PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2443, 23 April 1915, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

War news from all quarters to-day indicates that the outlook . is as promising as ever for the Allies. In the Western theatre they aro shown to be developing their oi'fensivo campaign in face of ineffective resistance by the Germans. Petrograd reports disclose no very important development in the Carpathians oY elsewhere in tho main Eastern theatre, but Austro-German attacks have been repulsed in Western Galicia and along the mountains further east.

On tho approach to Lorraine the French seem to be pressing forward irresistibly. This is one of the moat vitally important sections of the whole Western battle-line, and it is coming almost daily into greater prominence. _ The battle-ground is the thirty-mile-wide tract o£ rough and broken country, intersected by valleys and ravines, which stretches between tho Meuse and the Moselle, south of Verdun and Metz. Twelve miles east of Verdun the French line runs south through Les . Eparges (the scene of a rccent battle) until it meets the northern side of a German wedge which strikes west to the Mouse at St. Mihiel, twenty miles south of Verdun. The southern side of the wedge is now a line extending almost due east to tho Moselle, north of Pont-a-Mousson, close to the Lorraine border. In the neighbourhood of Flirey, about the middle of this southern lino, the Frcn'ch rerwrt today that they have lately advanced about 800 yards, dislodging the enemy from nis trenches. The position on the northern side of the wedge is not so cloarly defined, but indications are that it is being steadily advanced. The ' effect of these operations must be to threaten to cut off the line of retreat of that portion of tie German force at the pointed end of the wedge, and thus compel a retirement. In the alternative, should the success of the French operations continue, the German force at this point may find itself surrounded and compelled to surrender. Either that or annihilation.

Reviewing! the position in this locality as a whole, a correspondent in Eastern France, whose dispatoh is quoted to-day, declares that the trench attack has so far progressed that the Germans are about to retreat from the Meuse at St. Mihiel — it seems certain, he adds, that they have already begun to withdraw their heavy guns_ from Camp-de-llomains, a position standing back from tho river and dominating the town of St. Mihiel. Meantime, further north, the French are winning ground along both the roads which iead from Verdun to Metz. The Germans are still posted in strong positions ahead of their frontier, but their defence appears to Tie bling before _ the French advance, which is paving the way for the investment of Metz and an invasion through Lorraine. •

An*y doubts as to the importance of Hill 60, south-east of Ypres, captured by the, British in the great battle at tho end of last week, will be dispelled by the stories of tho furious but unsuccessful efforts which the Germans have made to recapture the position. One message states their losses at three or four thousand, but another, more explicit, declares that they lost nine thousand men in three days' fighting. The messages no doubt relate to different periods; at all events, it is certain that tho Germans have reck lossly sacrificed _ thousands of lives in a fashion which admirably lorvw the ends of tho Allies.

Even Germany, with her enormous army and reserves, must be feeling I severely the frightful wastage of lives which has been going on now for nearly nine months. A Panish estimate, published to-day, puts the total of German losses in the war at 2,750,000.. This is probably somewhere near the mark. Tha total, of course, includes wounded as well as killed, but something like six weeks ago Germany's permanent losses, excluding losses by sicknessj were estimated at a million and a quarter. For Germany, contemplation of her terrible casualty lists must be equivalent to facing the spectre of defeat, since it is the simple truth that, even after_ having incurred this appalling sacrifice of lives, she is further man ever from achieving the objects with which she entered the war.

One possible reason for Italian delay and hesitation about entering the war ia supplied to-day on the authority of the_ Home Giornale d'ltalia, which points to the absence of an Italian-Slav understanding concerning the Adriatic coast as a serious stumbling-block. Eussia, it complains, has not explicitly accepted the national Italian programme —the programme whioh aims at recovering the Trentino and the principal Adriatic ports now held by Austria—but it adds, more hopeI fully, that both countries are seeking a means to achieve an understanding between the Italian and Slav elements. The statement attributed to the Giornale 'd'ltalia that, "every problem resolves itself into Italian and Slav," seems to be rather too sweeping. So far as the Trentino is concerned, Slav aspirations do not enter. The territory is peopled almost wholly by Italians, with a small minority of Germans, and its recovery by Italy ironic! res/ore her ancient and natural north-eastern frontier. As regards Trieste and Pulu, the two great ports on the Istrian peninsula at, the head of the Adriatic, the position is somewhat different. These ports also were included within the ancient boundaries of Italy, and from the standpoint of population they are almost purely Italian towns, but the hinterland which tlie.v immediately serve is Slav and the. Slavs lay claim to the ports because they need an outlet to the sea. Both in the Trentino and in the Istrian ports Austria has tried In Mt'iimii IN Hum HiitlinmUHv Kv wurajsiflfi the of {(&»,

eigners, but while in the Trcutino she employed Germans for this purpose, it Ims been her standing policy to play off the minority Slav population against the Italian inhabitants of Trieste and Pola. To that cud the Italian language has been largely replaced by Slavonic in schools, churches, and courts of justice; Italians have been replaced by Slavs in public oliices and in every possible way their race hits been discouraged and repressed, while the Slavs have been encouraged and supported.

Tuus while Italy has a strong natural claim to the seaports at tho hoad of the Adriatic, it is contested by the Slav population of the hinterland and people of this race have to some extent gained a footing in the disputed towns themselves. A very great deal depends upon the spirit in which Russia, in her capacity as guardian of tho Slav races outside her own boundaries, meets Italy in the effort to arrive at an adjustment of these vexed and conflicting claims to the Adriatic seaboard, It was suggested not long ago that Italy and Servia would probably conclude an agreement on the basis of Italy taking the Istrian p.orts and consenting to the acquisition by Servia of an unfortified port on the Adriatic. If Russia supports some such compromise as this a settlement should not be difficult to achieve, for Italy obviously has nothing to hope from Austria, by whom the Italians in tho Trentino and in Istria have uniformly been persecuted and oppressed. Italy might even be willing to make Trieste a Customs-free ;Port or to establish a modified tariff, a course which would at once go some way towards satisfying the Slavs who desire to use Trieste as a trade-outlet and maintain the prosperity of the town. The importance of Trieste lies in its trade, and it has been said that it would become a dead town if it were cut off from its hinterland, by a hostile Customs frontier. There are numerous other ports and harbours along tho western shore of tho Adriatic—including the Albanian port of Valona, upon which Italy, possibly with an eye to future gaining, has tentatively laid hold--and .the problems which are'so strongly emphasised by the Giornale d'ltalia are by no means impossible of solution. Italy, however, is undoubtedly entitled to expcct that Russia should meet her in a friendly spirit, and -until this point has been reached it is unlikely that she will bo prepared to act in full sympathy with the Entente. # i* * *

A Berlin report, concerning the Dardanelles operations, which states that 35,000 Anglo-French troops have landed at Muaros, in the Island of Lemnos, must probably be set down as untrue. Lemnos, a big island 40 miles' west of the Dardanelles entrance, belongs to Greece, and it is hardly likely that the Allies would violate Greek neutrality by using a Greek Island as a base. Presumably the British censorship 'has allowed the story to continue on its way as another sample of German mendacity.

>.-**» , Actual news regarding the Dardanelles goes little beyond a suggestion, that the Russians will create a diversion by landing a, force on the Black Sea coast of Turkey, where it would directly. menace Constantinople, Probably the first business' of the Allied lana force engaged in the', main attack will be the occupation of the Isthmus of.Bulair, which links tie Gallipoli Peninsula with the mainland at the inner end of the Dardanelles. The isthmus, which has a maximum elevation of about 500 feet, is fortified, but it is easily commanded from the sea. Once it is occupied by the Allies the reduction of tho forts along the northern shore of the Strait should be only a mattoi' of time, and not a very long time.

Apparently no British Minister of State can afford to take a brief holiday in war-timo without being accused by some German Press Agency of undertaking a secret peace mission. Sir Edward Grey's .holiday has been interpreted as a secret move to negotiate with neutral countries for a peace conference. He had been at the Hague, at Copenhagen, etc., etc., and therefore, ctc., etc. By the same token, if the Kaiser were to take three weeks off we should be justified in'hinting that his Imperial German Majesty, fearing the worst, had fed Europe to escape the ancrv mob at Berlin. ■

Fuller particulars of the recent Anglo-Indian victory in Mesopotamia* show that it was even more important than at first appeared. The Turks lost, it is estimated, 2500 men killed, and over five hundred were taken prisoner. Already the enemy has been driven back, for a distance of about a hundred miles from the head of the Persian Gulf, and the British force is apparently pursuing its advantage.

A reoent message describing the steamer Manitou as a Frenoh transport suggested that she was carrying French troops when she was attacked by a Turkish torpedoer in the Aegean Sea. An official report to-day nowever shows that the troops were British. Two boats, it will be remembered, were capsized, ■ and it is now stated that 24 members of the Royal Field Artillery were drowned. Twenty-five others are missing, and it is feared that they were drowned.