THE WAR AT A GLANCE

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2748, 17 April 1916, Page 7

THE WAR AT A GLANCE

WHATTBE GAIIIPOU CAMPAIGN^

ACHIEVED

THE RUMANIAN SPHINX

,■■ Beforo delivering his most interesting and informative lecture on the Gallipoli campaign nt the-Town Hall on Saturday evening,. Mr. AshinoadBartlett, the BrjtisE war correspondent, said ho -would try to interest those present by taking a glance at the eral the ivar to-day, viewing it" not £r<im [one particular, theatre, but as a waole, -and indicating how an episode in theatre may affect the, position uv-.afio'thur.l He illustrated ■this by referring, to that ;. important event, the capture of Erzeruniby the Russians under- ,tho Grand. Duke Nicho-' las, Erzerum was the strongest for-, trees the Turks had ill that part of their country, and its capture' had only been madeiposßible by the foot that the piok of the Turkish Army had been brought down to Gallipoli to resist; the, attack. of. our troops. ,;; Mr. Bartlett pointed out (and.illustrated with' the . aid of big-soala inaps) that the Turks had no great fortress hetweaa Erzeruro and Constantinople to impedp the ; advance of .the Russians, though there were strong positions that the defending force could take tip* This advance of, the Russians harmonised with the objective of General Tbwnshehd's. forces, operating from the Persian: Gulf. It would be remembered that General ■ Townshend got' within ten ' miles;.' of Bagdad, and then suffered a serious reverse at the battle of Ctesiphoit, and had to' retreat 120:miles : to Kut-el-Amara,where his army was at present , boleaguored. Recent messages,- however, had told them "that the relieving force had driven.the enemy back two or three milos, so that there was every prospect and hope that General Townshend's force would soon bo relieved. The Russian Caucasian Army' had apparently been divided into two, as they were t-pld that one force was advanc-. ing on Trebizond on the Blaok Sea, and the other was advancing south by way of Bitlis, 'apparently converging upon Bagdad'with the British forces from the Persian.; Gulf. XTheh'they had a, fairly large army at Salonika, whioh was associated with a French force, and what was left of-the Sorbian Army, which had been brought round from Montenegro and Albania to Salonika. ' Gen eral Sarrail was in supreme command thero. : • .'■ '.' .■/:/;. •-.; The whole key, to the Balkan situation was Rumania^' and hero the lecturer recallod the chief territorial ouanges that, were brought about by the Balkan' War of 1912-laT when Bulgaria thraslisd Turkey, and Rumania came in at the last and claimed- ; a strip of territory along £be Danube, and' enforced her Ifesiras by throwing '300,000 troopsaoross; that river by . two ' pontoon . bridges;the first of which was.erected in §> hours, and . tbo second in ■ 18 hours.,: Bulgaria, then' '.haying ;'■ her hands full,"' could not, and ■ would. hot :(ignt- Rumania, and in tho. wash-up the. ia&ter- country, got what .she 'wanted without lighting. People must, dismiss .from jtheir minds that any of the Balkan r State's. would_ fight on account' of the breaking of international.'laws, or treaties. They, all wanted'to get some- ; out of it, and liuiuania. was not peculiar in that regard. She had her eyes on Transylvania (in Austro-iiun-gary). But if the Austrian Empire were to be- disintegrated, it would lead : to the creation of ■ a lot more sma Uer States,' inade up 'of Slavs, Czechs, and what not. If Rumania oame in oh our side Bulgaria would for a certainty be; looking ior." peace at ■; any price, as she 'would,: bo: botween two crushing forces, ; the-Rumanians from the".north, and ( the British and iiench from the south,' : with the Serbians. operating . against | her from the. west;: Then-if Rumania 1 oame in.on our side, Greece would fol- 1 low.: Not that the Greeks.wished to ) fight. -They-were a warlike race, but j one must not judge the modern Greeks -■] by.the history of that nation. As a , matter of faot they loathed fighting, , and always preferred-to get what they wanted by.• diplomacy..' Greece had no army of any weight. She might; be able to produce . 30,000 good..troops—, the rest were : not worth : considering. The-Bulgarians, on the other ' hand, ft-ere fine fighters, especially good in' in- i tantry attack, when run for a ] hundred yards and lie down and fire, . : ind then charge forward again. They ' . ivore not so 'good in' defence, the Servians had a magnificent ■ army: Se did 'not think; there was' any , finer military material in Europe" than tlie Serbian peasant. That country had : also produced some excellent generals. ; The Allies had lauded their forces at Salonika to relieve, the Serbians,-but j they were' too late,, and the Serbians I were simply overwhelmed by- ther sheer force of numbers. ,' Had we been'three, j • months earlier there.might have been a different tale to tell. With' Bulgaria out of the way it would'not take much 'to finish' off the Turk. We had been the traditional friend of the.'Mohammedan peoples, Turks were aQ a rule lriendly towards us, biit r at present we must' regard him as our enemy and treat him accordingly.. He could make no great resistance until he defended the Chatalja lines, for Adrianople, though a-fortress, wasnot a'mod-' 'ern one, whilst, the armies advancing, through Asia Minor would handle the position there. This would mean that the Turkish forces would ho fully, occupied in defending the Chatalja line in the. north and the Bulair line that cut across' the neck of the Gallipoli Penin. su)a, so that it could be said that the present situation was most favourable for,us, always.providing that Rumania : cairio in on our side. ' When Rumania would apt he could not say.. He personally always regarded Rumania as the thermometer indicating the .state of. the Russian Army, and ho did' not think that she would act until she were sure that Russia was in a position to. afford her assistance.. _ . __ :

■With the aid of other maps, Mr. Ashmead-Bartlett traced the linoi the German-Austrian forces had -to hold against Russia, aud said-that he did not know if these would not mean the downfall of tho Teutonic forces in tho end. They liad to hold extending lines with decreasing armies, whereas the British Army was increasing air tho time; England was now holding the Yprcs-Arras line cf about 80 miles, with about li million troops, which were be* 1 iiig continually increased. Ho could; not make out tho object of the big Verdun attack, unless it was an offset to. the Russian capture of Erzemm. or made in. the hope of delivering'such a blow to the French that would prevent them making a big combined attack on the German lino this coming summer. Tho lecturer 6aid there was a misunderstanding as to where the war had actually started between France andGor. many. It had been initiated by the advance of a big French Army into German Lorraine, under General Castelnau, who advanced as far as tho Chateau Salle until ho ran right up against the mam German Army, and had to retreat. This was all kept dark,- as all attention was concentrated on what was happening in Belgium and in the Battle of Mons. Tho lecturer described very clearly how Castelnau managed to hold Hie Germans along the Courlans-Nancy line, whilst three fresh' army corps were mobilised in Paris itself,' and cent, out in thousands ol motor-cars and taxis, to crumple Von . Khick's right flank, .which led to the Germans being driven back to the ljno of the Aisne. The lecture, which was made very interesting by a splendid lot, of pictures, was . largely attended. Among those - : present were the Minister of Dofcuce (Hon. Jas. Allen), and several members of the Defence Headauartera Staff.