PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2594, 16 October 1915, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

There is much to suggest that the Entente Powers have decided for the time being upon a policy of limited enterprise in tho Balkans. M. CJlejienceau, a former French Premier, declares that it is impossible to send enough troops to the Balkans to save Serbia, and it is stated that several newspapers attribute tho resignation of the French Foreign Minister (M. Delcasse) to his opposition to the -Salonika expedition. It might otherwise have been deemed probable that M. Delcasse had resigned as a protest against the policy to which M. Clemenceau has given extreme expression, but it is evident in any case that this policy has powerful advocates both in France and Britain, and it seems likely that the outcome has been a compromise policy, under.which tho Allies have decided to assist Serbia in a defensive campaign instead of placing such a force in the field as would enable them to aim at immediate and decisive mastery of the Balkans. The landing of an Anglo-French army at Salonika and the promise of Russian aid furnish a sufficient guarantee that Serbia will not bo left to fight alone, but it is likely that if the Entente Powers had decided upon a powerful and aggressive policy in tho Balkans their determination would before now have borne fruit in action. * # * »

No gradual increase and exertion of strength will suffice to defeat the immediate purpose of the Austro-Goi'mans-'-thc replenishing of Turkey's war supplies, There mo' only

two ways in which this can he prevented. One way is to bar the progress of tho Austro-Germans into Bulgaria, and the other to bar their progress from Bulgaria into Turkey. Success in either enterprise would involve the employment of an army Wig enough, in conjunction with that of Serbia, to defeat not only tho Ausfcro-Gcrnmns and Bulgarians, but any forces Turkey can spare from her present campaigns. There is not now any ground for supposing that tho Entente Powers contemplate action in the Balkans on this scale, and it is therefore probable that the Austro-Germans will before long be in free communication with Turkey. It does not follow that Serbia is likely to bo completely overwhelmed. Indeed, it is very possible that the replenishment of Turkish supplies is not only the immediate, but tho sole, object the AustroGermans have in view in their Balkan campaign. In seeking to strengthen Turkey, and so increase the difficulties of an Entente conquest of that country they arc grasping at a very great advantage, which will bo purchased, unless tho Entente springs an eleventh hour surprise, at comparatively slight cost.

Serbia and her Allies are not, to all appearance, in a position to effectively oppose an Austro-German junction with the Bulgarians, or to interpose a barrier between Bulgaria and Turkey. On tho other hand, (hey certainly are in a position to offer a determined and . indefinitely prolonged resistance to an attempt by the German-directed combination to master tho whole of Serbia. Making their way into Turkey, the Germans would seriously complicate the position of the Allied forccs on the Gallipoli Peninsula and postpone the day of liberation for Russia when she will bo able to freely import supplies at all seasons of tho year, and to export her grain and other produce for which there is at present no adequate outlet. The Austro-Germans would reap no similar reward by conquering Serbia and destroying the Serbian army in its mountain strongholds. On the contrary, they would be using up in an exceedingly arduous and costly campaign forccs which could bo more profitably employed in the two main theatres. A very important factor to be considered is the effect of the Balkan campaign upon_ Rumania and Grcece, but here again it is unlikely that the AuStro-Germans would achieve more by completely crushing Serbia than by breaking a road into Turkey. It seems unlikely at present that either Greece or Rumania will take the field with the Entente Powers until the latter embark upon a 'really ambitious Balkan campaign, but it is equally unlikely that even rn Austro-Ger-man conquest of Serbia would carry tho two hesitating neutrals into the camp of the Central Empires. It might conceivably have the opposite effect, of compelling them, on grounds of self-preservation, to make common cause with the Entente. * * * # Of the actual progress of the campaign on the Serbian frontiers ther.c is comparatively little news at time of writing. The Germans arc still advancing south from Belgrade, but apparently at no great speed.. On tho eastern frontier the Bulgarians have only advanced a mile into Serbia, so that the claim made by the Serbians (in a message published yesterday) that they had inflicted a serious check upon the enemy in this region was apparently well founded. One of the most interesting details iii the current news is tho statement that General SarRAiii has arrived at Nish. This officer was last heard of as occupying tho ch'ief French command at the Dardanelles, and his transfer to Serbia may seem to lend some colour to rumours that portion of the Salonika expedition has been drawn from Allied Army on the Gallipoli Peninsula. If the Germans succeed in passing supplies into Turkey, however, it will presumably be necessary to strengthen rather than weaken the Allied forces at Gallipoli if they are retained there. General Sarjuil in any case is a commander of high standing, who has been spoken of as one of the strongest of French soldiers. According to the London Observer: "He was one of the men who superseded their seniors at the beginning of the wai. Ho played a great part at the battle of the Marne, kept Verdun unassailable in its wide circuit of entrenchments which have baffled tho enemy's siege howitzers, and he has discomfited tho German Crown Prince from first to last."' It is not impossible that General Sariiail may be designed to fill the chief command of the Franco-Brit-ish forces in Serbia,, more especially as available reports indicate _ that British troops are in the minority in the Allied Army in that country.

For the time be'ing the Serbians hold an unbroken front on west, north, and east, and the main railway to Salonika—protected on the south, and now apparently north into Macedonia, by the Entente array—is' intact. These conditions may bo indefinitely maintained, even if tho Austro-Germans break their way into Bulgaria and the Serbians are compelled to retreat for a distance on their northern fronts. Now that the Allies are rcoving north to protect an increasing iengfch of the main railway, the position of the Serbs is less acutely dangerous than it recently appeared to be, but as has been said, prospects of arresting the Austro-German advance towards Bulgaria, are not bright.- There is no word as yet of tho Russian landing on the Black Sea coast, which might bo expected to keep a considerable section of tho Bulgarian army' in play, and the longer a concerted attack on Bulgaria, is deferred the less likely is ifc that tho enemy road to Turkey will he blocked.

» * » » The Germans arc adopting a policy of reporting extensive British and French attacks 011 the AVestier 11 front, when no suoli attacks have been delivered, apparently in ordor that they may lay claim to successes they have not won. To-day a Berlin wireless message states that the English attacked, behind' smoke and gas-clouds, on the whole front from Ypres to L'oos, a distance of thirty miles. This is followed up by reports from Sin John French, one of them giving details of attacks actually delivered by tho British, on_ a front a mile or two in length, in the area south of La Bassco, and another stating that the German story about attacks on the whole front from Ypres to Loos is untrue, and that no-other attempts were . made against the enemy's line than liiose on the limited front' mentioned.

The objective of the British attacks was the southern side o£ the

La Bti-ssee salient. In ono section thc-y penetrated the enemy's line on a front of a thousand yards, only to be driven out again by a severe artillery fire, but a- little further north they made some headway, their most important achievement being the capture of the main trench of the Hohenzollern redoubt, which was captured in the recent great offensive, but subsequently lost. Sin John French confirms the Gorman report that the British advanced under covcr of smoke-clouds and gas—a satisfactory assurance that the army which has the inglorious distinction of having introduced poison-gas on. the battlefield is getting a taste of its own medicine. On available information asphyxiating' gas is not a very effective weapon asrainst a prepared enemy, but the Germans, like the Allies, will be under the necessity of maintaining elaborate protective apparatus.

There are further predictions to-day of a renewal of the Allied Western offensive on a big scale, and it is stated that tho Germans arc making provision for a hasty retreat from Belgium. Stories of this kind do not carry much weight. That the Allied offensive will be renewed before long is highly probable, but when the blow falls it will no doubt fall as suddenly and unexpectedly as the successful opening attack.

Little detail news of the Eastern campaign is available at tho moment, but continued heavy fighting is reported on l all fronts, and hopeful accounts are given of the developing strength of the Russians relatively to that of the enemy. Particular interest attaches to the suggestion of on© correspondent that the Russians are making it impossible for the enemy to withdraw any more troops from Russia to Serbia.