This answer of the President was greeted with approval in the United
States and everywhere in the Allied countries. It meant that the
Imperial Power of Germany was not to be allowed to hide itself behind a
so-called reorganization done under its own direction. As one of the
Senators of the United States expressed it: "It is an unequivocal demand
that the Hohenzollerns shall get out."
During these negotiations the Allied armies under Marshal Foch had been
driving the enemy before them. When Baron Burian was making his peace
offer on behalf of Austria-Hungary the Americans were engaged in
pinching off the St. Mihiel salient, and about that date the British
were launching their great attack on the St. Quentin defenses. The
reports of the great Allied drive indicated a constant succession of
Allied victories.
On September 19th, the British advanced into the Hindenburg line,
northwest of St. Quentin, and on September 20th, while the American guns
were shelling Metz, the British were advancing steadily near Cambrai and
La Bassee.
Day by day the advance proceeded. On September 26th, the first American
army smashed through the Hindenburg line for an average gain of seven
miles, between the Meuse and the Aisne rivers on a twenty-mile front. On
September 27th, the French gained five miles in an advance east of
Rheims, and the British were attacking in the Cambrai sector on a
fourteen-mile front, crossing the Canal du Nord and piercing the
Hindenburg line at several points.
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