PROGRESS OP THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2454, 6 May 1915, Page 4

PROGRESS OP THE WAR

So far as the short section of the Yser front which has lately been the storm-centre of the fighting in Flanders is concerned, to-day s news is not so good as it has been for some days past. The British havo again been compelled to give ground slightly in face of tho German attack, and have lost the village of Zonncbeke, four miles east and a little north of Ypres. Sir John French mentions the retirement as incidental to a readjustment of the line made necessary by tho enemy's unexpected use of asphyxiating gases, and the terms of his dispatch suggest, that the British are now firmly established on a line running west of Zonnebcke. A German communique dealing with this development in rather more detailed fashion is no doubt reasonably accurate. It | states that the British at Zonnebeke were subjected not only to a frontal attack from north-east of Ypres but to a flank fire from German batteries in north and south. Zonnebcko became tho apex of the Ypres salient after the northern side of the salient had been driven in by the German main attack on the Yser front a couple of weeks' ago. Undor the new conditions tho Allied line ran east-south-cast from the Yser Canal to Zonnebeke and then turned south and west, practically at right angles. Situated _ thus at the apex of an angle the village was exposed to artillery, bombardment from three sides, and probably this fact had as much to do with its evacuation as the German employment of asphyxiating gases. * * * . *

Amounting to half a mile or so of ground on a very narrow front, the German gain probably does not materially affect the general situation, more particularly as the Ypres salient still projects some miles in advance of the main defensive line of the Yser Canal. While the Germans continue to mass troops and artillery in preparation for another effort to Durst through to the coast, tho British and their Allies in the immediate north are likely to. content themselves in the main with defensive tactics. It will be time enough to adopt a more aggressive policy when tho German grand assault has been met and broken. The Yser Canal is a fortified line deliberately prepared for this purpose, and it is here that the strength of the contending armies must be definitely put to the test. Anything that happens meantime in tho country eastward of the Canal is relatively unimportant. The loss of Zonnebeke falls within this cater gory, though it' must, of course, be accepted as an indication that the Germans are far from having exhausted their ojfensive power.

The situation thus disclosed—Allied troops standing on the defensive and the Germans preparing to attack—might suggest that initiative in the Western theatre has passed into German hands, but this is very far from being .proved. In Flanders they do appear to hold the initiative for the moment, but there is no reason to suppose that this covers the Western situation as a. whole. On the contrary, apart from the fact that the French have paved the way for a grand assault upon tie German Lorraine frontier, there aro other indications from time to time that the Allies are by 110 means held in bonds on other- sections of the front. One of the latest is a Paris report that fighting is progressing most successfully for the British in the neighbourhood of Armentieres and Houplines, on. the Franco-Bel-gian border, only a' _ dozen miles south of Ypres, Driving home an assault at this point the Allies would turn the fortress of Lille, an event which would be no less disastrous to the Germans than a penetration of the line in Flanders would 'be to the Allies. The Gerfuan front in fact is threatened at- a number of vital points. Speculation as to probable future developments is move or less futile in the absence of definite information as to the strength available on either side, but while the prospective German assault in Flanders can only be regarded as a serious meiiare, it iB tolerably certain that its failure would be the signal for a trcmendous counter-stroke, and it is not impossible that- if the Germans continue to hang fire at this point their assault may be anticipated and forestalled by an attack in force upon some other section of their front.

Unofficial reports that the Allies at the Dardanelles have occupied Maidos, on the European shore of the Narrows,_ are not confirmed in the bulletin issued on Tuesday by the Press Bureau. On the contrary, while it is shown that the Allies are making good progress against heavy opposition, the Press Bureau statement that they "have assumed the offensive and are advancing into the interior," seems to indicate definitely that the reports referred to went ahead of the facts. A successful ad; vance right across the Gallipoli Peninsula to the Narrows, or to the latter point from the southern extremity of the peninsula, would scarcely have been dismissed as "an advance into the interior."

Turkish prospects and resources, viewed through Turkish spectacles, are set forth to-day in _ a message from Constantinople which asserts that no fewer than 800,000 Turks are under arms, apart from 200,000 Christians engaged in digging trenches and constructing defensive works. These totals, it may be assumed, are by no means understated, and if Turkey has anything like 800,000 men under arms a large proportion must in all likelihood be very poorly armed and equipped. Moreover, even the Turkish account shows as impressive an , array of problems and. responsibilities as of resources with which to meet them. Marshal von der Gor/rz, it is stated, is guarding the northorn frontiers with 100,000 men, Djemal Pasha has 150,000 in Syria and the Sinai Peninsula, threatening Egypt. A Turkis!) army 180,000 strong is contending witii the Russiaus in the Caucasus, and an arniy of 50,000 is resisting the Anglo-Indian advance northward. from the Persian Gulf. The force defending .the Dardanelles consists of 70.000 men under the command of Gb.nrral von S.t.vmsns. aiui is another forcc of :io,ooo at Smyrnh. It is admitted also that Turkey is oppressed bv a fear that Bulgaria may co-operate with the Allies. Burdened already with ~four distinct campaigns and menaced in addition at other points, Turkey is in t,w|ni'nhly even uahe lit!* mQQQ usa at eotam&ixU

At the same time, as matters stand, the Turkish estimate that the Allies will find it necessary to land a force of "300,000 men in order to force the Dardanelles may not be a very wild exaggeration of the facts. Bulgarian aid would of course ma--1 tonally improve the situation from the Allied point of view as would tho successful landing of a Russian force on the Black Sea Coast, but as yet assistance from these quarters is only prospective and so far as Bulgaria is concerned, to some extent problematical. Meantime Turkey, fighting for her life as a European Power, is free to mass some hundreds of thousands of mcu at the Dardanelles and on the approaches to Constantinople. Obviously if these conditions continue a long, and obstinate campaign in defence of the Dardanelles and the adjoining mainland is inevitable. At the moment it seems unlikely that the Caucasus campaign will be pushed to a definite conclusion in the immediate future, although another Russian victory in Northern Persia is reported to-day. The Anglo-Indians north of the Persian Gulf are in comparatively weak strength, and are doing well in guarding the Persian oil-fields in that region and in keeping a force of fifty thousand Turks 1 engaged. Any lightening of the heavy task imposed upon the'"Allied foroes assaulting the Dardanelles will probably come, if it comes at all, by a Russian landing on the Black Sea coast of Turkey A very great deal of course depends at this juncture upon the attitude of Bulgaria. If she declared war on Turkey not only would a fresh army of nearly half a million men be hurled at the doomed Ottoman Power but Greece and Rumania would almost ccrtainly follow suit. In that event Turkey would be faced by such an array of foes that her defence would nccessarily collapse.

References in the Constantinople message' to the campaign against the Suez Cana,l are interesting but not very convincing. It is suggested that the Turks are completing' a light railway, connecting the Mecca railway with Akaba, on the eastern side of the Sinai Peninsula, and that with this aid to progress they will make their next attempt against the Canal in June, The railway, it is stated, will be completed in six weeks. It is not unlikely that the whole story is a pure invention.. In any case all sorts of conflicting stories, naming various routes, have been told about the alleged railway, but proof that it has any actual existence as yet is lacking. It may be ventured also that before six weeks have passed Turkey will find more urgent employment for any effective, troops she may.have in Southern Syria and the Sinai Peninsula than an attack on the Suez Canal.

In the main Eastern theatre events appear to be moving apace, but some of the more important developments reported to-day rest' upon unofficial authority. Russian reports are silent concerning the German offensive north from East Prussia, but the Germans themselves claim (according to a Dut-ch message) that they have cut the Libau railway, isolating that fortified town, and that they expect to reach Riga, a big commercial port further north, with Very little trouble. If the Germans have gained a firm- hold upon the LibauDvinsk railway, as was lately reported, Riga is somewhat exposed to attack. The town stands at the southern extremity of the Gulf of Riga, which dips south into the Russian coast. Although it is I'2o miles east and north of Jjibau it is only seventy miles away from the point which the Germans are said to have reached on the Libau-Dvinsk railway. Assertions that an army exports to reach a certain placo are not in themselves calculated to command respect, but the Russian silence regarding this section of the campaign is rather ominous.

Little liriit is cast upon the situation in Western Galicia, where the Germans report a victory and the Russians a great battle, but it : s worth noting that the German messages so far received, while making large claims, give no definite indication of progress achieved, and that place-names mentioned in Austrian and Russian accounts suggest that, the Russians have receded little, if at all, from the line running south and east through Western Galicia, some forty miles cast of Cracow, which has constituted their normal front in this region for many weeks past.

A message from Ungvar, in Hungary, credits Russians with a great victory at Wyskow, in the Carpathians, thirty odd miles east of the Uszok Pass, the message is of such doubtful origin that not much weight can be attached to it meantime.

. A dispatch from Sir John French finally sheets home the charge that the Germans resorted to the use of poisonous gas deliberately and with forethought, knowing that in so doing they were condemning 'as many of the-ir enemies as they could reach in this way to an acutely painful and lingering death or to lifelong suffering and incapacity. Another ray is thus,added to the white light beating upon German, kultur, exposing it to the world as a cult of brutal and unrepressed savagery, acknowledging no'laws, human or divine. As Sir John French remarks, "protests would be useless." The use of poisonous gases will henceforth be a normal German .procedure and presumably the . Allies will be compelled t-o adopt the same terrible weapon in sheer self-de-fence. On the same ground they will be justified in using still more terrible agents if these can bo devised. Possibly, some extremists may still argue that Germany's crimes are the crimes of a small coterie of war-lords and that the German nation and army are not responsible, but this reasoning will not' bear. analysis. Toleration by a nation and ariny bf the acts of their Government is not a negative thing, but a positive endorsement, and where these acts are criminal the-nation which tolerates and permits them is also criminal.