We of course know nothing as to the plans of
the Commander- in-Chief, or as to what moves are to be expected on the chess- board of war. One thing, however, is clear. The nation has every right to feel the utmost confidence in Sir Douglas Haig. He has managed a supremely difficult job with very great skill, though no doubt, to avoid a foolish optimism, one has to add the words " up till now." But no accident of the future, if such there were to be, could take away from the Commander-in-Chief the praise due to him for the detailed thoroughness of the preparation which forms the unseen foundation upon which the great attack has rested. Sir Douglas Haig could only have accomplished what he has accomplished through his undaunted refusal to allow any external circumstances whatever to deflect him even for an instant from his ultimate object. The world might seem to be crashing round him, at Verdun and elsewhere, but he kept steadily on with the work of putting in the foundations. Like Candide, he culti- vated his little garden, and it has borne and is bearing glorious fruit. For the moment things on the French section of the Somme front are quiet, while from Verdun there is no news except that the violence of the artillery duel continues. One has, however, only to read the German communiques to see how galling the situa- tion there must be to our enemies. The giant machine of offence, though it is still running with a great deal of sound and fury. is perceptibly beginning to run down. It may conceivably be wound up again, but we doubt it, so much is there to do elsewhere.
