PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2822, 13 July 1916, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Tub part played by British troops in the Battle o£ the Sommc has received thus far somewhat less attention than it deserves. To this, several causes have contributed, • but the chief of them no doubt is that it has fallen to the French, and particularly the French forces south of the Somrue, to win a success in some respects more striking than that of their British comrades on the northern section of • the battlefront. The irresistible drive which has carried the French so close to Pcronne cannot bo too much admired, but admiration of what tho Froucli have done should not he allower to cloud a full perception of what lias been simultaneously achieved by the British troops. There can, of course, be 110 thought of drawing invidious distinctions between the British and their heroic Allies. The drive 011 Pcronne is in every sense the head and front of what has thus fJir been achieved in tho offensive, but it is equally true that the British Army has won

a success in this great battle which will live for all time in history. The nature of the British achievement is concisely stilted to-day in a dispatch from Sir Douglas Haig. It is, in a word, tho capture of a mighty fortress, M,OOO yards long and from two to four thousand yards in depth. From the Com-mander-in-Chief's dispatch and other reports it is evident that tho Clermans spared ; no effort, by fortification, the concentration of artil. lery and machine-guns, and otherwise, to make this section of their front impregnable. That their efforts to this end did not avail implies a magnificent achievement by tho British Army. In ten day 3 and nights of continuous fighting, tho British troops have captured a whole system of defences which might well have been expected to defy attack, and they are firmly holding the captured ground against every effort made by tho Germans to dislodge them. Such incidents as the transitory recovery by tho enemy of a section of Trones Wood are insignificant in relation to tho general progress of the battle. Tho enemy paid a desperate price in lives for his temporary recovery at this point, and already all but a very small portion of the wood is again in British hands. In addition, the later lighting has given tho British a great part of the larger Mametz Wood and the fortified village of Conta-lmaison. The new army is no longer new. It won its spurs at Neu've Chapello and Loos. But tho Battle, of the Sommo affords still further proof that the British Army is capable of meeting any test tho war is likely to impose. The valour of the troops has ■ never been ip. doubt, butf in the events of this battle there is much to suggest that in addition to its native, valour, the Army has been organised in •such a fashion as will make its fighting power tell to the utmost.

,Ani" attempt to anticipate the Allied plans in the Western theatre must be of the most tentative character, but ono or two indications • are given to-day which possibly portend new developments. From Amsterdam it is reported that big German guns are 'heavily bombarding the British front at La Basscc and further south. It may be that the Germans are apprehensive of early attack in this quarter, and such 'an expectation, would not neocssarily be unfounded. It lias a bearing on the matter that tho Battle of the Somme has apparently beeu .carried to a stage at which the Allies could temporarily slacken their efforts, without undue danger, if they desired to do so in order to concentrate upon a new point of attack! The Anglo-French forces north of the Somme seem to bo firmly established in the captured section of tho enemy's front, and south of the i'ivcr the French are very strongly placed either for a "further attack or to stand fast meantime in tho positions they have won. Thus it is by no means impossible that the next big development may bo a smashing 'attack upon some other.section of the German front than that upon which tho contending armies are at ■ the .moment most noavilv engaged.

Further proof is given to-day of tli/) lenemy's desperate anxiety to hold up the Russians in the area east and north-east of Kovel junction) in Southern Russia, which is the-'storm-centre of tho conflict in the Eastern theatre. In spito of the increasing calls made upon them elsewhere, the Germans aru finding heavy reinforcements for the Kovel front and are rapidly throwing them into tho battle. The pnemy artillery also is -being strengthened, a factor which will increase the present difficulties of the Russians, but increases also their prospects oE obtaining a rich booty if they win the victory .towards which they have already made notable headway. No further progress by the Jlussians is recorded in tho latbst reports in hand at time of writing, and'it is evident that the enemy resistance for the time has stiffened. It is a- matter meanwhile of awaiting the outcome of the battle,. but there is no reason to doubt that the Austro-German effort is in the nature of bolstering up a dam which will presently burst, in spito of all they can do to prevent it. Such a result is all the more to be expected if it is true, as ono correspondent states, that the later, German reinforcements include men utterly incxperienoed in fighting. Raw levies will be of no great service in such a battle as is being "fought on the approaches to Kovel. Tho prospects of the arc greatly brightened by the reccnt sweeping success which enabled them to straighten their line and bring their strength much more effectively to bear than in the earlier stages of the conflict. The situation at the moment is no doubt pictured with a reasonable approach to accuracy in the statement that the enemy is defending the last barrier which separates the Russians from Kovel. Comments upon tho military situation attributed to Karl von 'Weigand are rather remarkable if they have really been made by that German writer. At their face value "they can hardly be read otherwiso 'than as they havo been read in America. They contain obviously an almost open confession that Gormany is faced by defeat. However true this may be, it is somewhat unlikely . that tho German censorship would pass a statement of the fact, if it were made without guile. Herr von Weigand is perhaps an active worker in the interests of the dark and devious peace intrigue which Germany has been conducting more or less assiduously for a JoDg time past. What tho true and underlying explanation of the.dispatch may be is a matter, however, of comparatively small importance. No Gorman, evidence is needed to establish the fact that Germany is in a vice-like grip. It is attested in news of battle. One statement made by Herr von Weigand is along way wide of the facts. He says that tho question whether the Allies cau crush the Central Empires will bo answered in tho next few weeks. The German authorities are perhaps popularising the idea of a struggle of limited duration: as a means of keeping up the heart of the nation and army, but from any other standpoint the statementquoted is sheer nonsense. No odc seriously expects Germany- to collapsc within the next few weeks, aiuPit is certainly not true that the /Ulics will be unublo to crush Germany and her Allies if thev fail to complete the task in that brief period. >

If any clear impression is to bo drawn from recent news concerning the Balkans it is that there is a rising expectation of events fn that theatre. Some correspondents are supplying competing versions of a

demand said to have been addressed by Austria and Germany to Bulgaria for military assistance in- the; Eastern theatre, and Bulgaria's reply thereto, but this is- obviously not a matter correspondents can b'o expected to know much about. No confirmation has come of a recent report that Rumania is demobilising, and thp representative of the Daily Telegraph at Bucharest reports insteful a growing war sentiment in that country. The most interesting section of his dispatch is to the effect that Rumania is wait-, ing for supplies of munitions by way of Russia and also for ansAlHed offensive from Salonika, This wears a certain air of probability, but at tbo same time it is just,such a statement of the position as might very, well be founded upon inferoncc instead of knowledge.

_ It is notto be expected that tho situation will be .illuminated to any great extent until definite events havo succeeded to the present uncertainty. We know meantime that the Allies have assembled a numerous army at Salonika, which is not intended to kick its heels there indefinitely. It is prepared, in tho matter of transport organisation and otherwise, for an offensive campaign, and there is scope for its activity, in the first plact- against Bulgaria, and possibly beyond that against the main enemy forces by a movement through tho Balkans. If the co-operation of Rumania were assured, it would follow as a matter of course that tho larger enterprise is in prospect. It is not to bo forgotten, of course, that tho Allies have it in their powor at any time to open a new attack on Turkey, and it 5s not unlikc-ly that sooner or later an attack , will be directed at the Bagdad railway where it closely approaches tho Mediterranean coast. This, however, does not dispose of the strong likelihood that an offensive will presently be opened in tho Balkans.

On general grounds it seems unlikely that the Germans would seek to draft any great forcc of/Bulgarians into the main Eastern theatre, though it will bo noticed that one report to-day states that some of tho prisoners lately taken by the Russians on the Kovel front ai'e Bulgarians. Weakening the Bulgarian Army, if she were permitted to, Gormany would by so much lighten the Allied task of penetrating the Balkans, and, moreover, would be inviting a new invasion of the Dual Monarchy. Her action would be a damaging acknowledgment of defeat, the more damaging since control of the R&lkans and of the territories lying beyond hits' throughout been held up before tho German people as one of tho main objects of tho war. It must be assumed as a matter of course, in spit© of what fugitive reports may say, that Germany will organise the strongest resistance to an Allied advance through the Balkans that her means and those of her Allies will permit. It is not on this account less likely that such an advance will be undertaken.