PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2519, 14 July 1915, Page 6

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

/.Terrible indeed must have been the slaughter of the Turks at the latest great fight at the Dardanelles. Piecing the story together it-'looks' like a clever piece of generalship on the part of the Allied staff, in which the plans worked out with clockwork precision. General Sir lan Hamilton would seem to have been waiting tho day when the Turks would make this, massed'attack. How far they were purposely'led on to imagine a weakening in the Allied position we cannot know, but plainly they were, under tho _ impression that all was not well with the Allied forces. This was their opportunity—their great chance to drivo the Anglo-French forces clean off the Gallipoli Penin-. sula. The attack was made on the Allied right, where tho French and British are stationed, but the whole of tho_ Allied force co-operated in stemming it and turning it into a rout. Tho French and British troops bore - the brunt .of the attack, but when' the time came to strike back the Australians and New Zealanders on the left played their part by thrusting forward in a movement which threatened tho. enemy's communications. the Allied aeroplanes bombed the Turc'oGerman Headquarters Staff,, and this no doubt hampered the efforts of the staff in handling its reserves and in adjusting its. plans to meet the needs .of the rapidly-changing situation. It looks like a very dis-' tin'ct gain for the Allied forces— possibly a great suctess with farreaching consequences, for the enormous losses suffered by the Turks and the gains made by the Allied advance must have a further prejudicial' effect on the Turkish morale. There are fresh stories concerning the anxiety of, the Turks to come to terms with tho Allies. No doubt a great many—probably tho majority —of the Turkish people if they could get their own way would be glad to sue for peace. But before they can do that they will have to throw off their German masters. '

Very little is to hand, from Russia at time of writing, but'' there is an interesting story concerning Von Hindenberg and the Kaiser. The once-popular idol of tho German people, we are told,- has incurred his sovereign's displeasure by advising him to give up the struggle, as it can only involve needless' sacrifice of German lives without any hope of ultimate success. It does not sound at all like the sort of thing the Hindenberg we havo been told of would be likely to say; but he cer-. tainly seems to have dropped out of sight of late. Possibly ho may reappear on tho Italian frontier, from which quarter the news to-day is again very satisfactory.

There is a manifest increase in the-enemy's activities on the Western front, not at one particular point, or two, but on various sections right along the line. A particularly violent attack on the Souehez front, assisted by asphyxiating shells, enabled him. to occupy tho cemetery and parts of the adjoining trenches. The German communique asserts that both sides got to close quarters, and that the ocmetery was stormed, A portion of tho lost trenohes, has since been regained by tho Allies. It is clear that the Allied_ advanco in tho direction of Lille is being heavily contested, and that before further progress is made we may look for heavy fighting on some other sector. The preliminaries towards that end aro already apparent in tho British attack at Boesinghi, reported yesterday, and in the artillery duel in tho vicinity of Lombaertzydc and Nieuport, reported to-day. *#h . #

It must be abundantly clcar to Germany by this time that her Note to tho United States Government cin the subject of her submarine warfare, instead of clearing tho air of conflicting issues, and concentrating tho negotiations upon n brand prinhfts daijofifid Bitu&tim .to

a dangerous hue. Tho State Department at Washington, it is reported, admits that the German reply will precipitate a grave situation—a portentous admission, if true. The American nation by this time should bo in no mood for a play of words and diplomatic juggling. The German Note suggests in so many words that America. should suffer a curtail; raent of her rights as a neutral, and enjoy, at the sweet will of Germany, certain privileges for her passenger shipping. These privileges, it is pointed out by the Manchester Guardian, can only be enjoyed at the expense of other ships. If America accepted the German suggestion to communicate advice of American passenger sailings, so that the German . Government could arrange safe conduct for them, she would in effect consign all other steamers at sea to their fate, regardless of their rights under the laws of nations as well as the laws of humanity. This is a nice proposition to make to a civilised nation. The right of capture involves the obligation to stop, visit, and search, and a belligerent nation cannot expect to profit by the rig;ht of capture if the attendant obligations are repudiated. This is the main factor in the present situation, but the German Government consistently evades it.

The Germans, we are informed in a cable message to-day, are placing great hopes on two war inventions, an air torpedo and an . automatio gun. Some mention has already ■appeared of the use of air torpedoes in trench warfare, but the latest German device appears to be something of much greater scope and destructiveness.. However fanciful' these two inventions limy read, it is very probable that there is something in the report. It is characteristic of the human raee that whenever a need arises the ingenuity of man sooner or later in some shape or form solves the problem. German ingenuity at present is working overtime on problems involving that nation'si very existence, and spurred by such vital necessities the enemy's scientists, if report is to be believed, have accomplished some remarkable feats.

The New York Engineering _ and Mining Journal recently published an article based upon "Notes taken from a friendly communication, by the Director of a great metallurgical company of Germany to a correspondent in New York."' Germany is faced with a' copper shortage—the public by this time knows what copper means to an army—and claims'to have rcduced her consumption of that valuable accessory by using "soft iron with a copper content, and "zinc treated by a special process." Britain has cut off Germany's outside supplies of gasoline and petroleum. The former Has been largely supplemented by benzol, but for \ccrtain special purposes for which they , still need gasoline two synthetic processes have been worked' out which yield satisfactory gasoline. They also claim to have solvod the problem of producing gasoline, from mineral oils",, while a manufacturing process is founded on the theory' that ordinary bituminous coal can bo regarded as unsaturated hydrocarbons, and, therefore, "if 'hydrogen be added to the unsaturated hydrocarbons, gasoline will bo formed, just as is the case in Nature." Again: "We have been using common cellulose instead, of cotton for. the manufacture, of guncotton, ' and the . firing experiments have given entirely unobjectionable results.'*. As. for saltpetre: "Within ; a shoH . time enormous works will have been erected which will convert tho nitrogen of the air into ammonia, and then by causing the combustion 'of the latter by tho contact process will produce nitric acid. We ourselves have enlarged our plant at -— to turn out about 80,000 tons of nitric aoid yearly." And so 'on, with sulphjiric acid and aluminium. , 1

The article from which the foregoing extracts are given was reprinted by the Financial Times. It may or may not be true—it .may simply bo a picce of cunning braggadocio circulated with intent to deceive. But Germany has already furnished sufficient proof -of scientific ingenuity to warrant some credence in the resources of her chemists. The satisfaction which we derive from the efficacy of the Allies' blockade upon German imports should not be allowed to lull us into the belief that our powerful enemy is fast reaching the end of her resources.

Sik A. B. Markham, Liberal representative of one of the Nottinghamshire constituencies in the British House of Commons, has aohieved some notoriety of late by Bis frequent requests for information regarding the munitions question, and he has at last succeeded in making Mr.' Asqtjith angry, which is saying a good deal. Sir A. B. Markham obviously knows something of what has taken place behind the scenes, and it is equally probable that ho could point to the individuals whose mistakes have contributed to the perilous crisis with which the British National Government is now called upon to deal. Sir A. B. Markham, however, is not satisfied to know that the nation is now thoroughly wide awake, that the mistakes of the past are to be more than retrieved by a tremendous concentration of the national energies upon the destruction of German militarism. He desires that the culprits shall be fittingly punished. This vindictive zeal, manifested at such a time, is ill-advised and wholly misplaced energy. Nothing can bo more certain than that when the time comes those who have by their incompetence placed the nation's existence/in jeopardy will be called to account; but there are graver calls upon the Government at present than the mere punishment of a few delinquents. At the same time, Sir A. B. Markham's persistent agitation gives one an uncomfortable feeling that matters at one stage were very much worse than the public has imagined. ■ « *' ■ * * After being bottled up for months in the estuary of an East African river, the German raiding cruiser ' Konigsberg has been finally reduced to scrap metal by British monitorswar vessels of shallow draft for river service, and carrying heavy armament. Although the Konigsberg's career as a raider had been effectively stopped by sinking a steamer across the mouth of the river up which sho had iled from tho guns of the she was still an efficient fighting ship, -ready for misohief the moment some fortunate chance should permit of her emergence from her lair; that much is quite evident from the vigorous* reply which she made to the fire of the British monitors. , Her'final destruction therefore was something