PROGRESS OF THE WAR.

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2378, 6 February 1915, Page 6

PROGRESS OF THE WAR.

In this country news of greater events will" be overshadowed to-day by .the announcement that part of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force was engaged in the recent fighting along the Suez Canal. Though none of them were killed outright, the New Zealanders did not come off quite scathless in their first encounter with the enemy. Two men, both of them belonging to the Nelson Company of the Canterbury Infantry Regiment, were wounded, one seriously. That the New Zealanders bore themselves as they were expected to do is-sufficiently evidenced in the compliment paid them by the Commander of the Forces in Egypt. Genekal Maxwell states that they earned the good opinion of all. A section of the Australian Force has also been engaged, and has earned Geneeal Maxwell's commendation, •

| Available news from Egypt all goes to show that the Ottoman attack upon the Suez Canal is a strangely ill-organised and illdirected affair, 'l'hc whereabouts of tho main Turkish Army has not yet been disclosed, though the British Commander,_ having an efficient air service at his disposal, is no doubt well informed on the point. To-day it is stated that twelve thousand Turks participated in the Canal fighting, hut it is evident that no such force concentrated at any single point. Apparently the Turks have adojitcd the suicidal policy of casting forward a spray of comparatively small parties to deliver futile attacks at various points upon the strong British Army guarding tho Ca.nal. These tentative efforts are j not to be lysplnined on the antiurap-1 ,Uaa ufldgrtak<\..jvifci^

a view to reconnaissance for reconnoitring parties would not bring up bridging material and try to throw a bridge across tho Canal in face of an overwhelmingly superior forco, as the Turks did at Tusun on Tuesday night, and still less would they attempt the crossing on rafts as the Turks did on the following day. The fighting has been severe enough to show that these attacks were seriously intended, but if they had been made in very much greater force they would still have been quite hopeless.

The fighting reported to-day has cost the Turks a loss of over 600 officers and men killed, wounded,, and prisoners, while the British have also suffered some casualties, notably in an encounter at Tusun on Wednesday, when two officers and 13 men were killed and 5S wounded. The area of the fighting extends along the Canal from El Kantara, 28 miles south of Port Said, to Serapeum, which is 29 miles south of El Kantara and 35 miles north of Suez. Tusun is 25 miles south of El Kantara. It is separated by Lake Timsah from Ismailia, seven miles north. On the western side of Lake Tismah the railway, which runs parallel with the Canal throughout its length, branches off to Cairo. No doubt the Turks are intent upon reaching the Cairo railway, but as events are shaping, their prospects of_ doing so are not worth considering. • , * * * * N The condition of the prisoners captured shows that portion of the Turkish army at least consists of a mere rabble. The prisoners taken at El Kantara are described as ragamuffins, many of them , barefooted. Nevertheless, the army is not altogether deficient in artillery. Six batteries were brought to bear upon El Kantara, and Tusun (the scene of the attempt to cross the Canal on rafts) and Serapeum were also bombarded. It is surprising in the circumstances that the Turks escaped even more severe losses than they actually suffered for their b6mbardrnent was answered, not only by British field artillery, but by the guns of warships stationed in the Canal. Considering the presence of warships, it is rather a mystery that the Turks were able to maintain the attack at Tusun from daybreak until 3 o'clock in the afternoon, but no doubt the crossing on rafts was abandoned at a very early stage in | tSe engagement.

* * * 9 Probable the campaign in the Sinai Peninsula will very shortly develop to a more decisive point than it has yet reached, for it is not to be expected that the British commander will be content for long to merely repel the sporadic assaults of the motley army arranged against him. Unless the Turks press the attack in stronger force, and with more vigour than they have yet displayed, their invasion can only die away. If the _ main OttomSn army advances it will not only meet an enemy ready and anxious to bring it to battle, but will be exposed to the danger pi assaults upon its lines of communication, which might easily culminate in its annihilation.

Most probably the explanation of the failure of the Turks to prosecute a vigorous campaign is that their energies are very largely absorbed in other quarters. The shattering onset of the in Caucasia and Northern Asia Minor was no doubt a staggering surprise for which no allowance waß made in the plans of the Turks and their German taskmasters. Apart from the critical situation in the north, the Ottoman Empire is threatened at its heart. The report that some of the principal forts in the Dardanelles have been smashed by naval bombardment, and that the Turkish Ministry has 1 been transferred to the Asiatic shore awaits confirmation, but if matters have not yet reached this point they are tending in that direction. Menaced as she is, it would be rather astonishing if Turkey were in a condition to prosecute a vigorous invasion of Egypt. It is more than likely that the Germans have never regarded the invasion as likely to succeed in itself, and have dragooned the Turks into undertaking it solely in the hope'of fomenting a revolt in Egypt against British rule. That hope the continued- tranquillity of Egypt seems to have finally defeated-

The latest announcement of the German Government on the subject of commerce-raiding—nominally ' a warning to neutral shipping— amounts in fact to a threat to destroy _ indiscriminately and without warning all ships coming within torfedo range of German submarines, t is a threat of piracy and murder upon a grand scale. Even neutral snips are not to enjoy immunity, for the. emphasis laid upon an alleged abuse by Britain of neutral flags can only mean that neutral ships are to bo attacked on suspicion of belonging to the class of "hostile" merchantmen at which the threat is directed. The truth is evidently that Germany, goaded by a sense of failure, proposes to follow precisely the same course of outlaw aggression upon neutral nations at sea as she has already carried so far on land. Fortunately the will to engage in a career of wholesale piracy and murder will not alone enable her to do it. However successful her submarines may be in the dirty work of attacking merchantmen unawares—and it is unlikely that they will bo allowed to do it- with impunity—Germany cannot hope by these means to strike any crippling blow at her adversaries. Even though tho submarine raiders make sea traffic impossible in some areas for a time, British trade will not be suspended, nor is it likely even to suffer in a degree at all corresponding to the increased pressure which Britain can impose on Germany by blocking the whole of her external trade, through neutral countries or otherwise.. Under the laws of war definite limita-

tions are imposed upon interference with the trade of an enemy through neutral countries. Germany has so obviously placed herself outside these laws that it would be absurd to concede her any benefit under them. Tho suppression of German trade will of course involve neutral nations in loss, but any objections they may feel inclined to raise should be pretty thoroughly silenced by the announcement of the German War Lords that neutral, as well as British, ships aro to suffer under their policy of piracy aud murder.

Heavy fighting is reported to-day in 'Northern France, south-west of Lille. West of tho road connecting this fortress with Arras the Allies have captured a section of the German trenches. Lens, where, a violent German attack was repulsed on Wednesday, is 19 miles south-west of Lille and eleven miles north and a .little ..It® Alllasjuuw.

also made some litte progress in the Albert region, 21 miles south-west of Arras. The Germans have equally failed to make headway immediately east of the Argonnc. At Massigny, which lies due west of Verdun, about five miles west of the western border of the Argonne, they exploded a mine, but instead of gaining ground as a result lost some of their trenches by an Allied assault.

fto very sensational news comes to-day from the Eastern Theatre. The report that Russian cavalry had penetrated the Hungarian Plains is not confirmed. One message, indeed, states that fighting in the Carpathians is more intense owing to German reinforcements. This appears to some extent to confirm a recent statement that no fewer than half a million Austro-German troops were engaged in the attempt to advance through and from the Carpathians to the relief of Przemysl, but the Russians declare very definitely that this "last desperate effort" is proving no more successful than earlier attempts, and that tHe Austrians lack both the numbers and equipment that .would enable them to a vigorous campaign. Meantime fighting continues in the mountains along the long lino extending eastward from the Dukla Pass. * ' * • * .* In Central Poland no change is reported. Fighting west of Warsaw is continuing with unabated vigour, , ls stated that no anxiety is now felt for the safety of that city.