PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2642, 13 December 1915, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Another aspect is given to the ever-changing _ Balkan situation today and it gives promise of more hopeful prospects, At the end of last week the Anglo-French Army in Macedonia was shown to be confronted with a serious situation. It had been driven out of its advanced positions by a numerically superior enemy, and the attacking forces were Deported to bo still massing heavily against its contracted front. These conditions, with tho absence ofi any visible co-operation by Russia or Italy in the Balkans, constituted the elements of a situation of which the gravity was fully evident. To-day it is apparent that tho immediate gravity of the position was.,in no way over-emphasised. The Allied Army, though unbroken and fighting hard, is in retreat, and it is taken for granted in the day's news that the retreat will not be arrested much short of Salonika. This does not make pleasant rea.dingj but it is nevertheless true that the extreme tension of the situation is to some extent relieved. The relief is partly due to tho fact, which seems to be established, that though the army is falling back under heavy enemy pressure, it is making its retirement in orderly fashion, and with prospects of holding Salonika against the enemy until preparations have been oompleted for a renewa-1 of the offensive. With this, it is announced that after lengthy deliberations by the Allied War Council, all differences between Britain and France in regard to the Balkan campaign have been settled and that as a result there is no longer any question of withdrawing from Salonika. Much more hopeful accounts are given also of Greece than have heen the rule for some time past, and it is stated that she has conceded the main demands of the Allies—a concession all the more important if it. has been made, since there is an imminent prospect of Greek Macedonia becoming a battleground for the Entente and German-directed armies. Still another chcering report is that which states that Italian troops have been continuously disembarking at Valma, on the Albanian coast, for three days. Events will soon test these various reports, which in the aggregate, materially improve the outlook in the Balkans, but there is no present reason to doubt that they are substantially accurate.

During the troubled and' anxious days of the last few weeks the choice of the Allies in their handling of the Balkan problem has seemed to lie between speedily throwing in powerful reinforcements or abandoning their foothold in Greece. King Oonstantine's reoent statements implied that he was ■ not prepared to consider any other alternatives than such a reinforcement "of the Allied Army as would enable it to maintain its positions ahead of the Greek frontier, or its withdrawal, from Greek territory. The weight of evidence to-day is that the Allies, with or without King Oonstantine's approval, have discovered a third alternative which holds out some prospect of present security and future advantage.- If it is found possible to retain and defend Salonika some of the worst dangers threatening the Allied cause in the Balkans will be averted. By reason of its qualities as a sea base Salonika is in itself an immensely valuable asset, and an armjr defending Salonika, if it does nothing else, will of necessity monopolise the attention of a considerable proportion of the enemy forces at present availablo in the Balkans. No more could be accomplished by an army posted in Serbian Macedonia, as the Allies lately were, but too weak to undertake offensive operations further afield. There must be a great combined onslaught upon Hie onemy before the position in the Balkans will be satisfactorily retrieved from the standpoint of the Entsn'e., but if Russia is not yet ready to take powerful part in such an enterprise it is much better meantime that the Allies should fight a defensive and delaying campaign in (he immediate neighbourhood of Salonika than that they should attempt to maintain a precarious foothold'in Serbian Macedonia,

It is not possible on the information in hand to exactly map out the position reached in the fighting retreat from Macedonia and no verv useful purpose would be answered'if it were possible. The conditions obtaining aro those of rapid clungc. The euuoiifcitil question to ba ilewrmihed, and in all JUkelihood to be.

determined, very shortly, is whether Allies can retire unbroken on their sea base before the pressure of the enemy becomes too great to be withstood. It is claimed in enemy reports that the French, when they were ejected from Gradctz (about 20 miles up the main railway from tlie Greek frontier) were thrown into great'disorder a.nd that many were taken prisoner, and generally the claim is advanced that the .AngloFrench casualties have been extremely heavy. Against this is to be set General Sarrail's report, relating to fighting as late as Wednesday and Thursday last, that the retreat is being continued methodically without great loss, and that the attackers have been heavily punished. There is a report • that German troops under General von Gallwitz occupied Ghevgeli, a station on the Serbo-Greek frontier, on Friday last, but a message from Mr. Martin Donohoe, who is apparently in fairly close touch witn the operations, declares that this report is untrue.

In such a retreat before superior numbers as the Allies are making, considerable losses aro inevitable, and General Sarrail's statement on the subject is doubtless intended to be comparative, but the hope iB not unreasonable that the Allies may reach Salonika unbroken and in condition to make a definite stand against the enemy. According to one report the Allied Army is 150,000 strong, and is meeting the attacks of 250,000 Bulgarians and 150,000 Germans. On what is known of the campaign and its conditions it is extremely doubtful whether the Germans have as large' a force engaged in the southern attack. The Heavy German concentration at Uskub mentioned by Mr. Donohoe and other correspondents, is not of necessity intended to reinforce the southern offensive, and the concentration at Philjppopolis in Bulgaria, also implies that tho Germans are meditating an advance into Turkey. At best these reports about German concentrations are vague, and of doubtful value, but it seems to be undisputed, that Bulgarian troops constitute the major portion of the force before which the AngloFrench Army is retiring from Macedonia, and that the Germans, whatever force they may bp assembling, have played, up to the present, a secondary part in tho actual fighting of the campaign.

* * * * . It ia the accepted view, as the news goes to-day, that Greece will acquiesce in the conditions resulting from an Allied retreat upon Salonika and defence of that place, but just what this means to Greece is not quite clear. Unless sho chooses to throw herself across the path of the threatened invasion, she must presumably. open her Macedonian territory to Austro-German and Bulgarian troops, as.sh'j hitherto opened it to the Allies. It is not an agreeable condition of affairs for Greece, but the man responsible for its having arisen is ICing Constantine. Even at this stage he has probably been offered the alternative of cooperating with the Allies in keeping the prospectiveinvaders out of Greek territory, and if he has refused such an offer he will have no ground cf complaint if Greek Macedonia is converted into a' cockpit of war. The view, lat all events, holds currency that. Greece will submit to an Allied defence of Salonika and to the consequences entailed. It would be premature to assume that all danger has disappeared of Greece being carried away by tho local success in the Balkans of the enemies of tho Entente, but two factors are visible which tend to prevent King Constantine and his Government giving rein to any inclinations they may have in this direction. One is direct pressure by the Entente, backed by naval and military force. The other is the inherent weakness of the position and policy of the Greek King and his party, strikingly exemplified in. the election manifesto issued by M. Venizelos.

Some extracts from this document were published 011 Saturday, but though they were weighty and force-/ ful, they failed to do it such justice as is-done in the further extracts published to-day. There is no need to recito here all the counts in the indictment M. Venizelos has levelled against his King, but ho charges him not only with leading Greece into a ruinous policy of dishonouring treaty obligations and forfeiting prospects of advantage, but with suppressing that free expression of public opinion to which a democracy is entitled,- and making a fair election impossible. This shattering indictment is made public by permission of the King, though, needless to say, without his endorsement, and that he has consented to its publication is strong evidence that he harbours some doubts regarding the security of his position.. That he has ' permitted such a statement to be published presumably means that he considered it safer to let even so stronglyworded a protest appear than to face the prospect of internal revolution, which may very possibly have been the alternative to permitting M. Venizelos to make his own position clear in this way. By an arbitrary exercise of despotic authority, M. Venizelos is denied an opportunity of appealing to the people of Greece in an election contest, but the boldly-worded manifesto in which he charges _tho King with a series of crimes against the State is a suggestive indication that there is a point beyond which that monarch dare not go, and the indication has a most important bearing upon the prospects of the Allied army now falling back upon Salonika and upon future events in tho,.Balikans. .

There are several references to the Gallipoli campaign to-day—one of the most interesting a statement that tho New Zealanders on Friday repulsed a Turkish attack in the Krithia sector. At least a portion of the New Zealand force is therefore now established on the southern fj>ont instead of in the Anzac zone. Months ago some of the New Zealand troops wero transferred temporarily to the ICrithia sector, at a time when there was dire need of rein foßccmcnts, but their presence thee now is more likely to be due to some comprehensive re-shuffling of Che invading army. Most of tho other messages in hand rolating to tlio Dardanelles, except one which speaks of important activities being resumed by the Allies, pass on threats of forthcoming action by the Germans on behalf of the Turks. These must be left to the test of time, but in continuing the campaign the Allies aro no doubt making all possible provision for anything that is likely to happen, and it is'still far from certain that tho Germans and Turks will be able to concentrate in much greater strength than at present against tho iijvaders of Gallipoli. The poblorn of repelling this invasion .is certainly not tho onlx one they

have in hand and are likely to 'have in hand in the Near East. * » * There is no news of the Russian campaign at time of writing—not of necessity a bad sictL In the other main theatre the Allies report local successes against the enemy.