PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2490, 17 June 1915, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

As a correspondent in the Eastern Mediterranean wrote not long ago, "the days of the Turk in Europe are numbered, but no one will deny that he is dying hard and game." In the Gallipoli Peninsula especially, the Turkish Army is putting up a stubborn fight. Directed by German officers and with its native powers increased by the application of German military science, it is still in firm possession of the vital defonces of the Dardanelles, the fortified hill country of the Gallipoli Peninsula 'south of the Narrows, which must bo conquered before the forcing of the Strait, the occupation of Constantinople, and all that these things entail, will bo really in sight. This docs not mean that the outlook in the Dardanelles from the standpoint of the Allies, is gloomy, or that the British and French forces now fighting in the Gallipoli Peninsula have proved unequal to their allotted task. On the contrary, they have triumphantly demonstrated that they are equal to every demand. It does mean tnat an arduous campaign is very far from being in its final stages. Any doubts as to the magnitude of the task still _ facing the Allied troops should be dissipated by the official report on the operations which is published to-day. It presumably carries the story of the campaign up to a few days, ago, and may be "accepted as a sequel- to the dispatch in which Sm lan Hamilton about ten days since described a general assault upon the Turkish positions. The later report tells of no major achievements. It deals mainly with actions of comparatively limited scope upon a battle-front given over to trench warfare, and upon which progress is necessarily slow owing to the difficulties of the ground.

It is evident that the position of the attacking troops has not been materially altered during a period of some weeks. The British ajid French southern forces are still extended across the Gallipoli Peninsula at a distance of rather less than five miles from its southern extremity, The greater part of the occupied territory was gained within a few days of the brilliant landing ejfected more than seven weeks ago, and much the same applies to the positions hold by the Australians and New Zcalanders inland from the coast at Gaba Tepe and along tho hill slopes to the north. Tho latest official report makes no more ambitious claim than that the Turkish offensive bas sensibly weakened. From this stage, which admittedly involves a great initial achievement, it may prove a slow process to the reduction of the strong defences in which the Turks are established on both battle-fronts. As more complete information is made available concerning the conditions that obtain at the Dardanelles it becomes increasingly evident that in tho present phase of tho campaign almost the whole burden rests upon the land forces, and that tho Allied Fleet for the time being plays a purely subordinate part. The guns of the warships to some extent cover tho il,anks of tho army of invasion, but the extremely rugged and broken nature of the country largely screens the enemy's mobile batteries from naval bombardment, since they are difficult to locate evon by aerial reconnaissance, and when > located can be moved to new positions. The Narrows forts must be taken in rear before the Fleet can advance through the Strait, and this means that miles of hill country, affording every possiblo facility for defence, have to be conquered by land troops and artillery thrown largely upon their own resources.

Short of some new development such as a successful Russian invasion from the Black Sea coast or a Balkan_ League against Turkey and her allies, a oampaign of this character can hardly bo carried to a sucr cessful conclusion otherwise than by tho necessarily long and slow process of wearing down tho Turkish armies and depleting their resources. Unliko her Germanic allies, Turkey has always ' depended very largely upon importations in tho matter of warlike supplies and equipment, and her weakness in this respect is bound to tell in the long run. So far as it has gono, tho campaign has shown her to be astonishingly well_ supplied with mobile artillery, including heavy howitzers and trench mortars, the latter small and handy guns oapable of throwing very heavy bombs for a short distance. But however well her allies may have equipped her for the war, Turkey is Using up supplies which to a great extent cannot be replaced. It was stated a few weeks ago by an authority of standing that, the Turkish arSenals and navy yards could not make good a tenth 'of the waste of war. Recent messages from Rumania have indicated that tho Government of that country is consistently holding up military supplies consigned to Turkey by the overland route, and with, this route closed Turkey is completely isolated. A definite limit Is thus set to the possibility of continued resistivneo by tho Turkish armies in the Gallipoli Peninsula, and in the other theatre? in which they are engaged, and this is one of the brigot , sljots in tho situation.

Ix Galicia the Russians.are being heavily assaulted on their front in the region of the San, west of Lcmberg. Thoy admit the loss of a village east of the San and north of Jaroslav, but more serious interest attaches to the claim of the Germans that they have captured Mosciska. This place lies closc to the PrzemyslLemberg railway, 17 miles east of Przemysl. Its loss, not admitted by tho Russians at time of writing, would nieau that the Germans ha-.l gained another section of the vital railway running dircctly east to Lemberg. The distance separating Mosciska. from Leinberg is only 38 miles, so that if the Russians are tmablo to maintain their hold on Mosciska the position at once becomes somewhat critical so far as their continued possession of Lemberg and occupancy of Galicia is concerned. In Eastern Galicia, where thoy lately crossed the Dniester at several points on a thirty-mile front, , the Germans are extending tho area of their attacks towards the west, but on information now .available operations in this region cannot compare in importance with the dangerous attack which is developing on the front east of Przemysl _ and tho San. ihe staie iipon which the enemy organised their reccnt abortive attempt to force their way to Lemberg 'rom the south suggested that they were seeking an alternative to the costly enterprise of driving in tho ilusbiaii front which defends Lemberg. on the west. ' Tho later developments scow, that this front still commands a major share of their attention. It is a factor of importance that the German armies in this region arc backed by the trunk railways which extend through Galicia from Silesia. * * * » Elsewhere in tho Eastern theatre, except in tho Baltic provinces., enemy attacks seem to have died away for the time being. Tho Russians remain undisturbed on their lines west of Warsaw and further north, where in pla-ces fchey are established, and have been for many weeks in close proximity to tho East Prussian frontier. While they have given ground in Galicia, and may yet bo driven out of that province entirely, the Russians have at all times obstinately clung to tho lines guarding their vital railway centre at Warsaw, and if the Germans renew their attempt upon Warsaw they will be practically in tho position of having to begin their principal campaign in the East all over again. Necessarily, of course, after their adventures in Galicia, they would take up tho greater task with considerably diminished resources. In the Baltic provinces tho Germans have attacked the Russians in fairly strong force, but the broad indications are that the latter, though disinclined to detach forces powerful enough to definitely repel the invasion, are keeping _a, firm grasp upon a campaign which presumably is only intended by tho enemy to create a diversion. Calm acquiesccnce in the invasion of their own territory, up to a certain point, has been as prominent a feature of tho Russian strategy as their enterprising invasion of Galicia, which now seems to bo in some danger of boing terminated for a time. » * « «■

No very new development is disclosed upon the Western front, which is to say that the Allied offensive continues to extend and broaden out without meeting any serious check. The French give a definite denial to Gorman reports of recent successful attacks on the front north of Arras and south to the Aisne, and furnish a compact statement of the results actually achieved in.the continued- assaults to which the Germans have been subjected during the past month. Considerable forces have been constantly engaged, and it is estimated that the Germans have •been losing men at the rate of from two to three thousand a day. Apart from the continual sapping and weakening of their front, the enemy, on this basis, must have lost sixty or seventy thousand men during the last four weeks, chiefly on til© front north of Arras, and unless the' best available computations and estimates are unreliable, the Allies have coincidentlj' materially improved their position at an appreciably smaller cost in men. It is' now stated that the French are getting into touch with the outlying defences of Metz. No very material advance in this region is to bo expected in the immediate future, but the development is in keeping with others, which show that the Allies without straining their resources are bringing rapidly increasing pressure to bear upon the German front.' * * * * The situation as between Germany and Italy is as far as ever from being satisfactorily cleared up. One message to-day states that German troops are being sent into tho Tyrol, but another avers that Germany is relieving Austrian troops on the Servian border in preference to acting against Italy.'. The most obvious explanation of Germany's attitude is that she is so fully occupiod in other theatres as to be disinclined to embark upon a campaign agaipst Italy. Even if it is true that she is detailing troops to act against Scrvia, this possibility is not invalidated, for smaller forces would suffice to hold tho Servians in check than would be required to act against the much more powerful Italian It is conceivablc that Germany is playing a deeper game. Being over.-burdened with enemies, she may be prepared to passively acquiesce in the Italian occupation of unredeemed Italy, in the nopo that Italy would rest content with this conquest and take no further part in the war. It is true that a successful Italian occupation of Istria would involve tho capture or destruction of tho Austrian Fleet, but there, is no very obvious way in which the Austrian Fleet can render Germany much service, and in such circumstances Germany is not given to troubling over the misfortunes of her allies. Any "hope of detaching Italy from tho may lie founded on sand, but in German eyes treaties and obligations count for very little. Whatever Germany's motive may be, it is evident that unless she assists her ally there will be an excellent prospect of unredeemed Italy returning into the hands of its rightful owners much more speedily than they could have reasonably expected. Already the Italians seem to bo firmly established in the Southern Trontino, and while they are still held up at some points on (lie Isonzo, River they are reported to be working round tho coast of. the Gulf of Trieste, and to be within a dozen miles of Trieste itself. If Germany continues to stand aloof, the Italian armies should soon obtain such a grip upon the disputed provinces as even Germany would iiutl it difficult to looeon. * * * * We are told in this morning's cablegrams that a German waiter in England has been fined £S5 for hav--lin his possession military, maps

of the English coast, docks, and military stations—cot two or thrive maps, or a dozen, or a scorc, but five hundred and ninety-eight. And ho was fined £25 ■ An English waiter in Berlin caught with a collection of Gorman maps—with one German map —would have been marched to the nearest vacant spot and promptly shot. Truly the complacent toleration of John Bull pass'eth all understanding.