PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2627, 24 November 1915, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

An entirely new situation is opened up in the Balkans by the news that Lord Kitchener has obtained an assurance from King Constantine that Greece will not attack the Allies, and that the basis of a satisfactory agreement has been established." As yet reports to this effect await official confirmation, but if they are confirmed the outlook must be taken to have very greatly improved. That any decided step taken py Greece at the stage now reached is likely to represent her final decision, has been made sufficiently plain during the last day or two. Tho near approach of the Bulgarians to her northern territory and the strong measures taken by the Allies, notably by establishing a blockade of her ports, equally put further temporising out of the question. Such assurances as would be deemed satisfactory by Loud Kitchener would assuredly involve a definite undertaking by Greece to keep her frontiers closed to the troops of tho enemy, by force, if necessary, as well as an undertaking to allow Entente troops unimpeded freedom of action. This, a* the news goes, is the position now reached, and the Greek decision may be expected to exert an immensely important influence both upon the operations now on foot in Serbia and upon the general developments of the Balkan campaign.

There is some reason to suppose that a change for the better has already taken place in Serbia, for which an explanation must be sought in the altered conditions in Greece. For days past the position of the Serbians at Monastir, in the south-western angle of their country, adjoining the Greek frontier, has been described as in the last degree critical and desperate. To-day there is news that the Serbs are ranging throitgh the country northeast of Monastir out of wh'ich they were recently driven, and that the lately triumphant Bulgarians are in retreat- Reports on this subject are in some respects rather vague, but they are definite in stating that the immediate pressure on Monastir has been relieved. These are cheering tidings. One statement made is that two Serbian divisions are advancing against the Bulgarians in Southern Serbia, apparently from the north, and that the latter aro retiring because they fear envelopment. Whether or not the Serbians are in a position to undertake suoh a movement an adequate explanation of the Bulgarian retreat is .to be found in the reported agreement between the Allies and Greece. It is a fair reading of the facts that the AngloFrenoh Army in South-eastern Serbia has hitherto been hampered and limited in its activities by uncertainty a 5 to the extent to which Grecce could be depended upon. So long as this state of affairs existed the Allied Army was under the necessity of looking back rather than forward. Its communications were not assured 1 , and to go forward might have been to invite disaster. Taking it that Greece has been brought to reason and has given satisfactory guarantees, the conditions are now totally different. With their communications secure behind them the Allies are posted on a railway leading north directly across tho line of march of the Bulgarians who liiUily advanced into MMiUt-wcislei<)i Serbia. Em ci being ta&rn in. flaals

by an Allied advance along the railway from the south would account for the reported Bulgarian retreat.

FairljY satisfactory accounts are given also of the Serbian operations further north. A more detailed account of the battle near Leskovatz than was available yesterday makes somewhat less ambitious claims than the earlier report, but nevertheless establishes the fact that the Serbs have gained a victory in the near neighbourhood of the main railway, about_ twenty miles south of Nish. In this region they are now posted about 80 miles east of their western frontier with open lines of communication (not by railway) to the southwest, and it is indicated that their plans for the immediate future aim rather at aggression than defenceIt must be borne in mind, however, that this eastward extension of their operations relates only to a narrow tract of country, and that north and south of this tract they arc restricted to a belt of country along the Montenegrin and Albanian frontiers varying in width from about 15 miles in the Novi Bazar region in tho north, to about 40 miles in the south. The retention of positions far east towards the main railway at Lcskovatz looks very risky, though it is no doubt favoured to some extent by the run of the mountain valleys.

• * * « 'i'HE Germans report that they found 50 big mortars in the Novi Bazar arsenal when they captured that place, but the communique, as, received, makes no claim that the guns were left in serviceable condition. It is most .unlikely that they were. _ Their abandonment by the Serbs is no doubt accounted for by lack of transport facilities to move them and maintain them in the field. Big mortars and similar guns may play only_ a limited pa<rt in the kind of fighting that is likely to obtain for some time in Middle Serbia, but it would be a simple matter to make the Novi Bazar mortars useless before they were abandoned, and no doubt this was done.

An arresting item is supplied by the Kolnische Zeit-ung. Reports from Constantinople, it declares, state that the Allies have begun a great offensive at the Dardanelles. A Turkish communique, though it does not go so far, reports artillery duels on the entire Gallipoli front, and bomb fighting in the southern area of the Peninsula, These definite assertions that exceptional activity reigns on Gallipoli are not, at time of writing, contradicted-by any news of Allied origin. An official report speaking of an attack made last week, by a British division, which resulted in the capture of a trench, seems to bo merely a repetition of a story already told in greater detail—the story of a successful attack near lirithia. It is quite possible that the enemy reports mentioned have some foundation in fact. But exceptional activity by the Allies iii Gallipoli would not of necessity mean that they had embarked upon another attempt to master the defences of the Narrows. It might mean instead that they were engaging the enemy in preparation for a withdrawal. .

'Reinforcement of the British submarine flotilla which is doing such good work in the Baltic in cutting up German trade and keeping enemy warships and transports bottled up in port, appears to have been made the occasion for a pointed challenge t& the German Fleet which it declined to acoept. As the story is told by a Copenhagen correspondent, | a powerful British squadron, including Dreadnoughts, escorted a strong submarine flotilla as far as | the entrance to the Baltic. The big ships ran through the Skager Rak and rounded the Skaw, so that their guns would sweep the Kattegat. Attendant torpedoers shepherded the submarines through the narrows of the Sound, th& eastern entrance to the Baltic, whence they would have a clear run into the open waters of that sea. The powerful escort afforded them may have been considered necessary to enable the submarines to run through the entrance passages on the surface. They would thus be less exposed to risk from submerged mines and other dangers, and in any case, by running on the surface they would economise their stores'of power and reach their Cruising ground in condition for immediate action. There is a distinct suggestion in the story as it stands, however, that hopes were entertained of inducing the enemy to come out and attack the escorting squadron. But the German Fleet was not to be drawn from the safety of its harbour refuges. The British operations were carried out within easy striking distance from Kiel, but an abortive sally by torpedo craft was the only move ventured by the enemy. The German torpedoers, after running north through fcho Sound, turned tail on sighting the British Dreadnoughts (probably battle-cruisers) off the Skaw, so that apparently they did not make their reconnaissanoe until the submarines had passed safely into the open Baltic and the British destroyers had retired. The incident affords another illustration of Britain's mastery of the sea.

The good news comes from Amsterdam that one of Germany's latest Dreadnoughts has been mined and sunk in the Baltic. Tlio report needs confirmation, but a misadventure of this kind might account for the failure of the Germans to attempt to resist in force the passage of the flotilla of British submarines into th« Baltic, recorded in another message. * * * * Though there is no immediate prospect of direct Italian aid for the Serbs, developments are reported on the Isonzo front which may very well make the enemy disinclined to add to his present forces in Serbia. According to a Rome report the Italians are within reaohifig distance of decisive victory in the long battle for the mountain ridges which dominate Gorizia. The capture of this stronghold would involve a disastrous breach in the Austrian 1 defences along the Isonzo whioh bar the approach to Trieste, and if the facts are as represented in the message mentioned the capturc of Gorizia is in early prospect.

The story oomes from Switzerland that a Turkish transport has been sunk in the Sea of Marmora, most of the 500 mon aboard being drowned* In this case the Turks would seem to have been hoist with their own petard or at any rate with one of their own mines. Another submarine story avers that the Turks and Germans arc mourning tho disappearance of nine submarines in the Mediterranean. The British Navy and its Allies apparently arc achieving results in the Mediterranean as the/ have done in other seas in which they have hunted submarines, utul II pood mnny enemy aubmtirinqa WPbftbfe Jwwa been amounted tg.x, ■

Whether the number be nine or nineteen it is not the policy of the British Admiralty to make known the successes met with in this direction, so we are not likely to get any confirmation of this latest story from that quarter. * * * • What little news is available at the moment from the main theatres is satisfactory. A report from Sir John French tells mainly of artillery bombardments in which the enemy has suffered material damago. The Germans report an unsuccessful Russian attack in the Baltic Provinces which may be taken as an admission that they have no positive success to ohronicle.