MR ASHMEAD BARTLETT

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2743, 11 April 1916, Page 7

MR ASHMEAD BARTLETT

BIS VIEWS ON THE BALKAN

SITUATION

IF RUMANIA COMES IN

AFFAIRS IN ENGLAND '

Mr. Askmead Bartlett, the distinguished war correspondent whoso, dispatches- from Gallipoli gave us ■ first news.,of the doings of the now famous Anzacs and the other brave troops taking part in that ill-starred adventure, arrived from Sydney by the Rivorina yesterday. Mr. Bartlett is still a young man, tall and loan and vigorous, and—exactly liko his photographs. He is in New Zealand on a lecturing tour, but. it is to be a very brief and hurried visit, beoause he wants to get, back to the- front. He leaves for Eng-' laud again on May 16. Some interesting opinions about affairs at IJpme, and the situation in the Balkans wero given i by, Mr.' Bartlett in an'interview, with-a reporter yesterday. '-..''" Politios -In England. '.'The situation at Home has been improved • enormously," he said: "The passing of this conscription measure has cleared it up.'■ tremendously. .It has done away' with a lot of uncertainty, and has shown that the Government is united in its determination to carry the .war through; Those who are not on the spot get a bad impression of English politics,: because there; always seems to bo an undercurrent of party conflict going.oh. This is true, but it means nothing, because the , British .people would be utterly miserable if they bad to drop their own little party controversies during the war. All the time thoy are absolutely united in theiry hatred :of the Germans, and in their- determination to carry the war through but they are also determined. to stick ito - the Englishman's' birthright to have a dig at their political opponents and. their political leaders. • .., The Early Rush of Recruits. "I think there was a mistake made at the jbegirining of the war, when we could have got everybody m without any conscription on the first wave of enthusiasm, but it was utterly impossible fo handle the mass of men coming forward. We had no arms--and no- equipment, and. no barracks to put them in. We had to take them in bunches,' so to speak. Meanwhile the reorganisation"' of industries began, and thu workmen were told by their politicalleaders that any man who -was making anything conuecSed with the war was doing his duty just as.patriotically as the , man in the trenohes; At the''. same . time . there came: an' unprecedented increaso in .wages, and there were thousands of men who.had come forward in the first place who suddenly found themselves earning more than they had ever earned before, with, at the same time, a certificate of patriotism from their leaders.; In these' ciMumstances it was only human nature that a number of people should prefer to stick to these jobs rather than take thoir'iplaces in the firing line. But towards the end of 1915 the situation changed.' We were able to handle all the men who could come forward, and we'needed more recruits to keep up our : Army, so that an interesting process at once began, namely, the taking away of great numbers of these men who had been engaged on Government-work aud transferring them to the ranks, and, naturally, after the war had dragged oa for so long you couldn't expect to find the same wave of. enthusiasm as there was at the beginning. It seems to me that now we are getting, all tho men we need, and I ask you what other country in the world could raise three-f.nd a half millions of men under the voluntary system to fight on foreign soil? It is ; a very different thing when your own fire- . side is in danger, and when your own women and children are heing murdered and outraged, but that has nevor been the case with us, because our coast is protected by bur fleet, 1 , and has never been in the-' slightest danger since the war began. It will surely go down to history as one of the finest efforts on behalf of civilisation and the_ mainten-. mice of certain ideals ♦hat the whole nation should have.come forward as.it has done. ' ' ;- .

. What of the Dominions? , "Now, if this 'is true of England, .' where 1 we. are quite close to the.scene ' of- hostilities, and where large numhors of ouf population have seen; and' to a. ; certain extent realised, the horrors of ; Prussian military government, it is even - more remarkable how the -Dominions ' have come forward to fight.on Belgian ; and French soil, and iu the, near Fast, on behalf of Allies of whom they have ' known little in the past, and with whom they never thought thoy had any common interest. • I don't think any ene fact in the war has done more geed than the manner in which Australia and New Zealand /accepted the inevitable, and acquiesced in the evacuation of Gal»lipoli. You might well have said: 'We have done our bit. Yon have made a mess of it, and-. we' can do nothing more.' Instead of which you said: 'let us :wipe the slate clean, make a fresh start, and vre will send you two or three times as many men as we originally intended.' This .will never be-forgotten by the people at Home, and it was an immense incentive in itself to recniiting." ■; ■: ;. ( ... . '/ Near East Situation. Mr. Ashmead Bartlett is doubtful of the efficacy of any advance from Salonika without the co-operation of Rumania. "Rumania holds all tho keys of -the situation in tho Balkans," he said. "If she comes in, Bulgaria will be obliged to'give in, and will probably be only too glad to make peace on any The Rumanians invaded Bulgaria in 1913, and. occupied ber northern territory by/ throwing their two great nontoo'n bridges across the Dan-. übe. If they strike again,- the Bulgarian army will bo crushed between the Rumanian forces and our own advance, in conjunction- with the French, from Salonika. Germany and Austria can't spare men and material to assist their allies in the Near East ifwe.press them hard on the Western mid the Eastern fronts. Eliminate Bulgaria, and we have only the poor old Turk left to deal with; and I think he would then be very glad to sell his services and fight on our side, if we promised him a further lease of life after tbo war.. .. The Unknown Factor. "It seems to me that the unknown jrnctor in the whole situation at tho present time is tho state of the Russian army. How far will their armies ho able to recover from the tremendous' hammering they received last year, and ?ross the Germans on the Eastern ront? AVe are apt always to talk only of the Germans, but we must not forget their extremely powerful ally, the Algerians, who have still three or four million men under arniSj much better Jed and better organised than at tho beginning of the war. In fairness to Russia, this fact should be remembered, because Russia has to - look after the Austrian army as well as tho German. "The year 1916 certainly opened well for us with the capture of Eraer'im, nnd the German offensive against Verdun. This attack by the Germans is playing into our hands. We can only hope that they will continue, to attack us. and save us the necessity of l assaulting their entrenched' positions. Thie-.I know is the nightly, and morn-

ing prayer, of all the Frenoh Generals and of our owe." The End of the War? "No one should expect a speedy termination of tho war. It is bound to drag on for a long time. _ Wo should eonio out- victorious, «vpn if we fail to win those great and dectsivo victories in the field which so-many hopo to sec, but which aro', as a. matter of fact, almost impossiblo of attainment under modern conditions of fighting. We eujofr every advantage \m the economic side, and, although it is deplorable that wo are obliged to. spend immense sums of money, and aro accumulating such ,a huge debt, there is no reason why wo should not recorei rapidly when tno war-is over, if satisfactory, economic arrangements for preferential trade and for a great attack on the neutral markets of the world are made amongst the Allies. The German mercantile marine is already bankrupt, and we ought to'bo able to destroy it completely, ami resume our old position- as the worlds great carrier, which was being slovlj undermined before the war.