PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2862, 29 August 1916, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

' The Gorman semi-official Note quoted in a Paris message to-day is a rather clumsy effort to ohscuro, and covcv up facts whioh are amenable to no such treatment, Its purpose, if it has been published as stated, is to prepare the public mind in Germany for an abandonment of somo portion of tho line at present held in tho Western theatre, and at tho same timo to convey an impression that the Allied ''offensive has spent, or is rapidly spending, its force. Grappling with this difficult task the author of the Gorman note has produced a tissue of falsehoods and contradictory statements, tho true nature of which must be apparent to anyono who has even a general acquaintance with the facts.

If tho noto has any value at all it is as indicating that the enemy has been so hard hit by tho Allied offensive that he regards an early retreat in the Wcstorn theatre as -inevitable. Such a retrcal is forecasted, while at tho same time it is assorted that the Allied offensive has achieved negligible results. This contradiction speaks for, itself. As to tho remainder-.of tho note, the parallol it attempts to draw between existing circumstanced and those.which obtained at tho time of the Battle of the Marne simply does not exist. Instead of being similar, tho circumstances are as nearly as possible opposite. At/the Marne the Germans paid the penalty for exposing their flank in a forward drive too recklessly pressed. They worb beaten in opon fighting.. In their present offensive the Allies have mastered many square miles of defences which the' Germans had laboured for twenty months or more to make impregnable. According to tho author of the note, the Gormans now havo the option of making a limited retirement which will leave them established in wellorganised positions on a straight front. The whole suggestion is that the German armies need only step back a little way to be better placed than oyer to make head against the Allied assaults.

■JThb answer to suggestions of this kind is supplied in the facts of tho offensive, and in the dominating facts of the campaign. It has all along been recognised that if the enemy could retreat to a very much shorter line suitably situated his position would bo materially improved. unci he would be. much better placed than he is now to lengthen out the war. But a shortoiiing of lino producing these results would involve, not a limited

retreat, but Uio resignation by the Germans of the greater part of the territory they have occupicd in Franco -and Belgium. The broad alternatives before the enemy arc to continue the struggle on his present long front or to ease the strain on his resources by an extended retreat. Ho would not poreeptibly ease the strain to which he is subjected by ii limited retirement from one sot of positions to another, and such a retirement, would bo chiefly significant as indicating the efficacy of the tactics to which the Allies have resorted. It would be all the move significant since the German defensive lines on tho Somme, besides being elaborately prepared, were ovidontly judiciously scloctcd with an eye to advantage of position. When the offensive opfcued the oncmy had an enormous advantage of position, but the advantage has now largely passed to the Allies.

So far as actual news is concerned the struggle on the Somme shows no signs of relaxing, by reason of an enemy retirement or otherwise. Bad weather, according to the later reports, operations, but the British have made another advance north of Bazentin-le-Petit, and have gained ground also west of Ginohy. In the latter area they are now working round the northern flank of the strong position of Guillomont. On available evidence the essential features, of the struggle are accurately epitomised by' a. Daily Chronicle correspondent who speaks-of the enemy's impotence, and the steady, though difficult, progress of the Allies. Tho events of the cattle cortainly lend no colour to the idea that the enemy has any middle oourse between continuing a. ruinous struggle on his present lino and making suoh sn oxtended retfeat as wqnld entail a terrible loss of prestige, even if it could be carried out without disaster, This, to say the least, is doubtful.

*** . • Some heavy fighting is reported on tho Balkan front, but the Allies' are apparently; content meanwhile to jtand fast in the positions thoy have •■akcm up along the northern frontier uf Greece and south-east along tho Struma to the Aegean. Their front oxtends at least as far west as Lake Ochrida, where the frontiers of Serbia, Greece, and Albania, meet. According to an Attorns report, the Entente. Ministers have informed tho Greek Government that tho Entente is under no military necessity of defending Central Thessaly, which is practically Central Greece, but for the time being Greece seems to be completely protected from inVasion on the west, unless by way of tho difficult approach through Albania,. That such a statement has been made regarding Thessalv is in' any case open to' doubt. If the Allies merely intended to'hold their Salonika lines, the invasion of Western and Central Greece would affect them very' little. , But holdDig, or advancing from, their present front, they could not view with indifference an enemy movement round their western flank.

A French official message just received reveals no •movement of importance on the Allied front, but speaks of desperate fighting at several points. The Serbians in particular have beon : heavily engaged in a stretch of mountain country between the Monastir railway and tho Vardar. Apparently, howover, the ■fighting here and elsewhere has been ofan almost stationary character, _ and has' ai'isen chiefly at the initiative, of the Bulgarians. The persistence with"which the latter are attacking a, .presumably superior enemy is remarkable, and no really adequate explanation is available. It seems_ perfectly plain, howover, that their prospects of achieving any dofinite military success are negligible, and that they are wasting strength in their invasion of Greece, which they would be wiser tb keep in reserve against tho day of the Allied offensive;