PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2334, 16 December 1914, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Only meagre details of the actual fighting in Belgium are chronicled in to-day's messages, but there are further suggestive indications that the German resistance to the advance of the Allied forces is weakening. An important concentration of German troops near Courtmi, at the southern end of East Flanders, is interpreted to mean that the enemy have finally abandoned their designs upon Calais,' and are now intent upon an attempt to break the Allies' line further inland. It is perhaps more to the purpose that the movement of the Germans away from the coast will place them in a more convenient position Jrom which to retreat upon' the line of prepared defences running south' from Antwerp. Official accounts of ground gained, and attacks repulsed,, at various points along the lino, are supple-' monted by the statement of the correspondent of the Daily Chronicle at Dunkirk that a weakening in the German cannonade and infantry demonstrations is noticeable, in Flanders, that the enemy has abandoned many trenches and that a constant reshuffling is going on behind the German lines. In fact, although heavy fighting is still the rule along ft great part of the Allies' front in Flanders, the symptoms of an imponding Gorman retreat are unmistakable. * * * * • . The Eussians in Poland are evidently .making progress. Their success at Mlawa has cleared the right flank of their extended line facing tho East German frontier and enabled them to resume the initiative on a front north of the River Bzura (in Central Poland). This apparently relates to the central army, which is moving forward on a line which will bring it ultimately beforo tho German fortress of Posen.

*' * K' * In the Carpathians the, Eussians have apparently encountered a slight check. An official message from Vienna, received at Amsterdam, claims that the Austrians in the Carpathians have captured nino thousand prisoners. Experience has shown that the numbors in such cases are apt to be exaggerated, but the general claim obtains a measure of confirmation from a Russian official message, which states that the massing of Austrian troops in the Carpathians has placed the Russians under the necessity of retiring so as .to secure suitable ground for ample freedom of movement. The retirement does not necessarily involve any serious consequences, for the probabilities are that only comparatively small outlying parties have been driven in ; There has not yet been any definite indication of a serious attempt by the Eussians to penetrate the Carpathians in strong force. It would no doubt suit them very well to fight a battle with the Austrians on the northern side of the mountains. Victory in that event would almost certainly go to the soldiers of the Tsah, and they would be in an excellont position to pursue a retreating enemy across the mountains into the plains of Hungary. It is essentially a case in wliich the Russians can afford to play a waiting game and spar for elbow-room. ■■##■# *' Reports from other quarters are equally cheering.. In Alsace the French are pushing the attack with vigour, and have made appreciable progress, and a brief message from Servia states that the Serbs have recaptured their capital, Belgrade. Evidently they are in a fair way to completely clear their country of the Austrian invaders, and possibly may ere long bo in a position to carry the war into the enemy's country, and create a diversion which will be of the utmost value to the Russians.

The gallant exploit of Commander Noeman Holbrook, in taking Submarine 81l through the mine-fields of the Dardanelles and destroying the Turkish battleship Meesoudieh, opens up new possibilities in underwater warfare. The battleship was old, but her fate would have been the same if she had been a superDrcadnoughtof the latest type. The achievement is all the more remarkable on account of the fact, that! the attacking boat is one of the oldest submarines in the British Navy. The first British submarines'' 'were launched in 1904, and 81l began her career in the following year. She is quite a little craft, 135 feet long, with a submerged displacement of 314 tons, and has a surface speed of twelve knots and a speed when submerged of 8.5 knots. Her armament consists of two torpedo-tubes. No doubt she was transported fronr England on ship-board, for submarines- of this small and antiquated type have a very limited radius of action. Small as she is her captain and crew have performed a more wonderful feat tnan had ever previously been aocomplished in the history of naval warfare. The desperate danger attending the raid hardly needs to be emphasised. Mention is made of the submarine diving under five lines of mines, but the exact disposition of tho mines cannot possibly have been known to her commander, and ho must have f roped his way towards his objective nowing that at any moment 'his boat might be blown to pieces.

Apaet from its immediate valuo the splendid exploit of 81l will do a great deal to correct a false impression apt to be' created by the circumstances' in which' British and Gorman submarines have respectively operated since the war began. It is true that German submarines have disposed of a number of British warships, but this fact loses much of its apparent significance when it is remembered that tho British Fleet is blockading its enomy while that enemy is blockaded. Tho British ships destroyed by German submarines have in every case been the special-service vessels (several of them old cruisers) set apart with deliberate intent for the dangerous work of maintaining tho inner line of the blockade. The enemy have suffered no commensurate loss from tho attacks of our submarines, but they have purchased immunity at the ignominious price of keeping, their warships tied up on the inner side of a chain of harbour defences, while their mercantile shipping was being swept off the seas and German trade ruined. British submarines early in the war tested the security of the naval defences in the Elbe, but the German Fleet was found to bo out of reach, and it has so far declined all invitations to cqmo out. If it ever musters up courage to put to sea, it may be taken for _ granted that British submarines will play their part with other units of the Fleet in exacting heavy retribution , for such losses as Britain -lias suffered in maintaining the blockade.

Clear, light is thrown upon the doing? of tbe BrU'inb subnmnaeH by a dispatch fjsom Cohjiqjdobe KfiWk

Commander of the Submarine Flotillas, which was recently summarised by the naval correspondent, of tho London Morning Post. Couched as it is in dry official language, the dispatch tells a story of heroic enterprise and endurance such as has never been surpassed in the annals of n&val warfare. The submarines havo been ceaselessly at work, in fair weather and foul, ever since the war began, and the-life led by their officers and men is one from which even hardy and fearless sailors might shrink. 'Three hours after war nroko out two submarines set out, entirely unsupported, to reconnoitre Heligoland Bight. A moro hazaTclous task could not well bo imagined, for Heligoland is the headquarters of the "German submarino and destroyer flotillas, and in addition, for all that the captains of the British submarines knew, the whole German Fleet might have been on the move. The Submarine Service guarded the passage of the British Army when it was being transported to France, and ever since the under-water craft have kept constant watch and ward upon the enemy's coast, waiting for the fleet which has not yet dared to put to sea. The submarines are nevor for a moment free from danger. At every appearance on the surface they are hunted by hostile destroyers, and the mere task of keeping the sea in all' weathers in such frail and comfortless craft makes heavy demands upon fortitude and endurance. In one part of his dispatch Commodore Keys tells how, in September last, the submarines stack to their stations for a whole week in a heavy westerly gale. The. boats were tossed about like, corks, and even when they were ten . fathoms down below the surface no one could cither stand or lie down without boing_ thrown about. Opening the conning towers when the oqats were on the surface involved terrible dan-

ger for, ■ apart from the risk of swamping, the mixture of salt water with petrol vapour leads to the generation of deadly gases, fatal to human life. Under these fearful conditions the dauntless British submarines held their, stations for a whole week. * * * * They are cool hands these submarine sailors, accustomed to face

and overcome perils that would paralyse the faculties'of shore-folks. One passage in the Commodore's report deals with the adventures of Submarine E6, which in one_ of her journeys fouled the moorings of a mine. The submarine was actually taken to the surface, carrying the s mine up with it, and there an officer and an able seamen made their way out upon the narrow snout of their vessel, and after half an hour's •work succeeded, in disengaging the mine, and allowed it'to sink harmlessly into the sea It was a thrilling experience—a marvellous escape from certain destruction— and yet it is recorded as a dry mat-ter-of-fact incident in the day's work. •

The quality of the officers and men of the. British Submarine Service 'being what it is they may be trusted to levy a heavy toll upon the German Fleet if it ever attempts to break its present bonds. Apart from their splendid efficiency, the British flotillas greatly preponderate in point of numbers over those of the enemy. According to the Navy League Annual for 1914 the number of submarines less than eleven years of age, possessed by Britain, France, and Germany, or to be built by 1915, is as follows: — ■ . ■ '1914. -1915. • Britain 79 00 France 68 61 Germany 24 32 It has recently been stated that Germany is rapidly adding to her flotillas, but a number of her boats have been sunk, and it - is certainly beyond her power to greatly alter the present margin in favour of Britain and France. .The British submarines are strong in numbers; their service on the German coast and the magnificent achievement of Commander JioLßnooK,in the Dardanelles show that they are equally strong in the courage, resource, and hardihood of the men by whom they are manned and controlled.

Proceeding from the fact that much talk about American sympathy in the European War is based upon me.ro hearsay, an enterprising American journal, the Literary Digest, recently set itself to' obtain reliable data upon which to base a statement of the actual position. To that end it obtained statements from between 350 and 400 newapaper editors telling their own attitudes and the feeling of their communities. The replies, it is stated, cover the country, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from Mexico to the Canadian border. Of 367 roplies, 105 editors reported that they favoured the Allies, 20 favoured tho Germans, and 242 took up a neutral position. Thirty-four editors in the Eastern States favoured the Allies and only one is pro-German. In the Central Statee, 13 editors favoured the Allies and 10 the Germans, in the Southern States the numbers 'were respectively 47 and 5, and in the Western group 11 and 4. The neutral editors numbered 43 in the Eastern States, 112 in the Central 51 in the Southern, and 36 in the Western States. The feeling of the cities and towns represented is reported as favouring tho Allies in 189 cases, the Germans in 38, and j neutral or divided in 140. Broadly speaking, it was found that reports of pro-German sentiment followed pretty closely the geographical distribution of the German-American population. Most of the German sympathisers are in the , Contr&l States, while in New England, the Southern, South-Western. and Western States sympathy inclines to the Allies.

A message from Washington throws cold water upon the assertion of the Kolnische Zeilung that Germany did not inspire the tentativo peace movement in America. The view hold in the United States is that the whole thing was engineered by that enterprising person Count Bernstorff, and that the American bankers with German names" whom the Kolnische Zcitung subjected to raock-reproof for advocating peace were really acting under the instructions of tho German Ambassador. President Wilson having refused to fall into Count Bbrnstoref's trap by getting America to start a peace movement, the Germans are now intent upon seeing what thoy_ can accomplish in this direction in Home, and the article in tho Kolnische Zeiiuiif!, to which we referred yesterday, was simply and solclyan attempt to cover up the ignominious failure in America It is really surprising that intelligent people like the Germans should bother their heads with petty and necessarily abortive intrigues of this-nature. They must know perfectly well that tbo Allies are not inclined to waala time p,vm ,

bogus peace negotiations, and that an essential preliminary to uctual negotiations is the submission of the German arms. The fact that the Germans should bo angling for outside intervention is, of course, instructive as suggesting that they are feeling the strain of the war. *** * i Conflicting stories as to the fate of the German light cruiser Dresden (the solo survivor of Vice-Admiral Von Spee's squadron) are now 'set aside by an apparently credible report from the American Consul in Chile that she has taken refuge in the Chilean port of Piinta Arenas in Magellan's Strait. If the report is correct the Dresden is securely trapped,' for the strait will undoubtedly bo securely guarded by British warships, and her only alternatives will bo internment or capture, unless indeed she emulates the example of the Nurnborg and prefers destruction to surrender. The probabilities are that she will be interned.