PROGRESS OP THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2638, 8 December 1915, Page 4

PROGRESS OP THE WAR

An appropriate response to German peace talk is supplied in Mn. Asquith's announcement that arrangements for closer military cooperation have been completed as regards France, and are under consideration in connection with the other Allies of Great Britain. It is also reported to-day that the first complete meeting of the Allied Wf.r Council has been held at Paris, representatives of all the Allied countries being present. Details of these developments aro withheld for obvious reasons. Beyond stating a broad fact, Mr., Asquith's guarded remarks convey little information, but they seem to involve a radical_ departure from tho position taken in a recent announcement to the effect that tho British Army would be retained under separate command. ! Whatever tho actual position reached may be, closer conpunitiiaii batwecii Urn AlU«a will .work out in battel' and mere effej..

[ fcive action against the enemy. Hitherto the enemy has had a maadvantage in fighting under a unified command against countries animated largely by a common purpose, but acting in qualified isolation. Evidently the members of the Entente and • their Allies are determined that the enemy shall no longer monopolise this advantage,' ancf their efforts to reach a basis' of efficient co-ordination are a guarantee that German peace talk is failing to achieve one at least of its intended objects—that of producing a slackening in resolve in the countries to which Germany stands opposed in the war.

Little is done by the news in hand towards determining and giving shape to the position in the Balkans. A report of enemy origin that the Germans are withdrawing from Serbia to other fronts because "the Austrians and Bulgarians are able to defeat the Anglo-French and Serbians," might be regarded as Intended to mislead, if it were not in keeping with recent news from Allied sources. In these circumstances it goes to confirm an impression that the Germans are preparing to meet a Russian invasion of Bulgaria. One of the longest messages in hand, based on dispatches from Italian correspondents at Salonika and Athens, asserts that Greece is passing rapidly under German domination, and generally that conditions are developing which.aiake a treacherous attack upon the Allied army in Macedonia possible, if not probable. Against this is to be set an apparently frank statement of his position given by King Constantink to tho Times correspondent at Athens. Briefly, the King declares that he is animated by the friendliest sentiments towards England, but that his first duty is to Greece, and his supreme object to preserve Greece from the fate of Belgium. His statement that Greece will never cherish designs against the Allies, and that it is an insult to think m eeco anc ' Kino are capable of treachery loses some of "its weight on account of the coldblooded fashion in which Serbia was left to her fate. It nevertheless goes as far as words can go towards resolving satisfactorily a situation which has been regarded until recently as delicate and possibly threatening. J

The statement that four Austrian monitors have left Rustchuk to attempt to bombard Reni needs confirmation and amnlification before it can be regarded as anything but a floating rumour. Rustchuk is a Bulgarian port on the Danube. '.<em is a frontier town in the Russian province of Eessarabia, standtwo or three milos away from the Danube where .it runs inside the Rumanian northern frontier. It lias been named as the gathering centre of a Russian army destined to act against Bulgaria, In to approach Reni, Austrian monitors would have to traverse the whole length of Rumania, and it is tolerably certain that Rumania would allow no Austrian warships to traverse-the, Danube through her territory, unless she had elected to throw in her lot with the Central Lmpires. There is no reason to suppose that Rumania has come to any such decision, and the story nI 1 l -^- Urr trian monitors may probably be dismissed as an imaginative rumour. ! * « « „ So little has been heard during the last few weeks the activiio S 0 f l <r ritlsll Bllbm arines in the oca of Marmora that there appeared to b ! a danger that the enemy had perfected measures to exclude them irem this cruising ground. Tackling the submarine problem with as much energy an( j enterprise as the British Navy has brought to bear unen it in home waters and further , cilio *1 the Turks could either entirely close the Dardanelles to the' undarwater craft or make its passage exceedingly difficult and perilous. Convincing evidence that they have at all events not succeeded in closing the sea-gate is supplied in ''an ohicial report of the achievements of' a British submarine in the Sea of Marmora during three adventurous days. _ The number of the submarine is not given, but evidently she has a bold and skilful oommander. Acting as a surface cruiser, the submarine on Thursday fired into and damaged a train on the Ismid railway, which follows the Asiatic coast of the Sea of Marmora. On the following day she sank the Yar Hissar, a serviceable Turkish destroyer of 305 tons, and a speed of 28 knots built in 1907. Next day, Saturday,' the submarine sank by gunfire a supply steamer of 3000 tons and four sailing vessels also carrying supplies.. Such a career of destruction pursued for three .consecutive days against a fully-warned enemy, represents a very notable achievement an-1 the harrying of the Turkish supply routes is, of course, doubly important and- valuable now that the volume of enemy _ supplies has been increased by consignments from Germany. Land comunicationß and the ferry passage of the Narrows may serve essential purposes in the Turkish defence of the Dardanelles, but the best and most convenient transport route from Constantinople to Gallipoli is by sea, and it seems to bo as seriouslv threatened as ever.

What news there is of the campaign in Mesopotamia is good General. Townshend, it i a announced, has reached Kut-el-Amara without further fighting—a sufficient indication that the Turkish pursuit was less vigorous, and the aimculties of the British force less serious than enemy reports received a day or two ago averred. The campaign now reverts to the , position reached a few weeks ago. Bagdad is still threatened—formidably if adequate British forces are available—but from a distance of 100 miles or 200 miles if the windings of the Tigris aro taken into account It may be taken- for granted that if it is intended to press the campaign to any decisive point a renewal of the British offensive will not be long delayed. This for the reason, amongst others, that a few months of pleasant weather aro now* available, during which campaigning in will lose its worst terrors. During the summer months, from March to October, according to an informative article bv SiR Ihomas Holdich, in Land and Water, Mesopotamia is wrapped in overpowering heat,_ surpassing the heat; of hottest India-, if not in rcgistcred degrees on tho thermometer, at least in the enervating and destructive quality of its damp oppressiveness. While it lasts, tho heat is very fatal in its effects, and only hardoned soldiers can stand it. These conditions will, of course, bear less severely on the nativo Indian members of the force than upon their British comrades, but the heat of summer is a saripus fibstucli! to viyovouu develop' went pi tha wnyyiUjiA the,

conditions which exist at present, and will continue for the first quarter of the New Year correspondingly favour _ action to that cna. While British soldiers in Flanders are manning trenches running deep in mud and slush, their comrades in Mesopotamia will for a few short months be enjoying a delightful climate. _It is while these conditions obtain, if at all, that any important extension of the campaign which may bo meditated is likely to be undertaken.

Meantime, at Kut-el-Amara, the British hold a strong position, commanding. not only the Tigris, but the channel of the Shatt-cl-Hai, which runs south from the Tigris t? The advance to Kut-el-Amara has involved campaigning under extreme difficulties occasioned, apart from the climate, by the extraordinary windings and twistings of the Tigris and the extension of marshes close up "to the "ver From Kut-el-Amara to Bagdad the road is open and dry. Despite the check the.y have sustained, the British are thus still admirably plaosd for a renewal of the offensive, provided the necessary strength is available to -outweigh the he&vy reinforcements detailed by the Turks for the defence of Bagdad. Very possibly Sir John Nixon, who holds the chief command in Mesopotamia, may decide upon another attempt to reach this historic city. The inoeiitive is obvious. ' Bagdad is the Aiabic capital of the Moslem Empire, and, as Sir Thomas Holdich states, is regarded by many Turks ti S m , . cca their faith. Even the -Turkish population of Mesopotamia look upon Bagdad rather than Constantinople as the centre of Moslem art and learning, and the ioite has but a weak hold upon the Arab tribes, who are described as fierce, fanatical, and opportunist,- ready to take advantage of any chance that Allah may send them, home of them have fought against Si? i . ?-, in present campaign, ine British occupation of Bagdad would inevitably exercise a disruptivc_ effect upon the internal -organisation of the ramshackle Ottoman Jimpire and it is hardly likely that hopes of effecting the occupation will be abandoned without some further effort. (, * • » ! o There is little news, at time of writing, _ from the main theatres, ihe principal event recorded by om John French is a highly successful aerial attack upon the railway junction of .Don, about five I miles east of La Bassee. The very wet and stormy weather mentioned by the Commander-in-Chief will necessarily hinder operations other than the mining activities in which both sides are busily engaged, but m ,. the sustained artillery bombardment of the enemy' positions, and such events as the air attack on Don, there are indications that improvement in thr= weathei may at any S IVC the signal for assault. At the moment there is no news from the main Eastern theatre, except an enemy report of an unsuccessful' Russian attack in the Baltic I l'ovinccs, and no news at all of events on the Italian ,front. 'The general absence of news from the principal fighting areas is, in fact, so marked as to be significant, probably of events in preparation.