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Show BRITISH EXPECT DECISI8CTI1 Amazing Possibilities Are Brought Nearer Through Cambrai Victories. Haig's Troops Drive Enemy Further From Main Defense De-fense Line. By PHILIP GIBBS. (New York Times-Chicago Tribune Cable, Copyright. J W A R CO Ri l i: S I 'O N D 1 NT 8 ' M K A D -quarters, Oct. 3. By our attack this morning across the Pt. Quen tin-Scheldt canal sou; h of Cambrai, where our men have taken many prisoners and broken into the "country about Le Catclet, we succeeded in driving the enemy still further fur-ther away from his main defensive lines, and if we have luck we may force him to retreat to Le-Cateau, and, by cutting his line of communication across the road which goes that way, compel him to aba ndon amhral. Owing to our constant pi essure north and south of the battlefront, he is already in wide retreat from his L,a Bassee salient. God forbid we should give ourselves up at this time of day, after frightful disappointments disap-pointments through many years of effort, ef-fort, to rosy and optindslic dreams not based on reality or truth; but this, at least. v;c may say: "We are on the eve of amazing possibilities, and possibly there may be open to us the supreme hance of bringing this war to a decisive isue.'' Tt will not be our fault if we miss this chance. Eocs the world even now understand under-stand what these men of ours have done and are still doing? I think not; for even 'rxe who are among them out heie, who follow their battles and go through the battlefields, can hardly realize the heichts, of endurance which these men achieved. Men Ever Ready. It is now October, and the men who are advancing today belong to the same divisions divi-sions as those who fought back in desperate des-perate rear-guard actions when the tide turned in August, and every day since then, or almost every day since, have fought forward, thruusrh trench svstems and village fortresses against the des- j pcrate icsistance of the German troops ' j until they have thirty miles of liberated land behind them, from Albert to Le Catelet, and every mile of it is strewn , with relics of their frightful strife. They j lost many comrades on the way. This, wake of the war is scattered over with : little white crosses, and new drafts came' out to fill up the gaps, but the spirit of i the old divisions goes on and the new! boys mingle with veterans not much older than themselves and carry on tbe traditions. tradi-tions. They are just working men of England and the colonies farmers and factory hands, clerks and office boys, and lads who were at school four years ago and with their stee! helmets and their khaki, with dust and mud on them, they are ail reduced to the dead level of humanity j ! and discipline, and one sees no differ- : I ence between them. 1 Courage Is High. j One young Tommy trudging along the j road is the type of all the British Tom- mies; one lean Australian stands for all j Australians: one Canadian stands for all I Canada but in this mass of men there I has been revealed anew in recent weeks a high and wonderful average of uour-i uour-i age and devotion to some ideal that burns ! on warmly inward and does not flare in j their eyes or In their speech, and day I after day they fight and trudge on I through fields of fire: and whether death ! may come or not, whether they have a few hours sleep or no sleep, whether their bones ache with fatigue or their bodies are weak with their burden of toil, they keep going until they reach the breaking point which - is in human nature. Knowing the frightful hours (ahead of them, they go toward the en- I (Continued on Page Fourteen.) BRITISH EXPECT DECISIVE ACTION (Continued from Page One.) I'mv'K kuiih knowing well tho full cost of vli-toiy. nd tliry ko nnil claim It. Tlicrc iiri. cowards junonK thcni. ivo tlouht, nmi thoy nro all Hfinld. because llicre Is untiling funny in shell fire: but thry Kin their cow :u il Ice b sonic m:oo they have, anil many who are most afrahi ilo the most heroic thlncs. Nut only the men. hut their youn oiflerr.s anil their hcailuuat ti'fs staffs ilo not spare them-selvea them-selvea tn the last SfarU of vitality, nnii tribute la due tn these lulk-adc divisional corps and armv Malta who have bon tollln;,' fur victory. Comfort Is Absent. In tho old das of trench warfare thev lived In the chateaux of France behind the lines and were the targets nf sallig because of their comfort. There Is rae-eliius rae-eliius little comfort for them now, and the corps Macs and divisional flaus fly over holes In the c.round amid oi.l trenches and old ruins, and the tcncrals and their "f'i are very far forward, with .. tile flic iIiki:Iiiu about them, while In the Herman dugouts abandoned bv the enemy they direct battles within si,;ht of them and K.'t H few hours of sloop In some narrow hunk between eov.v walls If t',,,v have the IncU to sloop. ' ' ' I'.very other day new thoy have to shift Ihelr I.hIkIi.ks In the earth to m .,. further tot ward, and veslei dai. f,a- Instance, In-stance, I ,,., ,Tcer,il washing outside of Ida diiKout. UK,, a private 1 oldlcr whom only a week or so before I met In a dai-U cave fifteen miles back which Is a Ioiut was to ilcbt w h,n o ,-rv vim ,.r It Is under fire. s the whole' an . "Ubualed by Iho single . of ., ' en, ten or to ma lie basic b, vlrlo,,. thai the world ma, .,, , , ,1 i "' r, '" "omen and l"lbles after those ,,.,, f evlle , |
