NOTES ON THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2262, 23 September 1914, Page 4

NOTES ON THE WAR

Little can be gathered from today's news from Franco beyc-nd the fact that matters remain very much as they were. Oh the Allies' Left slight progress has been made, and the same may be said of the Right Wing; while in the centre, near Craonne, desperate attacks to break the Allies' line have been again repulsed. So far as it goee, this is satisfactory enough, but it is evident that the Germans hold a strong position. Along the Franco-German frontier of Lorraine the Germans are fortifying, and 1 evidently will strive to make a stand against the French advance at this point. There is nothing of importance from Russia at time of writing, beyond an indication of increased German activity in Posen; but there are increasing signs of the probability of Italy coming into the war on the side of the Entente. ■ The Austrians, irritated no doubt by Italy's attitude of neutrality, appear to be going the right way to fore© her completely into the arms of France and England.

penings in the near future, in which the British, German, and Russian Fleets are expected to participate, but unless the German Fleet ventures out into the North Sea it is impossible to sco how any thing of the kind hinted at can bo brought about.

A German cruiser, the Emden, reported to have been sunk in an engagement with the Russian cruiser AsKold in the China waters early in the war, has proved to be very much afloat. She has been preying on British merchant vessels in the Bay of Bengal to a morry tune, sinking six steamors and Bonding tho crews of five of them ashore , in a seventh which had also fallen victim to her activity. It cannot be said that up to the present tho British cruisers have been particularly successful in running down these isolated ocean marauders. The oceans are wide and mo3t of the German cruisers in foreign wafers are fast boats. The Emden is a 25-knot boat, of 3600 tons displacement, and carries ten 4.1inch guns, and there is only one boat in tho East Indies Squadron equal to Her in speed, namely, the Dartmouth, which is also bijrgev and better armed. ' The Eastern Squadron, stationed in Chincso waters, has one cruiser, tho Newcastle, as fast as the Emden, and another, the Hampshire, is half a knot faster. The Australian Fleet is much better off for fast and up-to-date vessels, for in addition to the battle-cruiser Australia, which has steam trials up to 29 knots, the two cruisers, Sydney and Melbourne, each have a speed of 251 knots. We should be poorly off indeed in these waters to-day but for the foresight and enterprise of the people of Australia in embarking on a naval policy of their own.

Recent cablegrams dealing with the campaign in East Prussia have been of a somewhat contradictory character, but there is an air of probability about a message published a. few_ days ago, which stated that the Russian advance across the frontier towards the north, which was ultimately checked by the Germans, was merely intended to, create _ a diversion in favour of the Allies fighting on the west. Also that it was not impossible that the Russian forces might evacuate German territory meantime in order to pursue operations elsewhere, presumably against Austria, further south. The report from Rome which credited the Germans with an intention of holding the French frontier with secondline troops and transporting every available man across the Empire to meet the Russian invasion, on closer scrutiny looks very like an effort of the imagination. A sudden weakening ,in the face of its principal opponents would be about as suicidal a policy as the Fatherland could pursue, and would almost amount to throwing one. door wide open and rushing to close a door at the other end of the house. As matters are shaping the Russians are quite likely to bo in Vienna before they seriously attempt a march on 'Berlin. So far as the latter enterprise is concerned they can well afford to bide their time, and it would be quite a natural policy on their part to complete the overthrow of, Austria and wait until the main German Army is fully taken up with its work in the west before making an advance in force in East Prussia. The frontier of East Prussia is" a,comparatively exposed line more than seven hundred miles long. Upon the whole the frontier territory does not afford easy facilities for the passage of troops, particularly in the south, where there are great areas of tangled forest, swampy land, and shallow lakes, but the prepared defences appear to be inadequate. The fortresses in the chain which extends from Konigsberg in the north to Posen (whero the lines of communication from all the eastorn portion of the Empire converge) are far apart. Railways running parallel to tho frontier have been provided for the rapid transport of defending troops, but they are more or less exposed to damage by Russian cavalry, and German theorists have'suggested that the eastern lines could only be satisfactorily defended.by a vigorous offensive, entailing an advance for a considerable distanoo into Russian territory. With winter apprbaohing, and the circumstances of tho war Being ivhat they are, such a policy is far more likely to suit the Muscovite invaders than the defenders of the threatened frontier. The broad valleys of the Pregel (by which the first tentative Russian advance was made) and_the Vistula afford fairly convenient lines of approach for the ihvadorsi and a sufficient force could probably make rapid progress by these routes, reducing the fortresses in its passage, or leaving them invested. Tho main line of fortresses being accounted for, the second line—that'of the Oder—would offer, few obstacles to a successful advance, the only important stronghold in this line being the fortified town of Oustrin. It is, however, a heavy oontract even for Russia's great armies.

In the outrages which have been committed against men and women in Belgium, by the laying of mines at the entrance to the Baltic and in other international waterways, by her flagrant disregard of the Red Gross, and by the ruthless destruction of buildings and , property, Germany has taken up the attitude of a criminal nation, and in dealing with the situation thus created neutral Powers, as well as those arrayed in arms against her, have a duty. Happily there are effective Ways in which neutrals can perform this duty. It is, for instance, open to a neutral country to refuse all intercourse, commercial or otherwise, with a nation which has flagrantly broken international law, and if the United States adopted such an attitude towards Germany at the present juncture the effect might be. even more potent than that of an appeal to arms. At ordinary times such a policy might inflict almost as severe disabilities upon the country adopting it as upon the offender, but as things now stand German commerce is paralysed, and a commercial boycott by the United States might very well be feasible, and would have a groat moral effect. If to this were added a refusal of all intercourse of any kind, even the Prussian warlords might be brought to consider the.advisability of abandoning their evil ways and carry on their campaigns by.land and soa according to the rules of civilised warfare. That some such course as is here suggested may be adopted by the United States is by no means impossible, for, apart from the sentiment of indignation which has been aroused by the narration of German outrages, international law imposes upon neutral Powers the obligation of doing everything possible to maintain the compacts upon which nations in common, Germany among the number, have agreed, and it is not likely,, on its past record, that the Government of the United States will entirely tihii'k its responsibility in tho