PROGRESS OF THE WAR.

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2394, 25 February 1915, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR.

A pabtiodlarly dastardly but happily not successful outrage by a German submarine is reported today. An attempt was made to tor-, pedo a Folkestone-Boulogne passenger steamer outside the latter port, and the torpedo just missed its mark, passing thirty yards ahead of the ship. Tnere were over ninety passengers' on board—civilians and neutrals—and if the torpedo had found its target many of them would probably have lost their lives. A stealthy attack on a ship of this description seems, to touch the nethermost depth of the infamous policy which Germany has adopted. Tho military value of the achievement if the ship were destroyed could not, in any case, be great, but it would involve a ruthless sacrifice of life. The policy directing such ,an attack can only be regarded as one which makes cold-bloodfed murder not an incidental feature, but its central object.

The submarine campaign 'as a. whole is still achieving very limited results. A Norwegian steamer has been sunk near Dover, and a British Admiralty collier has apparently shared her'fate, for although the latter vessel is described as being damaged, it is mentioned also that the crew were saved, indicating that the damage was beyond repair. At this rate, however, the Germans will have little to set against the shame and dishonour earned by a piratical sea policy. In a period of activity which began long before the recent flamboyant "warnings" were issued, the submarines have accomplished far less in the way of commerce destruction than the few German raiding cruisers which ran a brief career in the outer seas, and some of which have still to be accounted for. I

j- * « » *. For t;he time being fantastic confidence in the so-called submarine blockade and bellicose threats against neutral nations seem to have been .partly superseded in Germany by a desire to explain away crimes which admit of no explanation. As is usual in German explanations, i those i now being proffered range freely' away from the truth. • Sir Edward Grey has given a direct denial to one ridiculous German fable: that the British intended to sink an American ship in the war zone and accuse German submarines of the deed. A somewhat similar story has been set afloat in Holland, its_ German authors alleging that the' British Government offered the captain of a_ Dutch steamer a heavy bribe to sink his ship and announce that it had been torpedoed by a, German submarine. Judging by the tone of the Dutch newspapers, which are asking the Germans to name the captain and the steamer, ! the Hollanders are not inclined to be cozened by inept fabrications of this character. Why the Germans should bother to' circulate ,Such inventions is something of a mystery, since several instances of lawless attacks by their submarines on neutral shipping have been definitely sheeted home. * * * * A strong probability that ono more German submarine has met her fate is opened up in the message describing the exploit of a French warship which came _ upon a submarine and struck it with several shots before it dived. The destruction of the submarine was not definitely established, but the same difficulty must always arise when a submarine is sunk, unless indeed it is seen to blow. up. * * * »

While German newspapers, taking their cue from the Kaiser, are congratulating the nation upon a mighty victory in East Prussia and North Poland, the actual ■ position seems to be that the dogged Russians, have already stemmed the hurtling onset which lately forced them, back from the East Prussian frontier and have begun t'o work slowly back over the ground they have lost. Different correspondents at Petrograd agree in stating that the initial force of the German offensive has'.been expended, and that the initiative now rests with the Russians. The latter, having, as one correspondent puts it,"extricated their main body from the jaws of'the German pincers," have been reinforced and are apparently firmly established with a, fortified river line at their backs, and enemies in front who are finding movement increasingly difficult in a country still deep in snow. * *• * *

One message states that the Russian counter-stroke has begun along a front of a hundred miles northeast of the Narew and Bobra Rivers. The front thus roughly indicated lies opposite the eastern frontier of East Prussia along a great part of its length, and includes the line which, has witnessed the full fury of tho German onset. The lateral distance of the Russian lines from the Prussian frontier is not stated, but they seem to be still well advanced from their main fortresses lying fifty miles east of it. In Poland, opposite the southern frontier of East Prussia, the Russians have been driven back a long way, more than fifty miles in some places, but here also they are again snowing an inclination to advance, and at some points have captured villages from the Germans. The fighting in this part of Poland' seems to have been less severe than on and opposite the eastern frontier of East Prussia, and though the Russians lost ground rapidly they may regain it almost as quickly. *■*'**

The Russian advance through Poland between the southern frontier of East Prussia and the Vistula was less immediately important aa marking the initial stages of a possible invasion of Germany than as threatening the communications of the German armies in central Poland, west-of Warsaw. A railway, from the Prussian fortress of Thorn to Warsaw, acting as a main supplyline to these armies, 1 touches the ■Vistula'at Wloclawok, twenty miles from tho German frontier. Prior to their retreat tho :■ Russians were almost within striking distanoe of Wloclawek, and a few niore miles gained would have enabled them to out the! railway there,, The German Q&futive m avevbeci wis daagar iat

the time being, besides driving the Russians, back all along a two hundred and fifty mile line through Poland opposite the East Prussian frontier, but on present appearances this is the full extent of what it has accomplished. An invasion of East Prussia ha-s been stayed off for the time, but there is no indication that the Russian line is or was over in danger of being pierced or that their plans have been deranged in a way. that would vitally affect the position on other portions of the seven-hundred-milo battle-line in Poland and Galicia. At its height the offensive from East Prussia seems to have been an enterprise of inferior magnitude to the last great effort to reach Warsaw through Central Poland, and the information as yet available supports the opinion that it will bulk less importantly in the general progress of the cam-' paign.

So far as losses of men and material. go there can be no doubt that the Russians have suffered heavily in the tremendous conflict in East Prussia and Poland, but it is quite likely that the Germans have fared very little better. In talk on this subject the Germans have established a clear lead. They assert that they captured seven generals, 100,000- men, and 150 guns. Petrograd messages, while not denying that the losses in East Prussia were heavy, characterise the German stories as absurd, and considering that the whole Russian force engaged in the main fighting area during the retreat appears 1 to have consisted of 175,000 men, there can be .very little doubt that the Germans have, liberally multiplied their captures. German reports say that the retreating Russians threw guns and ammunition into the lakes. • If this is true,the Russians at least'adopted a more sensible oourse than the Germans have frequently done in retreating from Poland. Very often they have sacrificed thousands of men in costly rearguard actions fought for the sake of bringing off a few guns or even merely to gain time for the complete destruction of guns already disabled.

Reports to-day of operations in the Western theatre are more or less of a normaland routine character, but of late this has involved constant though not rapid progress by the Allies at-some points on their line, and a firm grasp upon their positions elsewhere. Near Y.pres; the now famous Belgian town midway between the sea and the French fortress of Lille, the Germans, by mining, have destroyed a British trench, but according to the official reports they_ have not, as a result, made appreciable progress or shaken the defenoe of the position. On the approach to La Bassee, an important position, in Northern France (south-west of Lille), from which they are now only about a mile distant, the British have captured a German trench &nd repelled a counter-stroke by which the Germans sought to recoup their'loss. The particulars given of these local engagements show, however, that the position of the opposing armies in Southern Belgium ana NorthernFrance has undergone hardly any change during the last week or two.

Complete failure/by the Germans to decisively arrest the progress of the French forces attacking their lines .in the Champagne district, north and east of Eeims, towards the Arg;onne, is further emphasised to-day, and the German line in this region is mentioned as a possible objective of the great offensive for which the Allies aro maturing their preparations. *** ■ * Some very informative dispatches have been supplied lately by a British observer with, the French Army. To-day he gives a graphic description of the Allied front in the Western theatre. Five hundred miles In length, it consists in most places of a strong fortified lino fronted by rows of trenches seldom more than three hundred yards from the corresponding advanced positions of the enemy* and in some places separated from them by only a fraction of that distance.. At many points the spaoo between must be less than fifty yards, for hand-grenades are thrown into the hostilo trenches by membersoorf r the contending forces.

Some recent accounts of trenchfighting have mentioned the use of a machine modelled on the ancient catapult to supplement gl'enadethrowing by hand. These machines are of small and handy size, and can be conveniently manipulated in the confined space of a trench, but in their general construction resemble the big catapults which were used in ancient times and Until the introduction of gunpowder to hurl great stones andi batter breaches in the wells of Vcastles and fortified cities. The ancient catapults had as their principal part a springy tree-trunk capable of being bent down at its tapering, extremity by means of a powerful tackle. The stone, placed, in a cra!dle, was hurled with great force when the tonsion was released. On occasion a prisoner was substituted for the stone that formed the ordinary' ammunition of the machine. One of the strangest features of the terrible waT now raging is the frequent utilisation of ancient . appliances and ancient methods, the most notable reversion of all being to the hand-to-hand fighting which decided battles in the days when the invention of explosives and of modern arms of precision still, lay in a distant future.

. Operations by the Anglo-French warships, which successfully bombarded the forts guarding the Mediterranean entrance of the Dardanelles, at the end of last week, have been interrupted .by heavy gales, but Turkey's problems are steadily mounting up. Remnants of the Ottoman armies which paid so dearly for their brief incursion into Caucasia are still holding the' Russians in play in Northern Asa Minor, but the Russians are now contemplating a descent on' Constantinople by landing troops at Midia, a Turkish port on the Black Sea, 65 -miles north-west of Constantinople. The Turkish Navy would no doubt have to be put out of action before troops could be safely transported over the Black Sea, and_ that the Russians are not neglecting this important preliminary is indicated in tho report that Turkish warships, including the Gocbcn, have returned to Constantinople in a badly damaged condition. •