PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2559, 6 September 1915, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

A great deal of war news to-day ■reflects tho uncertainty due to the expectation of events about which lifcclc can be definitely known beforehand, but when necessary allowances •havo been made on this: account somo highly interesting reports remain to bp considered. One o-f these, emanating from Petrogracl, is to the effect that the Russian retirement is almost completed, and that more or less stable positions are ! being approached along the' whole front. This particular report * is not official, but it' purports • t-o repeat an official announcement. There is a somewhat non-committal message transmitted by the High Commissioner which should perhaps be placed in a, similar category. It states simply that for nino days there has been an effective bombardment on tho wHble Allied front.Artillery bombardments are of such frequent occurrence- in the Western theatre that it is difficult to imagine why an official message should be worded in this, way unless as a hint that a great test of gun-p'ower has taken place, in which the Allies have made free and satisfactory use of the resources they have been building up for months. A great expenditure of shell not followed immediately by a grand assault might seem to imply a wasteful policy on the part of the Western Allies, piit as to the character of the "cffectivo bombardment" much is left to the imagination. It is possible that the object aimed at was to compel such a concentration of the. Germans on thp ' Western front as will limit their activities in other theatres, and by this time it is probably within, the power of the Allies to compel suoh a concentration without sacrificing' their liberty to strike on that front where and when they please/ # * ' # j If the current news from Russia, proves to be well-founded, the time ■ opportune for a determined attempt to break the German Western front may not be very far distant. The suggestion that the Russians will shortly be in a position to stem tho German invasion is certainly not , inconsistent with the recent character of the campaign as disclosed in the news of the last few weeks. . The essential issues have been obscured to some extent by tho fall of one Russian fortress after another, but these losses, and the loss of a great deal of territory, were incidental to the working out of tho Russian policy— the self-same policy that defeated Napoleon. The position now reached is that the German armies have advanced in places considerably more than two hundred miles from, their I own frontier, without being visibly nearer to a decisive victory . than when they set out. They are now I called upon, as.the Petrograd mes- ' sago points out,-to operate in country mostly unsuitable to. the working I of tho German war-machine, ana they are on the eve of the period of autumn rains, .which will make much of the country they ocoupy.impassable to heavy transport. Taught by necessity to depend very muon less upon heavy transport than the Germans do, the Russians should be able to profit'by these conditions even before the opening of the Dardanelles gives them, tho lull tide of supplies neccssary to raise their armies to nnximum fighting strength. * « The campaign is now entering a phase which should prove .at least exceedingly unprofitable to tho Germans and their allies. To them the coming of wet weather and its effect upon roads will mean at once a great loss of mobility and enormously increased difficulties in maintaining the >freo flow of essential supplies. On the other 'hand the conditions of autumn and winter campaigning are bound to open up great opportunities to the Russians. Thoy arc well supplied with mounted infantry and othoV. mobile troops, inuvcfl to climatic severities wid- aecuutomod to

get along with a minimum of transport. On so long a lino as the Austro-Germans now occupy in 'Russia and Galicia there can to no question of establishing such a defensive front as exists in tho other main theatre. They must. retain the initiative, and 'maintain a continuous offensive, or be themselves continually exposed to damaging attack. ' Even now, with fine weather still in their favour, tho Austro-Gcr-raans are making very slow headway, and it is most unlikely that they, will succeed in maintaining the offensive after tho weather breaks. They may elect to rotiro to tno Vistula before* winter sets in, but in any case, short of some totally unexpected development, the phase upon which the Eastern campaign is about to enter should be much more satisfactory to the Russians than the 'one which seems to bo nearing- its end. * * * » Accounts of actual events in the Eastern theatre leave matters somewhat open. The Germans are still fighting hard to extend their foothold in tho Baltic Provinces, and the fact that the Russians have been forced back to the right bank of the Dwina, ,at a point about 60 miles south-east of Riga, indicates that the fate of that port still hangs in the balance. The Grodno garrison appears to have retreated in good order, after tho fortress had been emptied of useful material and destroyed. So far as these sections of tho front are concerned it is'probable that the Russian retirement is not at an end. In Galicia and the adjoining territory in the south there seems to be more promise of an early-stand. The Russians apparently intend to hold the lino of tho River Serefch, which would leave them in posses-, sion ' of a narrow strip of Eastern Galicia, including Tarnapol, the one important Galician railway junction remaining in their possession. Where it runs_ north from Galicia towards the Pri pet marshes the present Russian lino is .well 'backed by useful railways, and it is likely'that an effort will be made to retain them. * ' it. * * A eurther dispatch from Mr. Ashmead-Baktlett serves to show that, despite the initial failure "of the attempt to get astride the Gallipoli Peninsula north of.the Narthe attack upon the Turks in this region is being pressed with splendid vigour. Even in Germany, if a message from Rotterdanrstates the facts doubts are felt regarding the continued success of 'the Turkish defence. The extent to which the British, and Frenoh forces in Gallipoli have been augmented has apparently caused some dismay in the Fatherland, and it is recognised also that action by Italy—a factor which has yet to make its importance felt—is likely to increase the difficulties of the Turks. At,time of writing no now development ,is re-, ported in the campaign, but important _positions have been won east of Suvla Bay since the period to which Mr. Bartlett's dispatch, and that of a Router correspondent published to-day, refer. , « * a • To the daring and enterprise of the British submarines operating against' tho .Turks there seems to be no end. It is reported from Athens to-day,' and there iB no particular reason to doubt the truth of the' report, that seamen were landed from a submarine in the Gulf of Ismid 'and partly dynamited a railway bridge at Gebze, a place less than thirty miles away from Constantinople. Gebze is on the railway which runs from Constantinople round tho Asiatic coast of the Sea of Marmora to the Dardanelles, so .that if the report is true, the best line of communication availablo to the Gallipoli garrison has been cut for the time being. « * * # An intimation that a Servian Note in reply to the Entente has . been drafted and will shortly be forwarded should pave the way for a definite development in the Balkan situ-' ation. On available information, and indeed on the reported word of the Bulgarian Prime Minister, a decision by Servia to cede her Macedonian territory to Bulgaria would 6nsure ; that country's active cooperation in the war and so do a good deal towards disposing of the threat of an Austro-German offensive'in the Balkans. '.Rumania, meantime, seems to be more definitely than ever at issue with the Germanic Allies. It is reported to-day tha,t she has arrested a quantity of war material which Germany attempted to smuggle through to Turkey in the guise of hospital supplies, and also that the export of grain has been prohibited, and -likewise the transit of'gold, ,th& latter measure being intended to prevent Germany sending gold to Turkey. As' to grain,- it was reported some .time ago that Germany and Austria would prevent the export of, tho Rumanian haryest in revenge for the embargo on supplies to Turkey, but the position now seems to bo that the Rumanian" Government has prohibited the export, and is making advances to the growers on the value of their detained stocks. This presumably implies '.an intention to await the opening of the Dardanelles the # grain by sea. . German' diplomacy certainly does not seem to be making any headway in the .Balkans, and the threatened offensive has yet to be developed. One report to-day states that the Austrian troops will shortly be withdrawn from Poland to act against Servia. / That it -is intended to withdraw the whole of the- Austrians i from Poland is most unlikely—Germany is likely to find herself overburdened by the autumn and winter operations against Russia. *,:#.■ * * Although the British Admiralty 1 keeps its own counsel about tho destruction of German submarines in order to make its campaign against them all the more effective, the belief is evidently widespread that a considerable number of theso craft have been sent to their account. The other day a. New York report quot-' ed a Britisa-mercantile marine officer a?, tieclaring that fifty enemy BubriUiri!it3 had been captured or destroyed, and to-day some interesting | references to the same subject by tho i Paris Figaro are cabled. No num- | ber of submarines accounted for is mentioned in this case, but the Figaro states in' effect that highly ingenious methods have been employed in hunting submarines, and that they have met with gratifying success. It is suggested that trawl-, ers and other fishing craft which' have done splendid service in minesweeping and other naval operations have played a useful part also" in the anti-submarine campaign.