PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2697, 17 February 1916, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Lord Kitchener's speech in the House of Lords leaves so much unsaid as to make it quite clear that he deems the time inopportune for anything resembling a, full and frank view of the progress made and the position reached in the war. Much the same has been said about other speeches the War Minister has made, but his latest speech, as we have it at tho moment, is a really choice example of the modern and military art of using speech to conceal thought. So far as the major issues of tho ■ war are concerned, he has confined himself almost solely to a recital of facts already familiar. The speech, nevertheless, contains some generalisations and a few detail facts and opinions which are to bo gratefully received, as any authoritative statement must be at a time when the ordinary run' of news is vague 3 ( nd inadequate, and not infrequently contradictory. That Lord Kitchener has kept so close a guard upon his tongue will, of course, awaken no disappointment, for nothing else was to bo expected, and if .Uis snftcch leaves curiosity at manv

points unsatisfied, there is a measure of compensation in its prevailing note of firm confidence, an indication of competent grasp and mastery of the problems the War Minister has so lightlv outlined. -** * «

The least satisfactory detail statement Lord Kitchener had to make concerned the progress .of recruiting in Great Britain. It had already been made known that the number of men responding in some of the Derby groups called up was disappointingly low, but this is a trouble which should be set right fairly easily. The recruits so far summoned are single men, to whom compulsion, will automatically apply if they fail to respond voluntarily. The War Minister points to a more serious trouble, the effect of exemptions in limiting the number of men obtainable. Lord Derdy, in his report, has expressed and emphasised an opinion that the "starring" of men supposed to be engaged in essential industries has been carried much too far, and that a largo number of these men should be made available for military service. Lord Kitchener is evidently of the same opinion. lie is at best doubtful whether as many men as are required can be obtained under existing conditions, and his statement that he trusts on a future occasion to be in a position to reassure the House of Lords regarding the chances of obtaining the numbers of men required is a very plain intimation that he is unable to convey such an assurance now. * * * *

So definite an intimation that the business of recruiting in Great Britain has yet to be lifted to the required pitch of efficiency is calculated to operate as a cold douche upon heedless optimism. Disappointing as the position is in this particular, it would be easy to overemphasise its seriousness. The problem set seems to be administrative rather than political in character, and it should bo possible to solve it without provoking a renewal of tho party strife which was threatened at the introduction of the Military Service Bill. This enactment .has been attacked by critics as a timid half-measure, but it _ has at least established and applied the principle of compulsion in tho case of. unencumbered .single men, not specifically exempted, who do not enlist voluntarily. As is to be seen equally from his reference to exemptions and his appeal to employers to release yoting men for service in the Army, a revision of the existing system of exemptions is the rcmcdyLoKD Kitchener recommends. This does not involve any further extension of the principle of compulsion. It is merely a matter of affording working scope to tho measure of compulsion already passed.

What Lord Kitchener has to say about the rising power of the Allied armies, and his complete confidence in the 'ultimate triumph of the Allies, calls for little comment. Touching the position reached in the various theatres of war, he has confined himself in the miin to cautious generalisations, but these carry weight, coming as they do from one of the- greatest living military authorities. Nothing that .the War Minister has said encourages a hope of early or easy victory, hut he is firmly of opinion that the Allies are on the road to such a victory as will establish peaco for generations to come.

The chief event reported at time of writing on the Western front is the capture by tlio Germans of 600 yards of front-lino trenches on the southern side of the Ypres salient. Apart from their gain of ground, south of the Sommc, which has now largely been won back again, this seems to be one of the most notable successes the Germans have achieved in the'extended series .of local attacks which is still in progress. There seems no reason to suppose, however, that the advantage gained ii more than local. The broad facts of the position remain as they have been, that the Germans are squandering their strength in widely scattered attacks, _ each one of them pressed in limited force. In all the heavy fighting of the last few weeks there has been no indication of such a concentration n& would seriously threaten the security of the Allied line. It is a reasonable supposition that the 'latter-day' tactics of the enemy are ' very welcome to the Allies, and that they are more than compensated for the loss of an occasional advanced position by the heavy, losses in personnel the enemy must be suffering. They are likely indeed to do all that they can to encourage and stimulate the enemy to continue these local and scattered attacks until they are ready to launch a counter-stroko of a much more formidable character.

A dispatch from Redter's representative at British Headquarters ij particularly interesting at this juncture for more reasons than one. It is to the effect that the front line, supports, and reserves on the British front in France and Flanders absorb only a proportion of the field armies, and that the remainder are completing, and perfecting their training in a vast Aldershot well behind the fighting lines. This is, no doubt, a simple statement of fact. Without accepting the somewhat extravagant figures of British military strength supplied to-day by a Canadian member of Parliament, it is evident that a much larger total force of British troops must be available than is visibly accounted for in the theatres of war. Considering the rate at which recruiting has proceeded in Great Britain, and the extent to which the Imperial Armies have been reinforced by the Dominion and Indian Expeditionary Forces, it must be concluded that a very considerable margin of force is available. If the bulk of these reserves are located in France and Flanders, and are alternating between service at the front and training behind the lines, the futility of the tactics now being pursued by the Germans becomes strikingly apparent. If they have any object at all —apart from the somewhat improbable one suggested in a late message yesterday of preparing the way for a massed assault—they must be intended to compel a distribution of the Allied forces and make effective concentration impossible. Taking it that a great part of the British Army is at all times in reserve_ behind the fighting lines, this object is not being approached. It is, of course, ai; additional fact of importance that, with great reserves at command, the Allies could at any, time take the upper hand, and reduce the enemy to purely defensive tactics. There is thus niuch to suggest that the local attacks in which the Germans arc engaging so freely are not unwelcome to, but welcomed by, the Allies. - ' • » * » .. PnoMlßtso accounts are given of tbo Masnnotamian oamnakn, bottL

by Lohd Kitchener and Me. Asquith. The latter states that the reinforcements for which Colonel Avlmer is waiting should have reached him by this time, and that there is every reason to hope that_ ho will succeed in effecting a junction with General Townshend, at present invested in Kut-el-Amani. This is good news, and the hopes expressed arc all the more likely to be realised on account of the successful progress of the Russians in Armenia. At the same time, it is to be noted that late events have indicated that tko position of the Tigris columns may be complicated by attacks on their communications. Mr. Asquith made no mention of the state of the country between the advanced columns and the head of the Persian Gulf, but the visible task is to overawe the Arabs in this extensive repion as well as to cope with the '"iirkis'i forces around Kut-cl-Amara and across the path of the relieving column.

Capital prospects are opened up by the news that the Russians have captured another of the Erzerum forts. No very definite information is .available as to the nature and state of the Erzerum defences apart from the- fact that they are believed to be extensive, but obviously the capture of one fort after another involves a formidable threat to the fortress as a whole. If they represented portion of the main defences the fall of two forte would probably bring the end into immediate fight, but it is possible that the RussUns at Erzerum are still dealing with outlying defensive works. Since twenty guns were captured in tho second fort, it was presumably, however, a position of considerable importance and strength.

The Balkan situation is again blurred over by uncertain reports about the concentration of Germans and Bulgarians on the northern Greek frontier, threatening' Salonika. Evidently the correspondents are guessing, but the-most cknni'c reports in hand are those which declare that Rumania has completed her mobilisation, and this is n, development which may be trusted to draw as many men as the Germans and Bulgars can muster for the purpose to the Rumanian frontier. A simultaneous offensive concentration north of Salonika is most unlikely.