PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2362, 19 January 1915, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

The most interesting contribution to-day relating to the F.astern campaign is the reference to an engagement at Gombin, in which the Germans, as the result of a series of desperate attacks, captured a Russian advanced trench. Gombin lies twelve miles south, and a little east, of Plock, and six miles distant from the nearest point on the Vistula. Some time ago it was announced that the Russians were preparing to cross the Lower Vistula at Plock in order to _ advance upon the Thorn-Lowicz railway, twenty miles south, upon which the German armies in Central Poland are greatly dependent. The reported engagement at Gombin shows that the Russians have so far developed their enterprise that they have covered about a third of the distance between the river and the railway. Evidently, however, the Germans are .strenuously resisting their advance, and the affair seems to have settled down into a battle of trenches, which may go on for a long time without decisive result unless some general development of tho campaign occurs to interrupt it.

. In Southern Poland the point of impact is located at Pinczow, where the Russians have repulsed German attacks. Pinczow is on the river Nida,- 25 miles north of the Vistula, and 42 miles north-east of Cracow. Weeks ago the Russians reported that further, south they had captured villages on the western bank of the Nida, near its junction with the Vistula, and had progressed towards Cracow. Their operations both north and south of the Vistula brought them within about thirty miles of that city. No reverses have since been reported, and the position in the direct line of _ advance to Cracow presumably remains unchanged. The report regarding Pinczow suggests that the armies further north from the Vistula have also remained practically stationary for some weeks past.

' The only reference in to-day's messages to the impending invasion of Hungary is tho announcement that tho Russian advance guards have stormed the Kirlibaba Pass, which 'affords a passage through the Carpathians into Transylvania from the western border of Bukowina. The Russians arc thus on the threshold of Hungary, but evidently either the weather or tho Austrian army has opposed more serious obstacles to tho Russian advance- than some recent messages indicated, for the Russians were reported a fortnight ago to bo forcing the mountain passes.

Definite news is furnished to-day of the battle of Karaugan, on the southern frontier of the province of Kars, in Trans-Caucasia, in which tho Turks were at first reported to have checked tho Russian advance into Asia Minor._ Fought in mountainous country in a snowstorm, tho engagement lasted for three days, and ended in tho complete rout of the Ottoman force. With its rearguard annihilated and harried on the .front and both flanks, according to the Russian story, tho Turkish army is in full flight towards Evze-' rum. If the Russian victory has not been magnified, the invasion of Asia Minor is an accomplished fact, and the of Eraorum may He effected 3-fc any time.

No clear light is thrown upon the operations of the Turks in Persia, but they are described as advancing into the interior of tho country through a population which iB helpless and unable to offer resistance. Presumably, therefore, the raiders are at liberty meantime to add to the tale of the atrocities already enacted in Armenia.

The crushing defeat of the Ottoman forces in Northern Asia Minqr has, of course, a bearing upon the j projected invasion of Egypt, but this latter enterprise docs not seem as yet to have been definitely abandoned.. Late reports declare that the Turkish army is 70,000 strong, and that it is undoubtedly advancing. Tho prospect certainly affords no ground for uneasiness, unless to the Turks. As the military correspondent of the Times points out, they are assured of a warm reception, and the known facts lend a great deal of support to the opinion expressed in Cairo that they wiU never reach the Suez Oanal. The British forces are apparently defending a line about 150 miles long on the eastern frontier of the Sinai Peninsula. The northern extremity of the line is at EI Arish, a Mediterranean port 100 miles east of Port Said,'and the southern extremity nt Fort Akaba (captured by tho British some time ago), which stands at the head of tho Gulf of Akaba, on the eastern side of the Sinai Peninsula. Fort Akaba is 160 miles south-east of El Arish. British warships can cooperate with the land forces both at Akaba arid El Arish. The task facing the Turks is an attack upon a frontier line held probably by a force ciuite as strong as their own, and with the additional disability of having both their flanks battered by naval guns. If the Turks advance through a desert to tackle such a task as this, they will handsomely justify all that has ever been said in praise of their military prowess, but their enterprise can hardly be expected to terminate in anything short of complete disaster.

A Press Bureau communique states that the Ottoman army of invasion may bo expected to display bravery but incapacity. The troops are described as badly clothed and badly fed,, the latter trouble being due not much to lack of supplies as to inefficient organisation. Still more interesting is the statement that the German officers in Syria are opposed to an advance, but are proceeding with the invasion under pressure from Berlin. * * * * Enter Pasha is reporteo' to have returned to Constantinople, allegedly to suppress a conspiracy against the Young Turk Party The existonce of widespread disaffection against the Young Turk Party is not in itself unlikely, but the form of the message suggests' that the Young Turk leader is no longer willing to share the misfortunes and privations of the Ottoman army which is being bo roughly handled by the Russians in Northom_ Asia Minor, and has made the existence of disaffection a pretext for returning to the capital arid abandoning the army of which ho was in command until it was disastrously defeated at Sarikamysh. * * * * Evidence of careful preparation is to be noted in the German description of the battle north-east of Sois|sons, which resulted in the French (being compelled to retreat across the Aisne at Missy. Accepting the story at its face value, the Germans owed their victory not so much to the untoward destruction of a French bridge as to superior strategy. It is alleged that the French were completely that they made a mistaken disposition of reinforcements, and succumbed to a surprise attack which culminated in. the capture of the whole of the Vregny Plateau and in the surrender of a section of the French forces. This is very different' from the' French account of the engagement and the chances are that on this occasion, as on others t the Germans have attempted to magnify the real importance of their victory. That it is important appears to be beyond question.. Everything now depends upon whether the French are able to hold itheir positions north of. the Aisne, east and west of the point at which the Germans have penetrated to the river bank. In any event, a check has .been offered to the French advance, but in face of their official announcement that the German success is of purely local importance, i'; is still reasonable to hope that the lost ground may shortly Be regained.

Brisk fighting is reported to-df,y at a number of places in France and Belgium, but, except at Soissons, it appears to have had definite results only at Lombaertzyde, on the Belgian coast, close to Nieupcrt, where the Allied forccß have effected a further advance of a couple of hundred yar.ds, and compelled the Germans to evacuate trenches.