PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2446, 27 April 1915, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Berlin, we are told to-day, is rejoicing over the German victory in.. Flanders, but available news of events in the locality of the alleged victory suggests that the Germans are making tho most of what may prove a barren success. British and French official messages, having frankly admitted that the Germans gained some milos of open country on the eastern side of the Yser Canal,, speak now not of further retreat, but of progress. The fuller details supplied to-day make it clear that a definite check has been offered for the time being to the German assault. Thanks to their asphyxiating bombs and the effect of an enormous concentration of troops and guns, the Germans so far prevailed that they now hold positions at or near the cast bank of the Yser Canal along a front of a mile and a half or two miles, with its southern extremity about three miles north of Ypres. Further south they appear to have made hardly any headway at all. These are the fruits of their victory, and according to the Allied official reports, even these meagre fruits are being _ steadily won back again. There is no Bugjjestion, either in the German or Allied accounts of the battle, that the ground gained by the Germans included any such, strategically important positions as the little hill which they lately lost south of Ypres, and on visible evidence it is reasonable to conclude that they have sacrificed thousands of lives and thrown away enormous quantities of ammunition without effecting any material improvement in their prospects. / 1

■The full cost to the Germans of this effort to forco the passage, of the Yser Canal and open a road'to the coast has yet to bo revealed, but it is already clear that their losses in killed and wounded have reached a huge total, the dead alono numbering many thousands. Messages from different parts of Belgium, more or less adjacent to the battlearea spoak of the burial of thou-, sands of German dead, and it in mentioned that twenty-five thousand wounded have reached Liege alone. Manifestly, the Germans organised their assault upon such a scale as must have involved an enormous drain upon their remaining resources. The position of affairs in the Eastern theatre can scarcely have of any withdrawal of troops from its fighting fronts—in-' deed, the burden of evidence has gone lately to support the supposition that the Germans have strongly reinforced the Austrians in the Carpathians— and it must therefore be assumed that the heavy tide of reinforcements poured into Belgium to back the assault, on the Yser line consisted, in great part at least, of reserves. It is rather too soon to take it for, granted that the Germans are incapable of breaking through'the Allied line on the"'Western front, but the battle of the Yser so'far as it has gone is an extremely hopeful indication in that direction,

On the part of the Germans it demanded _ a concentration of troops and artillery such as-cannot have been effected without weakening other sections of their long battleline, and .a cost in lives probably out of all proportion to that incurred by the Allies, though they, too, must have suffered heavily. Admitting its partial success, the German stroke ■ failed completely to achieve its main object, and if this is, to be its final result it can only be regarded as disastrous from the German point of view. Once definitely penned in by the Allied battle-front, the armies,of the Kaiser will havo lost their, last hope of victory, and will be fighting only for terms. Events along the Yser line do not prove as yet that the Germans are so penned in, but-they afford strong grounds for hoping as much.

Very grave questions are opened up by the German' use of asphyxiat-' ing bombs in their assault on the Allied line. There can be no doubt that these truly infernal contrivances were extremely effective, at anyrate 'in clearing the French advanced trenches along the Yscr line, and presumably the Germans will again make use of them at every convenient opportunity.' Some of the atrocities which have come to be regarded aB normal features of the German practice of war—notably the tnurder of unresisting non-combat-ants aAd the brutal ill-ÜBage of prisoners—afford no mdre scope for reprisal than the deeds of the murderer and other crimi ials in civil society. It would be asking too much of human nature, however, to require the Allied armies to submit periodically toy a fusillade of asphyxiating bombs and retort only with the measures of offence sancthe laws ag-eed on. With the crime and the criminals before them, the Allies will find their natural remedy in a retort in kind. It may be expected, therefore, that the use of asphyxiating bombs will henceforth add a new horror to a war that is already ■ the most terrible in history. If the German armies gain an advantage by resorting to criminal and atrocious violations of the laws of war, it would be mere folly to allow them to enjoy it unchecked. while any possible alternative exists. -

* * * * ■ Full confirmation is shpplied in late messages of the fact that the tide of battle along the Yser Canal has definitely turned against the' Germans. The French, as well , as the British, are making progress on the eastern bank of the Canal, so that the Germans have apparently already been driven back at the point where they compelled the Frenoh to retreat to the western bank. * * . * . * Thehe is a disappointing absence of news concerning developments at large in the main Eastern theatre, and official messages from Pctrograd to-day relate almost exclusively to fighting in the Carpathians, in the Uszok Pass and 'in its immediate neighbourhood. The Russians now hold Sianki, a mountain village only two miles from the head-of the Pass, and they are described also as closing in on the mountains on the east and west. Generally, they are credited, in the official reports, with an unbroken tide of success on this section of their front, alike in beating off enemy attacks and in gradually forcing their way through the mountains. A report from Budapest de•Mjilw>fi 9u attack by the 'Russians in KfliQs to. aclv&awcl ia li»& six

and eight deep, and lost thousands I P. killed and wounded. Probably this is to some extent exaggerated, but it need not be doubted that the Austnans, aided by their German allies, are making a desperate stand in defence of the Uszok Pass. It is perhaps the most important of all the mountain crossings, and its capture will almost certainly be the final step towards the long-antici-pated invasion of Hungary.

An interesting dispatch from Mr. Ashmead Bartlktt, who represents the London Press at the Dardanelles, throws a good deal of light upon the general nature of the operations in that theatre. From his account it is apparent that German expert and material assistance has so greatly strengthened the Turkish defences as to make the task of the Allies vastly heavjer. Apart from the permanent equipment of the forts, the defending force is well equipped with howitzers and field guns, which can be moved about at will and brought to bear upon the bombarding ships from unexpected quarters. Another fact which has tended to" lengthen out the attack is the remarkable power of. recovery shown by the forts. Thik is easy enough to understand. A fort I may bo demolished bv bombardment and its garrison annihilated, but the destruction of its guns is not an easy thing to effect, and when the bombardment is over it may be possible in-some instances to resurrect them fiwi the debris, man them fresh crews, and bring them into action again. One very important point mentioned by Mb. Bartlett is that the low-lying Asiatic shore of the Dardanelles is commanded by the higher land of the Gallipoli Peninsula. This means that the Allies are free to concentrate their attack upon the peninsula. Victory there- means the conquest of the Daidanelles. The attack has doubtless by this time advanced 'considerably beyond the stage doscribcd in Mr. Bartlett's dispatch, and it is not unlikely that,the passage of this message by the censors is an indication of more momentous news to follow shortly. There is no reason to doubt the.truth of recent unofficial reports stating that the Allies have successfully effected a landing <ln the Gallipoli Peninsula.