PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2439, 19 April 1915, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Developments in connection with the New Zealand Government's offer of an additional force for active service, supplementary to the ordinary reinforcement drafts which are being dispatched at intervals, afford solid ground for satisfaction at the fashion in which the manhood of New Zealand is responding to the Imperial call to arms, Although the Imperial Government's acceptance of the supplementary force was . only made known a couple of days ago, the Defence Minister is able to announce that practically the whole of the artillery section of the force, coil* sisting of something like five hundred men, is already available. Tho two announcements were, in fact, all but simultaneous. Mr. Allen's further statement that the two thousand infantry also to be included will be called up right away implies that they too will not be far to seek. _ At all events it is clear that the obligation of maintaining the periodical drafts that go te strengthen the main Expeditionary Foroo has by no means exhausted the springs of New Zealand loyalty, and that the response to the latest call has been prompt and ready in a degree of which the Dominion has every reason to be proud. The Government is to be congratulated on its latest step, and also on the smooth working of its plans for the equipping and dispatch of tha various bodies of reinforcements, * * # # Although an Anglo-Indian force has been established in Mesopotamia (at the head of tho Persian Gulf) since the early days of the war, its activities have of late attracted comparatively little notice, the campaign being, regarded as one of minor importance. To-day it is brought into prominence and its importance emphasised by news of a battle in which 25,000 Turkish regulars and an auxiliary force of Arab tribesmen were defeated hy the British. As a result a wide stretch of territory at the head of the Persian Gulf has been cleared of the enemy, who were compelled to retreat in disorder, losing much of their baggage and equipment-., Developing upon these lines the campaign in Mesopotamia will serve, like that of the Russians in Northern Asia Minor, to heavily increase the strain upon Turkish resources, and so lighten the task of the Allied force attacking the Dardanelles. Indeed, it is probable that the sudden blaze of activity in Mesonotamia may he ouickly followed by big developments in the region of the main, attack'.-,

Remarkable good fortune has hithprto attended British transports in all parts ol the world since the war begun, but what seems to be an unfortunate exception to t-his almost unbroken rule is reported to-day in a communication from the, High Commissioner. The story as it stands is incomplete, but the Admiralty has announced that a vessel carrying British troops was attacked in tho Aegean Sea on Saturday morning by a Turkish torpedo beat. Three torpedoes discharged at the transport missed their mark, and the attacker, chased by British warships, was run ashore and' destroyed, but nevertheless it is reported that 100 men on the transport were drowned. This is bard to understand in view of the statement that the torpedoes missed their mark, but considering its origin' the message is in till likelihood substantially correct, Possibly

the Turkish destroyer succeeded in damaging the transport with her guns. * * * * Some surprise may bo felt at a Turkish torpedo boat being able to run even a brief career in the Aegean Sea, but 110 doubt, though their main fleet is inside the Dardanelles, the Turks have a few small naval craft in ports along their western seaboard which have not been visited by units of the Allied fleet. Torpedo craft can refuge in places where navigation would be impossible to warships of larger size, and it wight be a costly and difficult process to rout them out.

An exceptionally comprehensive account is gii'en to-day of operations in the main Eastern theatre. The East Prussian front, Central Poland and the Carpathians are each touched upon, and the messages as n whole indicate that the Russians have' lost nothing at other points while pressing their vigorous offensive in the Carpathians. Reports 1 f a week or two ago regarding the fighting in Poland adjacent to East Prussia showed that the Germar. offensive from that province had been definitely stemmed, and that the Russians at some points were again slowly advancing. From to-day's messages this state of affairs saems to have continued. Such fighting as has occurred has been mostly between advanced troops, and an engagement of this kind in the neighbourhood of Mlawa, near the southwestern extremity of East Prussia turned in favour of tta Russians. The Germans are said to have been defeated in an attempt to advance on Ossowiec, the Russian fortress, standing 18 miles distant from the south-eastern corner of East Prussia, which they bombarded some weekß ago prior to their retreat. Very probably there will be further fighting in this region, for thirty miles beyond Ossowiec, and connected with it by a branch line runs the main railway from Petrograd to Warsaw. Reaching this vital link in the Russian communications the Germans would be in a fair way to recover all that they have lost by the failure of their eastward advance on Warsaw. Meantime, however, they seem to be as far as ever from making the first step—to Ossowiec!

Brief reference to a Russian advance ndar Sochaczew is mainly of interest as showing that the Germans in Central Poland are still posted on the river-line, thirty miles west of Warsaw, which they have failed to pierce in a series of great battles. The achievement of the Russians in capturing a position on the west bank of the Bzura River near Sochaczew may easily lead up to greater developments, for hitberto they have been fighting in this neighbourhood on the eastern bank of the river. It is distinctly suggestive of weakness that the Germans should lose their hold upon the river lank, and it is not impossible that their weakness at this point may be an early symptom of a general retreat through Poland,

In the Carpathians the Russians appear to be making unbroken progress, in spite of the thaw, which has converted mountain streams into formidable torrents, and made some roads impassable, so seriously accentuating the problems of transport. Some of to-day's messages appearto be a little confused as to details, though clear enough in their general import. The principal successes of the invading armies in the inmiediate past seem to have been gained a few miles north of the Uszok Pass and near the Vercezke Pass, about twenty miles further east. It is in the latter area of conflict, apparently, that the Russians have_ captured a position commanding important highways and one of the principal railways running from Galicia into Hungary * * * * ■ Conflicting stories are being told about the strength of the reinforcements which Germany has sent to the Carpathians. On 3 message states that they consist of only two corps of second-line troops (about 80,000 men), but other recent messages have reported the dispatch of much mipre numerous reinforcements. The military expert of the Petrograd Novoe Vremya is quoted as Baying that the Germans arc evidently preparing to attack along "the whole front." The extremely condensed quotation goes on to speak of an overwhelming blow on the Czstochowa-Cracow front, the sixty-mile fortified line which guards the frontier of Silesia. This front is not at present within the area of fighting, and probably the front upon which the expert predicts a renewed German attack is that of the Russian offensive along the Carpathians. h * * * One of the principal items of news from the Western theatre to-day relates to the French advance in Northern Alsace. On this section of the front they are still fighting their way through the Vosges by way of the valley of the River Feaht. which debouches opposite Colmar, in this vallev appreciable progress is _ reported, ground having been gained on both banks of the river. In particular the Germans have been dislodged from a lofty crest separating two valleys near Metzeral, a mountain town 14 miles.west-south-west ot Colmar. ■