Progress of the War.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16258, 8 July 1918, Page 6

Progress of the War.

The war news generally continues extremely satisfactory from the Allies' point of view, the reports from day to day indicating a steady improvement in those conditions which, are essential factors in the securing of victory. On the "West front the Allios continue to improve their line by local gains, taking a position here and another there, in almost every case breaking any attempt on the part of the enemy to counter-attack. In their recent attack south of the Somme. tho Australians appeared to have achieved one of the most brilliant local successes of the war, their advance rectifying an awkward salient projecting into their line between the Somme and Villers Bretonneux, anil materially strengthening the defence! of Amiens, at the same time inflicting unusually heavy losses, for a local attack, on the enemy. The Italians also continue to make progress, both, on their mountain front and on the Lower Piave. To-day's reports from this theatre record a further substantia] gain of ground near the mouth of the Piave, where, with naval aid from the Adriatic, the Italians are steadily driving back the Austrians from the marshy region .between the Piave Vecchia, or Olcß Piave, and tha New Piave, the Piave Nuova. Reports relating to the work of- the Allied air forces indicate that in) this phase of the war important results are being achieved, particularly by the frequent, almost ceaseless, jbombing of

German towns, depots, and railways. ! On the seas the danger of the submarine menace is steadily being overcome, the increasing rate of production of now tonnage, particularly in America where no fewer than 112 vessels took the sea , on July 4th, constituting a most important factor in the overthrow of the Central Powers, apart altogether from r the improved direct methods of. attackr ~ing the U-boats. A most important p statement comes in a late message via Washington, to the effect thai General) j Foch and the inter-Allied Supreme War Council have urgently recommended intervention in Russia. That no time is 3 being lost in putting this Ij tion into effect is evident from the anL nouncement that British, French, Japanp ese, and American marines, also 2500 j Dalmatians, now under the Italian flag, 3 have landed at Vladivostock. Hie imj portance of this move cannot be esti- , mated on the present meagre facts at our disposal, but it is safe to assume , that it marks the initiation of another . distinct phase in the war, one which . may, perhaps, play an important part in hastening its termination. Sir Arthur Leej the Director-General of Food Production, who was last week raised to the peerage in recognition of his valuable services, is one of the most widely-travelled men in the Imperial Government. A soldier by profession, he wont through the SpanishAmerican war in Cuba as British military attache, and so won the heart of Colonel Roosevelt that he was mado an honorary member of the famous "llougli-Riders." Ho mado a trip round the world, travelled extensively in little-known parts of the Far East, blazed a new trail to the Klondike, and spent enough time gold-mining on the Yukon to learn sufficient about it, as ho said, to avoid it for the rest of his life. Having married "the prettiest girl in Now York," he came back to England, forsook the Army for politics, and in two years became Civil Lord of the Admiralty. When the war broke out he was appointed to a position on the Staff of the original Expeditionary Force, was several times mentioned in despatches, and was finally given a K.C.B. Then ho was j recalled to England to assist Mr Lloyd ' George at the .Ministry of Munitions, subsequently becoming Permanent Military Secretary, and last year accepted. on condition that he received no salary, the post he now occupies. He j had more than a theoretical knowledge j to fit him for his duties, for ho is a large landowner who has given much ! attention to scientific agriculture. As ' he is still under 50, lie may yet fill more important positions than those which he has already occupied. e— The late Lord Rhondda left no son to succecd him, but his only daughter,! Lady Mack worth, is probably one of ] the best business women in England. I if not in the world. Her father's confidence in her capacity was shown by I

I the fact that when he re-entered poliI tics and was given a seat in the Ministry he assigned to her his place on the directors' board of numerous important companies, of some of which he was chairman. Heredity no doubt accounts for much of her ability in the management and organisation of business affairs, but something is due to Lord Rhondda's habit of talking to lier about his business concerns from the time when she was a school-girl. Like many others, she looks forward with some anxiety to the manner in which labour trill adjust itself to afterwar conditions, but one imagines that she would have less cause for uneasiness if more employers, like herself, believed in closer sympathy between employers and employed. Like her father, she advocates a far better system of national education, especially as regards the class of teachers, and, with a woman's love of domesticity, she lays great stress on tho necessity for better education being accompanied by better conditions of life. There is a tendency on tho part of a certain class of agitator to denounce as enemies of the cause of Labour those Labour leaders who preach the duty of fighting Germany with all our strength. There is sometimes a further suggestion that these men are really Tories in disguise. That, at least, is an argument that cannot be urged against Mr Peter Boiling, one of the most vigorous—even fiery—Labour men of Australia, who was the head and front of the great waterside workers' strike. Yet in telling Labour what is its duty in the war, Mr Bowling, who has sons at the front, is as emphatic and downlight as any one could wish. "Tho true peace party," he told a great gathering of unionists at Brisbane recently, "i 3 composed of those who are asking for recruits. The men among you who talk of peace by negotiation do not know the alphabet of labour. The only way to make peace with a tiger that has tasted blood is with a rifle —see that you have the same power before you make peace with Germany.'' (No man hated war more than he did, and only a few fools who did not understand the Labour movement, were against him and such men as Ben Tillett and Will Crooks, who were trying to save democracy. C,—_ In this connexion it may be mentioned that among the messages of encouragement and confidence received by Sir Douglas Haig during the recent offensive on the West front, was one from the committee of the National Socialist Party in England, in which they sent the Commander-in-Chief and "all soldiers and comrades" under his command their heartiest congratulations on the magnificent stand they were making "for the independence of our country and the freedom of the civilised world against the most barbarous and inhuman enemies of modern times." ♦ It turns out that the "twelve commandments of peace" issued by Count von Roon, a leader~of the Prussian. Junkers, a few days ago, is not as original as it seemed. There is evidence that it is based on a pamphlet, written last year by, one Lehmann, a Munich publisher, and accepted by all sorts of pan-Germans, from the Imperial Headquarters and Ludendorff, as ono of the chief propaganda weapons among the soldiers at the front. Lehmann produced a mass of figures to show tho difference between "a German peace" and "a Scheidermann peace," a peace that is, according to the "no-ann«xation" views of Schiedomann, the German Socialist leader, which would practically be the status quo. 9 "A German peace," it seems, would mean that Germany would take the Baltic provinces (which she now occupies), Belgium, and the French coast as far as Cherbourg, all Central and the greater part of South Africa, besides scores of coaling stations. Over Tunis and Morocco she would establish protectorates. Austria, Turkey, and Bulgaria would receive all the Balkans, Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia, Arabia, a good part of Egypt, and the Soudan. An "Extended European Alliance," which would ipclude Poland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Holland, Scandinavia, and Finland, would, with the Central Powers, form a bulwark against the "Anglo-Saxon Union," consisting of Great Britain, Canada, Australia,, New Zealand, Cape Colony, and the United States. — Lehmann does not appear to have explained why he was willing to leave Great Britain in possession of Australasia and the Cape, he omits any reference to the Pacific Islands, and, not a prophet, he leaves tho future ownership of Russia, except the Baltic Provinces, out of his calculations. Other details of the scheme were the seizure of three-fifths of the shipping of the Entente Powers, excluding America, which was not then at war, and the payment by Germany's enemies of an indemnity which, more than a year ago, was put down at ten thousand millions sterling. Two-thirds of that amount was to be paid in cash and the balance in raw material. Tho conquered lands would be exploited to the last pennyworth. Tho necessity for a peace arranged on these terms lies in the fact, the author says candidly, that without annexations and indemnities Germany will be absolutely and irretrievably ruined after the war. It is, of course, a perfectly fantastic programme, but it is just as well that we should know ivhat the guiding spirits of our chief enemy are fighting for.