PROGRESS OF THE WAR.

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2380, 9 February 1915, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR.

News from the Western front again tells of local successes by the Allies. On the La Bassee-Bethune Canal, where the Germans have re-, cently sought by 1 desperate assaults to drive them back, the Allies are making substantial headway. Today it is reported that they have captured a brickfield about a thousand yards east of Chiinchy (the scene of a recent battle). Guinchy is on the southern side of the canal, just over two miles \Vest of La Bassee, so that their latest advance has brought the Allies within a mile and a half of that town. There is a vague statement that the Allies' progress northwards towards Ostend continues. The last definite reports of the fighting on the Flanders coast showed that the Germans had been dislodged from the Great Dune, immediately east of Nieuport, but were still bombarding that position. * * * * A later message states that attacks are still being repulsed in the neighbourhood of Nieuport. Operations generally are described as uneventful, but the northern quarter of Soissons has again been bombarded. In the absence of news to the contrary it must be assumed that the Germans still retain the position on the north bank of the Aisne, two or three miles east of Soissons, from which tbey dislodged the French a few weeks- ago. . - ' * * * * A Dunkirk cablegram reports that the Franco-Belgians have forced a passage between the Great Dune and the sea, and so reached a position from which they are able' to direct a damaging fire _ at the German right-wing positions at Weston do. The latter place lies a little less than two miles east of Lombaretzydc, and about the same distance north of Nieuport. This may be the beginning of an advance to Ostend, but the Allies would no doubt have long since advanced along the coast had not their operations in Flanders been regulated by the position further south, where : much greater difficulties oppose their progress. * * * * The Turkish attack on the Suez Canal has spent its force meantime, and a lull has succeeded the brisk fighting recently reported. Most of the messages published ' to-day are chiefly interesting as filling in gaps in the earlier reports. Further batches of deserters have come in, however, and they include' soldiers from Asia. Minor and other parts of Turkey as well as Syrians and Arabs, so that disaffection and disorganisation are apparently not confined to any one section of the Ottoman force. The impression at first given that the attack on the Canal was badly directed and made by a totally inadequate forco is fully borne out by the later accounts. Most of tho attackers seem to have simply inarched ahead to inevitable., destruction or capture, and admiration of their courage is tinged with wonder as to what must have been in tho mind of the general who directed their advance. The total failure of the attack is evidenced in the fact that, with the exception of prisoners, only four Turkish soldiers reached the western bank of the Canal, and they, of course, are fugitives. The bombardment of the Canal towns_ appeals also to have been _ ineffective. anyrate it is mentioned that Ismailia, which was one of the principal points of attack, is undamaged, tho Turkish shells failing to reach the town. The prisoners taken are said to be very despondent over the failure of their attack. No doubt they had been thoroughly gulled and led to believe that their advance to the* Canal would be the signal for an uprising in Egypt.

Late reports declare that the Turkish advance guard, that is to say the whole surviving portion of the force which attacked the Canal, is in full retreat. It is still possible, of' course, that the main body, which was reported yesterday to be at Maghara, 50 miles east of the Canal, may have to he reckoned with, but in the absence of adequate transport facilities its advance would probably be attended with disaster. The statement that the advance guard marched from, Beersheba to - the Canal, a distance of about 180 miles, in ten days, is doubtless based on tho stories of prisoners. If it is true, a remarkable feat was accomplished in moving an .army burdened with artillery and_ other impedimenta (including bridging material) through the desert at the rate of 18 miles a day. Austrian resistance to the Russian invasion of Hungary appears to be breaking down. The Russians, today report a great" battle' in the neighbourhood of Mezo Laborcz, a iiuioafiau town ahnufc a dozen miles

south-eaat of the Dukla Pass. Here they oapturecl three fortified positions and took ten thousand prisoners and a number of guns. The advance in the Mczo Laborcz region continues, and at tho same time the Russians report that they have beaten back the enemy, on the northern side of the further cast, from the prepared positions to which they retreated from the Beskid and Tukkolka Passes. Mezo Laborcz stands on a railway which affords communication with Budapest.

Matters are. still going in favour of tho Russians on the front west of Warsaw. They have crossed the Bzura near its junction with the Lower Vistula and captured an important strategical position on the western side, while further south, at Bolimow (33 miles south-west of Warsaw) the rout of a German column is reported. It is unlikely, however, that the Russians will push the offensive in Central Poland unless in the wake of a German retreat. So long as the Germans are content to hurl masses of men at the armies defending Warsaw it will obviously pay the Russians best to hold their present strong positions along the Bzura and Rawka, while their armies of invasion press forward in north and south. » * * * Reports of fierce and sanguinajy fighting in the Inster and Szpszuppe Valleys show that the Russians are pursuing their invasion of " East Prussia with determination. * * * * North of the Lower Vistula the Russians appear to be making as good headway as in other regions where they have taken the offensive. To-day they report repulsing attacks at Rypin, which lies- 35 miles due coat of the Prussian fortress of Thorn. No details are given of the operations by which tne Russians reached this position, biit it can scarcely have been gained without serious fighting. About a week ago they held a line opposite the East Prussian frontier, running northeast from the neighbourhood of Wloclawek, on the Vistula, 30 miles south-east of Thorn. Rypin is about a dozen miles in advance of this line towards its northern end. If the Russian advance proceeds at this rate East Prussia will soon be invaded south of the Masurian lakes as well as north of that natural bar-

No news has been given for some time past of the advance of Union troops into German South-West Africa from the coast at Swakopmund, but fighting is reported today on the borders of Cape Colony and Bechuanaland. Kakamas, where a force has been defeated, is on the Bechuanaland border. 45 miles south-east of the eastern border of German South-West Africa. The Germans are reported also to have reached .Upington, another post on the border between Cape Colony and Bechuanaland, 43 miles north-east of Kakamas. Presumably the Germans engaged in these raids along the northern border of Cape Colony are comparatively small parties, and it "is unlikely that their activities have any important bearing upon the operations of the Union force which has invaded the German colony. * * * * According to Dutch reports published to-day a very gallant feat has been performed By a British aviator at Zeebrugge, the little Belgian seaport utilised by the Germans as a submarine base •As the story goes, the airman swooped down upon tho haven, undeterred by a concentrated fire from the defending batteries, and dropped a well-placed bomb upon a submarine, which thereupon blew Up an'l sank. Although the exploit has not yet been officially reported, the story is more or less supported by other reports of a concentration of submarines at Zeebrugge for the purposfe, "it is stated, of attacking British transports.

One rcccnt' message states' that Germany has lost eight destroyers and two submarines, in addition to naval losses which have byen confessed, . while two other submarines have been missing for three weeks. It is a little difficult to understand how the loss of destroyers would be concealed, unless they met their fate from the "over-salvoes" mentioned in Admiral Beatty's report of the North Sea naval battle. Racing for port ahead of their bigger consorts on that occasion, some of the German destroyers may easily have been sunk by shells from the British guns which failed to find their principal target. It was in this way that the Kolberg, a German light cruiser, was reported to have been sunk, and her actual fate is still moro or less in doubt. Whatever may be true of destroyers, it is quite probable that Germany has lost submarines without admitting the fact. The air attack on Zeebrugge,_ reported to-day, is not the first of its kind.' Only a week or two ago British aviators dropped bombs at Zeebrugge and reported on their return that they had inflicted some damage on submarines, though naturally they did not remain long enough to ascertain definite particulars of the damage. *** » ' ' Apart from air and naval attacks submarines are exposed to _ many risks, both of war and navigation, and it would be surprising if 'the German boats had at all times come off scathless except in the cases when they arc definitely known' to have been destroyed. While it is quite likely that the German flotillas have been reduced, 1 it is very much open to question whether they have been greatly increased by ne'v construction. Reports which toll of a boom in submarine construction in Germany aro invariably, and, very naturally, vague. One message today, for instance, _ states that at Hamburg "the shipyards alone are busy making submarines and pontoons." The conjunction is dccidcdly unconvincing, fo>- while a pontoon may bo mado almost anywhere, a submarine can only be built in a special yard, by highly-skilled artificers. The notion of the foreshore of any German port lined with submarines in course of construction is of course quite absurd. Most of the modern submarines in commission took a long time to build, and even if the period ol construction could be cut down to a few ,months > it is unlikely that Germany, with the enormous strain now imposed on her engineering rcsourccs, could put many in hand at one time. Making allowance for losses, knc.wr. and unconfessed, it is perfectly reasonable to suppose that she has few, if any, more effective submarines available for service now than at the beginning of the war, when she had 14 or 16 boats that could be classed in this category! This applies to submarines capable of an extended voyage from their base—two thousand miles In addition

many had about as many submarines' of a shorter effective radius available for coast dcfenco work, but incapable of an extended voyage. * * * * ■ In the absence of specific information, importance must be attached to the fact that the German submarine raiding has so far been of limited scope. Nothing has been accomplished by German submarines against either British warships or merchant vessels that mijjht not have been accomplished by a very small flotilla, and it is therefore a legitimate assumption that the Germans have a'very small force of underwater craft available for extended cruising and for raiding service. * * * * Mention is made of a conference between the Kaiser and Count ZepI'Elin, which is regarded as the prelude to an energetic air raid 'especially against the British Fleet and transports.'' Stories of _ this kind may be taken with a grain of salt. The unwieldy German airships have had many opportunities for a raid upon the British Fleet, but so far havo consistently abstained from seizing upon them. In the only reported instance .in Zeppelins came into close contact with British' warships (at Cuxhaven), they made haste to sheer off before harm Befell them, and since they cannot well attack transports without encountering warships, it is rather unlikely that they will be employed in that service, unless in sheer desperation and because they have been " found useless for other purposes. The British naval raid upon Cuxhaven really afforded an excellent test of the capabilities of _ Zeppelins, because on that occasion the airships were operating close to their base, and would therefore have fewer difficulties to contend against in_ the way o:: fuel supply and weightcarrying problems generally than when called upon to voyage to a considerable distance from • their base. * * * * The Hodeida incident, which has for many weeks been a bone of contention between Italy and Turkey, seems at last to have been definitely settled. In the first instance, the British Consul .at Hodeida, an Arabian port on the Red Sea, was seized by the Turks in the Italian Consulate. Italy demanded satisfaction for the outrage and the release of the imprisoned official, but for'a long time- was met by tue excuses and delays for which the Porte is famous. Now, however, it is reported that the Consul has been released and is safe aboard a British cruiser.