PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2425, 1 April 1915, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

A belief that the Germans still have it in their power to make another great stroke for victory in the Western theatre would seem to be rejected in the latest instalment of the French review of the war. Pointing, as did a recent statement by Sir Join; French, to a great offensive to he undertaken by the Allies, the passages from the review which are published to-day assert, in effect, that the Germans are no longer capable of a renewal of their former efforts to breach the Allied battleline. On the contrary, it is declared that the Germans' resources have been largely expended, and are now scarcely sufficient for the defensive. In face of some recent messages indicating that the Germans contemplate another great assault upon the Allied line at Ypres this may appear an unduly optimistic estimate of the situation, but the French review lias been notable throughout for its dispassionate (•one, and it is on (bat account, easier to iuxeftti ili> conclusions us> probably

well-founded. In any case, whether or not the Germans are minded to make another big effort in the West, it is ccrtain that in doing so they would incur an infinitely greater undertaking than when they sought to crush France at a blow in the early stages of the war. Failure at. that time meant only a deadlock such as has existed in France and Flanders throughout* the winter. Prepared as the Allies now are a similar Gorman failure might easily pave the way for a smashing counterstroke which would change the whole aspect of the war.

A message reporting the expulsion of the Germans from a village northwest of St. Mihiel is interesting as suggesting that their hold upon this town may bis weakening. St. Mihiel stands upon the western side of the Meuse, south of Verdun, and therefore opposite the Lorraine border. It was captured by the Germans early in tho war, but they have ever since been firmly held in check at this point, and have failed either to advance from the_river or extend their hold upon it to north and south. They are established in entrenchments which take the form of a wedge, with tho base towards Lorraine and the point on the Meuse at St. Mihiel. Hitherto, the attacks of the French in this region have mainly taken the shape of attempts to cut across the German lines of communication, but they now seem to be' attacking the point of the wedge as well.

Russian silence concerning activities upon the northern border of East Prussia to somo extent confirms the claim officially advanced by the Germans that they destroyed a force attempting a raid on Tilsit. The, Germans now report, probably in reference to the same engagement, that they captured a thousand Russians and killed two thousand at Tauroggen, the border town from which the Russians recently advanced across the East Prussian frontier. . If the fa,ct« have been correctly_ reported by the Germans, the Russians must have been roughly handled in a battle of some magnitude, but it is also evident that the Germans have found it necessary to station considerable bodies of troops at tho northern extremity of East Prussia, which would be more profitably employed in the areas of heavier fighting further south.

* * * * Little news about the fighting in the Carpathians is available to-day, but one message mentions that persistent Austrian attacks have been defeated between Gorlice and Burtfeld._ _ These places are the exof a north and south lino fifteen miles west of the Dukla Pass, and it therefore appears"' that the Russian advance through Western Galicia is proceeding apace. Gorlice is on the northern side of the Carpathians, and Bartfcld, 25 miles to the south, is oh the Hungarian side._ The precise locality of the fighting area is thus somewhat vaguely indicated, but it is probably on the northern side of tho mountains. Reports of Russian progress in the neighbourhood of Bahgrod, a place ten miles northeast of the Lupkow Pass, are somewhat difficult to reconcile with the recent announcement that the Russians had captured a strongly fortified position in that Pass. It can only be assumed meantime that the Austrian force in the Baligrod district is one of a numbor of similar forces which have passed through defiles in the mountain range and are operating in Southern Galicia independently of one another. The position of these forces will at once become untenable when the Russians havo definitely gained a footing on the Hungarian Plain.