PROGRESS OF THE WAR.

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2365, 22 January 1915, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR.

Final details of the death-roll and of the damage done in the German air-raid on Norfolk have not yet b^ en supplied, but it is already clear that the attack was confined to undefended towns and villages, and must therefore be regarded not as an act of war but as a murderous violation of the laws of war. , The phrase with which an .Australian newspaper has headed a leading article. ,f More Baby-killing," sums up the situation ■exactly. The British people, of oourse, will waste no time in clamouring about Germany's latest violation of the laws of war, created by international agreement. Germany demonstrated long ago that to her laws are trifles light as air, and the only possible rejoinder to the criminal activities in which she engages from ti 1113 to time is to prosecute the war with the utmost possible vigour. To retort in kind is, of course, impossible* In the enterprise of murdering non-combatants Germany will continue to enjoy, a monopoly. Possibly she reckons this an advantage, but it is an advantage purchased at the cost of lasting intamy. While this war is remembered men of other nations will continue to look- askance at Germans because their ships on the sea and in the ait were used not in fair conflict with other armed forces, but in murdering defenceless women and children. * * * *

Reports from Amsterdam tell of rejoicings in Berlin and throughout Germany. The news of the raid, it is stated, was greeted with wild delight. It has been planned for months, and is to mark the beginning of a Zeppelin campaign. German • newspapers are declaring that German genius has at last made an rad of the legend that Britain is invulnerable owing to its insularity. If It is true that tie German nation is rejoicing over the raid, we can only oonclude that it has lost the power of distinguishing between war and murder. Even a nation blinded with war-fever and hysterical with deferred hope might be expected to see the difference between the stealthy attack of the Zeppelins upon defenceless towns and villages and the bold stroke which British aviators delivered at Cuxhaven, in the heart of the German naval defences on the Elbe. If the German nation is capable of perceiving this difference instead of being filled with rejoicing it must be covered with shame. The British raid on Cuxhaven, like the earlier raid on Dusseldorf, was a bold military enterprise with a purely military objective!, and the aviators who took part in these raids took their lives in their hands and dared a thousand dangers. The Zeppelin raid was in no sense military. It was on a par with the attack of a footpad or that of an assassin who j stabs his victim from behind.

The assertion that the raid has ended the legend that England is invulnerable is, of course, absurd. England may or may not be invulnerable, but if ten thousand English non-combatants were murdered by Zeppelin bombardment England would be no more vulnerable than she is to-day. The Zeppelins have demonstrated that they can bombard defenceless towns in the dark. They have not yet shown that they are able to contend with armed force on land or sea. What they are actually capable of remains to be determined, but iu thd only recorded instance

w b®n they were opposed to warships « ? x ven were beaten off and effected nothing. As regards operations oyer land their record is equally barren. _ Their crowning achievement to date is this cowardly Norfolk raid.

, As to the movements of the attacking airships the later messages add little to what is already known, but evidently, after reaching Norfolk, they separated in order to extend •j ? rea their bombardment as widely as possible. They were sighted over Terschelling, on their outward journey, at 2.30 p.m. (shortly before ™). and on their return at 2 o clock in the morning. On the latter oocasion they must have been picked up by searchlight beams, for in the latitude of the North Sea, darkness continues at present until about 8 o clock in the morning. The journey within_ the hours named would be l • , WJ thin 'be powers of Zeppelins, which are oredited with a speed under favourable conditions of something Over fifty miles an hour.

While the raid throws no new light, upon the powers of Zeppelins it lends oolour to the idea that aeroplanes are unable to operate effectively in the hours of darkness, for it is hardly likely that so long a stretch-of English coast as was traversed in the raid was entirely unprovided with airoraft. I n any oase, so far as speed is concerned aeroplanes are muoh faster than /Seppehns, and could start a long way in the rear and overtake them. One, danger that any future Zeppelm raiders will have to face is that or being intercepted on their return journey by British seaplanes operates from warships, and the possibility of this form of attack wul of course, grow greater as the hours of darkness are reduced.

, #*'*». It is claimed by the German Admiralty- that its airships undertook an attack upon several fortified places on the English ooast. but the assertion is general and unsupported by details The detailed English accounts make it perfectly clear that bombs were dropped indiscriminately without any reference 'to "fortifioations. * * # * News of importance from the Eastern theatre is still lacking, and the situation appears to be broadly lfc V u sb the Russians report tho defeat of German attacks at a number of places in Poland and G f lcl \ A brief statement lecording the capture of a village in Bukowina, at the eastern end of Galicia, merely shows that the Russians have not yet crossed the mountains into Transylvania. It is. not impossible that they intend to leave the invasion of the. Hungarian province to tho Rumanians, who are expected to ■ take the field presontlv \ n ? rd ? r to concentrate upon the defeat of the Austro-German forces in Poland and Western, Galicia. This would be a reasonable policy, since it is accepted that Rumania's immediate object, if she enters the war, will, be the ocoupation of Transylvania and the liberation of the three million Rumanians who live in that province under the Magyar yoke. * * * *

There is not much information in the statement of the Times correspondent that the Germans are trying to widen the wedge driven into tho ■trench line at Soissons so as to enable a force to cross the river/without endangering the flanks. The Germans must, of course, attempt to oxtend their footing on the north bans of the Aisne to east and west and meantime are already more or less exposed to flank attacks. The actual position, however, appears to be unohanged.. The French, although they have not yet succeeded in breaking and driving back the German wedge, are apparently successfully preventing any further advance.' . Fragmentary accounts of the fighting m Belgium show that the Allies are still hotly engaged in the immediate neighbourhood of Nieuport. A German attempt to destroy a bridge at the mouth of th© Ysm has been defeated, and portion of the Germa.n defences near St. Georges (two miles east of Nieuport) have been demolished. According to the Calais correspondent of- the Daily Chronicle the British have effected the capture of a village three miles north-east of Armentieres. The Germans occupying the village seem to have been taken completely by surprise. Massed in readiness for an assault on the British line, ■ they were suddenly thrown into confusion by an accurate I artillery fire from.Armentieres three miles away.

* ( # # * Small _ gains are reported near Albert, m the Argonne, and elsewhere, notably in the Woevre disL ' ? f Pont-a-Mou&son, where the Frendh are slowly driving home a flank attack upon a German wedge, which extends aoross - the Mouse at St. Mihiel to a suburb of that town on the western bank.

A MESSAGE from Cairo indicates that the Australian and New Zealand troop 6 are pursuing their training under reasonably pleasant conditions, in good spirits, and with a minimum of serious sickness in the ranks. Portion of the message suggests that the day is not. far distant when the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps will continue its journey to tne front in Europo. The men are said to be still looking forward to a Turkish attack, but it is added "that the latest news gives little hope of its eventuating. This is borne out by the news available here regarding the state -of the Ottoman forces and Turkish affairs in general.

The Turks have fared so badly of late in Northern Asia Minor that according to the Times's Petrograd correspondent, no other prospect is open to them than to shut themselves up in Erzerum and sell their lives aa dearly as possible. To give them their due, this is just the sort of thing that the Turks are capable of doing,_ but in the present state of their internal organisation it is imlikely that they will be able to emulate the heroic achievement of Oshan Pabha and his army which defended Plevna against the Russians for five months in the war of 1877.

So far as operations in the field are concerned, the Ottoman troops are assuredly nearing the end of their tether, and the Government seems to be quite incapable of inaugurating any new effort. Enveii Pasha has established a reign of terror in Constantinople, but has apparently no further thought of military enterprise. In any case, all authorities are agreed that Turkey's resources as regards transport and other military essentials arc hopelessly depleted. Her present enemies are easily able to compass her destruction, and if Bulgaria and Greece take the field against her. as fchoy ara said to bo thinking of doinc, it will merely, hasten the inevitable?