. it was one's first realisation of war. Hitherto, here at the I back of the front," we had seen but its grim machinery, and the men who worked it. The line was over where the great downs sagged to a misty horizon. Infinitely remote it fceoiued, far, far distant. And this night, whilst we walked through the narrow vil- lage street, all was so calm, so heavy with peace, that we might have been in some Carmarthenshire Arcadia where nothing breaks repose. The sergeant stopped my talking with a "Hush! listen!" And I caught the deep faint note the brooøe cariied in its arms, and wondered, lightly and without comprehension, what it might be.. Hush I" again he said, and there it was, the new sound with which one waa to become familiar. The guns!" he said to my wondering look, the gtme on the Somme." THE DAILY NOTE. Daye passed before we heard the awe- some sound again, quiet days when the world appeared asleep. Then one night, between the traine that. rattled and screamed as they tore past with their precious freight of British manhood, when the noifjc of the last troop train had died down to a metallic whisper, one caught the boom once more, but now luller. aiad with menace in it. It shook the hut. It set the nerves quiver- ing. It sent cold thrills through the body. The gums now, without mis- take. Somewhere above ua, events were astir on the Somme. The weird shadows cast by the draught-blown candle in tho lonely hut began to afright one; the dark- ness was even a worse trial as one lay and listened to the booming. Imagination filled in the picture created by the sound. Thereafter one grew used to the new note of war. One heard it daily from the high dowrw &ow,.e refittiolis penned by the wayside, and under a Calvary, on one of these occasions have already been given in these pages-one heard it in the dead of night, when the note was clearer and deeper, and flashes flickered over the east- ern ekies like the waves of titanic search- lights. Beet of all, from a knoll crowning the valley, a troe-covered knoll that figures in the ancient history of France. There one always caught the message of the guns; and sometimes, when the air was clean, one thought he could see the explosion of the shells afar off. THE GREAT DAY. Saturday, July ,1st, was radiant with the summer sun, but we had no joy in it in our beautiful village. Some had heard, throughout the night, the thunder break- ing upon the German lines; louder, more continuous, more ominous, than anything that had gone before. When morning dawned we were the prey of rumour. Leports came down the line that our boys had gono over the top," that they had swept the front; even that the cavalry was through. Wounded passed down pre- sently with proud and smiling faces. Rumour grow wondrously, But in the East all seemed quiot that morning. -1 remember, I remember, that after- noon, drowsy, still, not a breath stirrirur. We were \n a forest, under the tail, straight trees the French love, deep in recesoQS of the wood, amid the aisles of a cathedral more woridrou»i than man ever fashioned, in a green twilight more mys- teriouis than the skill of the builder ever contrived. We talked softly of the news, the rumours, the morning had brought, we voiced our great hopes— And suddenly tho guns awoke, and a6 W0 listened to the roar the forest grew too solitary, too awesome. We made for the camp. thora to talk, and talk, until the evening darkened, and the first of the ambulance trains came slowly to a halt, and we knew the best and the worst. ON THE HILLTOP. That night we spent with the villagers on the hill-top, watching the lighted Eky, the flashes that stabbed the darkness, the star-lights twinkling, and drooping. With what shall the roar of the guns be ooinpared? With the heavy ,roll of the winter scab as they break upon the llitrli Tor? No. for u that sound is exhilaration to the spirit, refreshment to the tired. With the mut- tering of distant thunder heard when the storm is passing? No. for that waxes and waxes, and at latit dies into silence. This sound never waned. With what then is one to draw a parallel? There is no para- llel. Man has made a note with which there is no comparison in nature. Naught that we can think of, here is like the sound of guns as one heard them that Saturday evening nearly twenty miles away. Their reverberation smote upon the brain until one ,could bear no more, and one deisceoded into the valley, and to a fainter boom, dazed, with fear filling the heart, and yet great unutterable hope. And through the night, and thereafter for many days. th<* Red Cross trains rolled slowly passed ins, carrying a richer, nobler freight than ever trains carritxi before—a tortured but happy freight, for the heroes who lay stretched helpless upon them were uplifted by thought of the deeds they had wrought for borne, imperishable, immortal. THE CRASHING ORCHESTRA. I remember—for all this is over- shadowed by newer and more trying ex- periences, all but the passage of the trains —1 remember the first night at the line, when what was beko,f the distant roar, the sullen boom, became a great crash- ing over whelming noise that sent shivers through one's being and numbed all power of thought. The carnival of in- ferno, the laughter of the depths. And the sky ablaze, livid with many light* and many colouro. The glass-less window of the billet faced the east, and sleep waa long a-wooing in this Niagra of noise. We heard the passage of our heavy shells as they rushed through the air, the whirl of the smaller missiles, and the express-train roar of the monarchs among eecplosivee. We W, re shaken by many concusaions, doors flew open, plastering fell, beams croaked. Not afflicting the ears so dreadfully as the brain, which grew stupefied by the crashing orchestra of the guns. Many nights we were to hear this orchestra a.t work, German, British, and sometime^ Blench.. also, tor their lines. were not far away. And although famW liftrity brought some cessation of ther strain, and one could sleep, before many nights had gone, through the worst strafe and never wake to it, yet the awe- someness ne"r diminished, the terror, never grew less at the heart. For onO' thought of the lads who were enduring the rain of fire and steel, and one won- dered what havoc had been wrought, and how much life spilled, as one heard Uio crump of our heavies in the German lines. Dreadful is the enemy's lot to-day,, not to be described. For our guns never cease, the orchestra crashes day and night. And only those who have seen the explosion of a shell and who have felt* the thud of the ground as it falls, and' have been shaken hy it until the will i momentarily powerless over the body.! only those know what it is the enemy is: suffering. The German soldier is paying bitterly, and to the last penny, for the misdeeds of his master and himself. J. D. W.

A MUMBLES TRAGEDY. The Suicide of a London ButSer. An inquest was held on Monday at th*. Mumbles Police Station, before Mr. R. W. Beoi4 (deputy county coroner), into the death of John Charles Lobb, who was found with his throat cut on a bed in a< back room at Lea Cottage, Thistleboon, Mumbles. Mrs. Edith Frances Attwood, of 15n,. Bench road, New Southgate, London, saial deceased was her father, and was 54 years; of age. TTe was a butler. She last AAW" him alive about 8.f> a.m. on Monday. Ha was standing by his bedroom door finish- ing dressing. He appeared to be all right. They had been -making arrangements to spend a day at one of the bays. A littler while afterwards she heard groaning, an(L went upstairs. The bedroom door waa closed, which was rather unusual. Shot then called her husband, who, failing tcr gain an entrance, burst the door open. The Coroner: Has your father had any trouble lately? Witness: No. His employer, Mrs. Houston, of 42, Eaton-square, Tondon, died: about throe weeks ago. That may havo worried him. He had been in her employ for npwards of 24 years. Witness, proceeding, said that hor father a ince his stay at the Mumbles was in good spirits, and seemed to Be enjoying himself, but he had a delusion that everybody knew him and that he was being watched. As a matter of fact nobody knew him. It was his first visit to the Mumbles. TTer was ill in Txmdon suffering from nerve troubles, and was advised by the doctor tof go away, for a change. Her father, h"T15-. oand, and herself were visitors to thfr, place, and came to Mumbles on Wednes-I day wee k last. Mr. William Henry Attwood (son-in-lawV said that he was called bv his wife, wh4 informed him that she could not get intd Dad's room." He went upstaira, and re- ceiving no reply to his kking, bUrf!; open the door, and found deceased lying) across the bed in a pool of blood with hia. throat cut. His razor was found under neath him. The deceased was suffering* from delusions. Dr. F. J. de C-overlev Veale, M.D., said; he was called to Lea Cottage a little after; nine on Monday morning. He found a. large incited wound across deceased's neck. The wind pipe was not severed. The deceased died from hemorrhage. The jiiry returned a verdict of suicide during a fit of temporary insanity. The Coroner and jury also expressed their sympathy with the relatives.

THE DRYMMA ESTATE. Proceedings Against a Poor Law Committee. At a meeting of the Glamorganstarfli Joint Iloor Law Establishment Com- mittee at Neath on Monday. Mr. W. B. Trick, J.P., presiding, tike Clerk (Mr. W. Spickett). reported that a Mr. Nathaniel Thomas had issued a writ against the Committee, and Mr. Faddon, as trustee, in rcspect of the Dry mm* Estate. 1.1. -s,)Me matter, com- though it was a trobl some matter, oom- ing so soon after the purchase, he sug- gested that the Committee should face tho proceedings. In reply to Miss Dillwyn, the Clerk said the Committee were bound to take thA title with risk, but he was perfectly sat- isfied that the title was a good one, Mr. Roseer; What claim has th» Mr. Thomas ? The Clerk: It is a tremendous claim; it includes the contemplated .institution, tlift faru} house, and a coal mine. Jt was agreed, on the proposition of Mr. Rosser, seconded by Mr. Clarke, to accept the advice of the Clerk. It was reported that slow progress had been made with the institution during the month, and it would not be ready for occupation for another two months. The Architect reported that a subsi- dence had diverted the watH course, and it was necessary to negotiate for an aug- mented supply. Mr. Owen: This is the first time for ma to hear this. If things like this are going to crop up. we shall oon begin to find that our bargain was not a good one, but a salty one. It was derided to negotiate with the Neath Rural District Council with a view to supplying the institution with water by meter.

HELP.YOURSELF SHOP. An economy hint to employers whoso men have joined the Army is offered by a grocer in Portland, Oregon. This grocer has opened o shop whejre no salesmen are employed. Fverv article is marked with the price, and the customer selects what ho wants and walks up to the cashier's counter, where it is paid for. There aro no delivery wagons and no bills. It is claime d for the grabateria" establishment, as it is called, that the, saving on delivery and salesmen's salaries alone will be from 10 to 25 per cent.

WOMEN PREFER WAR WORK. A dairyman whose appeal for the condi- tional exemption of his brother waa re- fused, informed the Spring Gardens sec- tion of the appeal tribunal on Monday that it was impossible to secure women assistants for milk rounds. He added that they would not have a nrilk job if they oould obtain munition work. The chairman: You do not suggest that women prefer niuniti-on work to driving about in the open air, do you? The appellant's solicitor remarked that he was unable to engage a woman clerk. The Arsenal was taking all the women it could obtain.

Mr. Duke, Irish Chief Secretary, win leave Dublin to-day to study the conditions in the West of Ireland. Lord Tredegar has sent tl,OM to the Lord Kitchener Memorial Fund, which has now reached over £ 264,000. Crews of the Anti-Aircraft Corps have subscribed E200 to dedicate two bedrooms in the new extension of the Union Jack Club. There was a small decrease in the num- ber of seres under tillage, both of corn crops and green crops, in Ireland last year, compared with the previous year. Orders aggregating 19,200,000 yards of Army cloth, to be delivered early in the spring, have been placed with BHtisk nijLlrftre by the Russian Govei nuieat. i