progress OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2457, 10 May 1915, Page 4

progress OF THE WAR

The sinking of the Lusitania puts the German submarine campaign- ija an entirely new light. _ During the months of war in which they have made the destruction of merchant ships their prime object, the underrate r raiders have accounted for some 109 British, Allied, and neutral ships, 72 of the total (including 13 trawlers) being British, Nearly all of these ships, however, were of comparatively small tonnage and slow speed. Untjl the Lusitania _ was sunk, off the Old Head of ICinsalo 011 Friday afternoon, the biggest ship destroyed by German subr marines ,was the Wayfaver, a twelveknot steamer of ten thousand tons; the Lusitania stood pear the top of a class of ships which were supposed to be practically immune, by reason of their speed, from submarine attack. There are ships afloat which considerably exceed the Lusitania'? tonnage (31,550), but except for'her sister ship, the Mauretania, she was probably the fastest passenger ship in the Atlantic service, and therefore in the world! The fact that a magnificent linor of this type is within the range of submarine attack obviously entails a radical revision of ideas as to the spope and possibilities of the German submarine campaign. In the first . shock of the disaster, however, ideas may be entertained concerning the efficiency and striking power of the German submarines for which no warrant exists. They have performed a not? able, though criminal, feat- It does not follow that they will find it an easy matter to repeat it-.

In many respects the story of the last voyage of the Lusitania is remarkable.' The actual attack was made without warning, and can only be regarded as an act of piracy and wholesale murder, but warnings of a kind were isued, ' Predictions that the Lusitania would be torpedoed on this voyago wore bandied about in New York before she sailed, and were telegraphed all over the world. No one in authority • seems to have taken these threats and predictions very seriously. The fact, however, that two steamers were sunk by submarines on the south-east coast of Ireland, probably before the Lusitania arrived, should have placed the Admiralty and the Lusitania officers on their guard, but so far as can be gathered no special precautions seem to have been taken. As far as can be judged from the cablegrams, the Lusitania pursued her normal route, and running as though threats and German submarines might equally be set at defiance. In that event she appears to have- been torpedoed off the Old Head of Ivinsale, on the ordinary track of ingoing liners bound for Queenstown. It- is evident even to the man that the comparative immunity enjoyed by fast liners is not absolute." By reason of their speed they may often escape, or evade, a submarine where a slower ship would succumb, but even the fastest liner is liable to be taken unawares by a submarine lying submerged awaiting her approach. It is simply a question of whether the intended victim approaches near enough to be torpedoed. Something of this kind no doubt happened to the Lusitania, except that, with such a big prize in prqspect, the Germans would naturally employ a flotilla of submarines, instead of only one or two boats. It may bo supposed that the searaiders were extended across the line of the Lusitania's expected approach, awaiting her arrival. In such circumstances it would bo no specially difficult feat for one or other of them to sink her. But it is inconceivable that the Admiralty would be blind to such a possibility. Until the full facts are made known it is safer to assume that a lucky chance has played into the hands of the Germans. * * * * Questions which naturally arise ar« whether the liner might not have been saved from destruction by a change of route or by an approach to the cciaat of Ireland under cover of night. During the hours of darkness a submarine is blind and helpless, unless she is working on the surface, and even-then a vessel showing no lights would almost certainly escape her in the open sea. Profiting by the darkness, a vessel of the Lusitania's speed of over 26 knots an hour coiijd have covered a distance of more than 120 miles in almost complete security so far as submarines were concerned had she timed her run -suitably. Instead, she was torpedoed in the early afternoon when about an hour's run away from Queanstoivn. Many --of the later German submarines are quite capable of extending thciv cruising area out into the Atlantic, hut- doing so they would have less chance of getting within striking distance of their enemy. Such precautions and safeguards" as were taken to protect the Lusitania did not prevent a hpfli'thrtnding low of life- .Her buats were . swune outboard before-

hand, but otherwise her passengers and crew seem to have fared as badly as if they had encountered a sudden and terrible disaster in mid-ocean, instead of within sight of port. Some allowance must still be made for amendment of the lists, hut it seems certain that the final compilation will show that considerably more than half of the Lusil;anid's complement of 2160 (passenger* and or«w) have lost their lives. At l.lw moment only some 700 appear to have been saved, and the roll ol tlioso probably lost includes manj names of men and women eminent in world of letters and other fields of activity.

It is contended by tho German Embassy at Washington that the Lusitania carried arms and ammunition, and was therefore noL entitled to a warning before she was attacked. Tins point is so completely met and answered by the facts that it has no doubt only licen raised with an eye to future discussions with America and other neutral Powers whose citizens are included in the list of viotims. Against the German assertion may be set first of all tho statement of the British Embassy at Washington, that the Lusitania did not carry arrps and ammunition, as otherwise she woulr) have become subject to internment on account of her freciuent visits tp America, In addition there is a definite statement by tho Admiralty that the Lusitania was unarmed. It is true that both the Lusitania and her sister ship the Mauretania were built with an eye to their employment as merchant cruisers. The Cunard Company raised a loan of #1,300,000 from the Imperial Government to cover the cost of construction of each ship, and received also a heavy annual subvention in consideration of the sliips being constructed _ each with eight platforms for Clinch guns. This, however, did not make the Lusitania an auxiliary cruiser. Articles in tho Hague Convention _ of 1007 (to which Britain, America, Germany, and Other countries have subscribed) leave open certain questions as to the conversion of a merchantman into aii auxiliary cruiser, hut provide specifically thg.t such. a cruiser must be regularly commissioned, manned, and officered by the Government of the country to which she belongs. In the case of the Lusitania no such • conversion had taken place. She had neither been commissioned, manned, and officered, nor armed, by the Admiralty, and retained her ordinary status as _ a merchant liner. In that capacity she was pursuing her voyage when she was attacked and sunk in direct and indefensible violation of the Hague Convention and the laws of civilised war.

The sinking of the Lusitania differs in no essential feature from other cringes of which the piratical German submarines have been guilty. Equally atrocious murders were committed when the Falaba was sunk, and the barbarians who man the submarines have often given freo play to their instincts when sinking trawlers and other small craft. On the present occasion, however, _ the very magnitude of the crime is likely to arrest the attention of the world, and awaken in neutral countries _ a true realisation of the. relation in which Germany stands to tho rest of humanity. America in particular is face to face with a most momentous question. The victims op theLusitania included 106 Americans, and their country is now called upon to say whether it is prepared to tolerate the wholesale murder of American citizens 011 the high seas, in defiance of the laws of war and of every canon of civilisation. ExfRESIDENT Roosevew thinks it inConceivable that the United States should refrain from the action which it owes', to humanity and to the national self-respect. Several American newspapers which have dealt with the subject, however, appear to take a somewhat different view. •They condemn the German outrage in unmeasured terms, but express, some of them, a hope that a peaceful solution may bs found- The New York Herald, after comparing the German achievement to the wholesale butchery of medieval times, suggests that a way out may be found by the United States with dignity and honour and without bloodshed. This seems quaint reasoning jn face qf the bloodshed, or its equivalent, that has already occurred. At all events, thq United States has _to choose between a spirited assertion of its right or a course that will expose its citizens who travel by sea to all the wrongs, including murder, that Germany ca-yas to heap upon them.

No definite decision has _ yet been reached in Western Galicia, where the Russians are being subjected to a battering assault on the crosscountry line that guards the right flank of their Carpathian i armies. It is not exactly a reassuring feature that Russian reports regarding this area are restricted in the main to generalities. One Potrograd message to-dav speaks of continued desperate fighting which has assumed the character of a great battle, and states that several Germanarmy corps have arrived to reinforce the already heavy forces which the enemy is employing in attack. No hint is given, however, as to how much ground the Russians have lost. On the other hand, German and Austrian reports upon this point art) rather reassuring than A day or two ago they wero asserting that the Russians were in retreat upon the Visloka, River, which would havo entailed a retirement of some twenty miles from the line of the Dunajec and Biala Rivers (about 40 miles, east of Cracow), upon which the Russians were established across Western Galicia when the battle began. Detail successes claimed by the enemy to-day (inoluding the capture of Tarnow) would involve a retirement of little more than five miles from this river-line—in places less— except at the southern end of the fighting front, west and north of the Dukla Pass, where the situation is less .clearly indicated. Assuming that the enemy reports are arriving in proper sequence, they are now engaged in eating their own earlier claims. Making a reasonable estimate from the somewhat vague and conflicting evidence in hand, it seems likely that the' Russians stili hold an effective defensive line across Westtern Galicia, making their Carpathian right flank for the time being secure, though they may be. somewhat seriously menaced in the near neighbourhood of the Dukla Pass. Excluding general statements about a "hasty Russian' rotreat" —statements probably thrown in_ for effcct —hardly more than this is el aimed in the enemy reports. _ Meantime, if the Russians are making little progress with their offensive .campaign in the Carpathians, thoy are evidently keeping very large forces 'of the enemy in plav on wbat hue heroine tho principal fighting front in West-

Crn Galicia. These forces the enemy would undoubtedly bo glad to employ elsewhere, but on past experience he will reduce his effective strength on this section of the front only at the cost of losing the ground which lie is now slowly winning.

While no very important development is reported in the Carpathians, it is clear from enemy, aa well as Pefcrograd, reports,. that the Russians are pressing in upon the mountains in Eastern Galicia in a way to suggest that they are not very seriously embarrassed by the shock of the Austro-Gcrman assault in the west. The fighting front in and near the. Carpathians, east from tho Dulda Pass, now extends over a distance of about 120 miles, whereas not very long ago it extenclocl only about sixty or seventy miles east from the Dukla Pass. The broad 'change that has occurred during the last week or two is that the Russian line, where it had been drawn back from the mountains, has been swung in towards them again.

A Petrograd report that in the Baltic Provinces the Russians continue to press the enemy in the region of Mitau is a welcome though rather vague reference to tho .offensive north from East Prussia recently inaugurated by the Germans. As yet, however, the enemy does not seem to have encountered any very serious check, for Mitau is about 120 miles north of East Prussia. The big port of Riga, which lies 40 miles north-east of .Mitau, is now presumably covered from attack, out uncertainty still exists as to the fate of Libau, a Russian .naval base on the Baltic Coast about 80 miles west of Mitau. No light has yet been thrown upon the strength of the German invading forces in this region, but in view of the heavy calls in Western Galicia and on the opposite front it is unlikely that the Germans have sent many men into the Baltic Provinces. Not improbably they may have risked the loss of a comparatively small force in.order to effect a temporary isolation of Libau and other places on the coast, in furtherance of their naval operations in the Baltic.

According to a late message, the Germans officially claim to have occupied Libau. An accompanying Russian report speaks of a naval attack, which was beaten off, but makes no reference to the occupa-' tion. In any ease the terms of the German communique, which mentions the capture of five guns arid four machine-guns, are Hardly those in which the reduction of an important naval fortress would be described. It seems rather likely that as yet only the' town and commercial port of Libau have fallen into German hands, and not the extensive and strongly-fortified naval harbour lying immediately to the north.

News from the Western front is unsensational, though there are evidences of a stir of activity at many points which may at any time develop into a blaze of big events. The British recovery of trenches recently lost at Hill GOJ south-east of Ypres, is confirmed and violent German attacks on the Yser front further north have ken repulsed with slaughter.. .# * # * Another instalment is given today of Me. Asiijiead-Bahtlett's vividly realistic story of the landing of tho New Zealanders and Australians at the Dardanelles, but it deals with the campaign at a stage from wliioh it has by this time, no doubt, considerably developed. Mr. Bartlett shows the colonial forces so established on the coast of the Gallipoli Peninsula that "all the Turks in Gallipoli and Tlirace could never turn them out." By this time they are probably well on their way towards the conquest of the. Narrows.