BRITAIN'S PART.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16157, 11 March 1918, Page 7

BRITAIN'S PART.

| THE WAR OUTLOOK. I REVIEWED BY MR BONAR ; LAW. (By Cable. —Press Association.—Copyright.} (Australian and X.Z. CabUi Association.) LONDON. March 7. Continuing his speech. in moving the credit vote in the ltouse of Commons, Mr Bonar Law \Chancellor tit tho Exchequer; that the item of £;W,IoO,WJ represented advances to the Dominions. It was not a loan, bu: meant that the Dominion troops 111 Britain were largely supplied by the airangenients at llome. The increased expenditure was largely due to the extension of operations in Palestine and Mesopotamia, and rlit? increased personnel ot the Army, but the principal onuse was the iucreascd quantity and cost of commodities. Loans to Allies on February Dili stood at il.'Jy 1,000,000. and loans t:> the Dominions C 1*0,000,000. Tho estimated National Debt at the er.ti of the financial venr was £5,'100,000,000. Survejmg the war situation. Mr Bonar Law said: We have knowledge that tho Germans promised Turkey that they would expel the British from Mesopotamia, but have been forced to abandon their plan's. Though Germany hoped to get njtich food from Russia, the British Government's information is that the food produced 'a Russia this year will bnreiy supplv Russia herself. From every point ot view, it is unlikely that Germany will be able to exploit Russia. Wo have probably a slight superiority in men and guns on the Western front, and we are overwhelmingly superior in the air. Onr forces in Franco have been working to their utmost to strengthen the defences, and the results have been wonderful. We have used more barbed-wire during January and February this year than in : lie whole ot 10IT. Mr Bonar Law said ho was somewhat sceptical about u:e German offensive. Tile general position at Salonica -vas unsatisfactory, but that was due to Russia's coiiapse. We did not expert a year ago to be purely on the defensive. The General Commanding recognised that tile position at Salonica might become dangerous. The Central Powers, with better communications, might send forces which it would be difficult, and perhaps impossible, lor us to meet, but Germany's man-power was not inexhaustible. She could do everything at once. She would nay | dearly for every yard of advance. it was not dilhcult to justify the expedition. if it had not been sent, Germany would h.avr controlled the* Greek harbours, which were vita] for us. If the enemy secured thctn and used them as submarine bases it would be aluust impossible to keep up communications with Egypt. The .victories in Mesopotamia and Palestine were not only a moral and material gain, but were an immense military accession of strength. Lord Kitchener had estimated that the troops necessary to save Egypt from invasion would be far larger than total now operating in Mesopotamia and Palestine.

He had no doubt that if the Allies held together they could secure th? results which they had set out to achieve.

Unless the Germans learnt that wa* did not pay, and that it was n 0 long-;r possible lor a group of men to plunge the world into miserv. peace would bo a defeat for the Allies. If the question of continuing the war was submitted to a referendum in Britain the result would astonish the enemy and ourselves.

MI? ASQUITH'S VyiEWS. LONDON, March 3Mr Asquith, in a speech at Cupar (Scotland), said there were two keys io the world position—command of fi.e seas and of the West front. Both remained in the Allies' hands. "The submarine inroads 011 the mercantile marine," he said, "and the "allapse at Russia present new and formidable dangers, but do not fill us wich apprehensions.

"The so-called pence negotiations aican instructive contrast between Germany's pretensions and her intentions. While Count von Hertling was professing acceptance of. President Wilson's four principles, and welcoming a court of international arbitration, and approving of a league of nations to which the bulk of us here and In Amcrica look as the only effective safeguard, his subordinate's were writing in terms, not of treaty, but of capitulation as harsh and humiliating as ar.y in history, and ruthlessly and recklessly mutilating a great . national unity. If carried out it would sow the seeds of conflicts and embroil '.ho nations for, generations."

"TANK" BOND CAMPAIGN. LONDON. March 8. Ifie "tanks'' in London yesterclav laised £14,229,000. Tho total applications throughout the country "for war bonds 011 Mondav, Tuesday, and Wednesday amounted to £60,000,000. REPATRIATION OF CIVILIANS. (Router's Telegram*.) LONDON, March 8. Speaking in the House of Lords, Lord Derby (Secretary of State lotWar), justifying the non-exchange of interned, civilians, said that of 10,000 interned Germans in Britain eligible for repatriation the majority were reservists of the German Arrnv, while of 3001.) Britons at RuhlebOn "2000 were seafarers, whom Germany regarded as combatants. PRISONERS IN BULGARIA. (Australian and N. 2. Cable Association.) LONDON. March 8. Information from neutral sources indicates that British prisoners •ire Excellently tivated in Bulgaria. COAL-MINERS FOB THE FRONT. (Australian and X.Z. Cablo Association.) (Reut<?r'a Telegrams.) (Received March 10th, 5.5 p. 111.) LONDON, March 9. Tiie Press Bureau announces that the Government has decided to recruit .jO,OOO fit, unmarried coal-miners under 25 years of age.

NEW ZEALAND SCULLER REPATRIATED. ami X.2. Cable Association.) i Received March I Oth. 5.5 51.n1.) LONDON, March y. Among J2() British civilians from the Gorman internment camp at Ruhleben, who have arrived at Rotterdam, en route to England, is Tom Sullivan, the ex-New Zealand champion sculler. ENGINEERS' I: I SPITE SETTLED. (Received March 10th, 5.5 n.HM LONDON, March 9. Mr Georgo jßarne? (Labour member of tho War Cabinet) iu a speech indicated that tho engineers' man-power dispute is practically settled#