PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2997, 7 February 1917, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Events are reported to-day which may bring matters to a head between America and Germany. Two ships, a passenger liner and a cargo steamer, have been sunk by German submarines in circumstanccs which constitute a gross violation of international law, and either event may represent the act for which the Government is waiting before taking ' steps to protect its ships and citizens on the high seas. 'According to an Admiralty report one of trie ships in question, the Ellerman linor City of Birmingham, had 145 passengers, including 90 women and children, on board, and was torpedoed without warning, 128 miles from land. Passengers' and crew had to take to the boats in a heavy swell, and it is .believed that the doctor and three members of the crow were drowned. The locality in. which the cargo steamer Eavestone • met her fate is not stated a.t time of writing, but tho submarine which sank her was guilty of a particularly brutal outrage. Not only was ithe ship sunk by gunfire, but the members>.of her crefe were shelled after they had taken to their boats. The master and three seamen wore killod, and the second mate was seriously wounded. One of the victims was an American seaman. This is an example of submarine frightfulne'ss at its worst, and tho sinking of the City of Birmingham without warning can only be regarded as an outrageous violation of international law. President Wilson can hardly require any more definite indication that Germany has in fact,. and in tortus of her recent . intimation, removed' whatever restrictions havo hitherto been imposed upon the operations of her submarines. Adhe,riug to the determination he expressed iu his statement to Congress, ho is bound to take action forthwith in the protection of American ships and lives. Whether or not they impel America to immediate action 'the attacks upon the City of Birmingham and the Eavestone arc still charged with significance as indicating that Germany is definitely committed to a policy of unrestricted piracy and murder. Even if America still hesitates, it is likely that these attacks will be speedily followed up b ! y others ' whioh will make further hesitation impossible. It is difficult in any case to see.what additional evidence can bo rcquirod of Germany's intentions. No doubt many of the passengers on board the City of 5 Birmingham were Americans, and so far as Germany is concerned, tho sinking of this ship might easily have been a tragedy in tho same class as that of the Lusitania. * . .• * i

These actual developments in Germany's underwater policy, to which may be added the sinking oi a Dutch ship conveying, a cargo from New York to tho Netherlands, reported in a message just received, for the moment quite overshadow reports which tell of certain undefined concessions by Germany— about which, it is stated, nothing is known in Washington—and of hopes entertained in tho United States that a peaceful solution may still bo reached. President Wilson has followed up the severance of diplomatic relations ■ with Gormany by suggesting to other noutral countries that it would make for the peace of the world if tlioy took similar action. In cffcct, ho is attempting to organise a united protest by neutral countries against Gormany's soa, policy, trusting, in the first iiwtanoe, at least, to tho .moral force of -tho protest to turn

Germany from Iter purpose. Taking reports on the subject at their face value, including those which deal with the uttifcudo of Spain, it seems not unlikely that the protest may be organised on the lines the President has .planned. But in light of tile events touched upon it cannot lie said that such a protest has good prospects of achieving its intended purpose. The only inference to be drawn from these events is that Germany is determined to persevere, in a policy of piracy and murder in defiance of all protests.

According to a Renter mcssago from New York, damage to tho amount of £6,000,000 has been done to tho machinery of interned German liners in that port alone, tho crews doing the damage under instructions received from Washington—that is to say from tho German Embassy. The total value of tho thirty-one German liners at Ntw York is set down at £28,000,000, and it is almost inconceivable that they can have been damaged to tho extent stated. Any material damage to the ships would imply that the American port authorities stood idly by when they had full power to intervene. Tho wholesale wrecking alleged could not have been carried out without a free use of explosives, and it can hardly be believed that such a carnival of destruction was tolerated. If, bowf'i'oi', there has been any systematic wrecking of the interned ships l;y their crews it must bo assumed that Germany has no thought of backing down on tho submarine issue, ard regards war with the United States as inevitable.

An excellent description of , the now tactics to which the Fre rich resorted with splendid success in their attacks north of Verdun is given by an Amorican journalist, Mn. A. D. FLEUROT,-in Land and Water. MrFleurot, who visited Verdun not long ago,' declares that the recently developed system of the French "will undoubtedly become tho accepted method of out an entrenched onemy.'' Before tho advance on Douaumonfc began tho now French heavy artillery—tho lack of which in the previous tragic months had cost France at Verdun so many thousands of hor bravest sons—fired more than one million shells, and literally blew every piece of barbed wiro and trench off_ tho plateau before it. Tho surviving Germans remained there with their machineguns, crouched in the shell-holes and craters. At tho exact minute, according to schcdulo, a lino of infantry, not too thick, moved out. Ovor their heads thore descended, from the smaller French guns—.7s and .105 millimetres—a terrible barrage, which caught tho front line's of Germans in their shell-holes. The Frenchmen followed their barrage, walking right at the back odgo of it. Not a Gorman escaped. Immediately behind the front French lino camo another line, "the cleaners of tho trenches," whoso business Was to capture or destroy any enemy elements in shelters or dug-outs missed by the barrage and tho front lineBehind "tho cleaners of tho trenohes" oame the main body of infantry, supported by big machineguns. Thore was a fixed distance between each lino, and tho wholo organisation moved forward slowly and steadily. Tho barrage was advanced at the rate of 80ft. (25 metres) per minute, and tho frout lino of infantry had to re-main just behind it. The commanders of tho artillery, two or threo miles back, and tho commanders of the first, second, and third lines of infantry worked with their eyes on their watches. The great machine moved forward at tho rate of 80ft. per minute, one enemy line after another withered away, and Douaumonfc was recovered. The writer adds: "Carried out on a wide' front, so -rapid an advance as this can only be guided from the air. Aeroplanes must hang immediately over the advancing troops, reporting tho progress back to the artillery commauder. They must also fly_ low enough to see in detail what-is going on-" Ho also remarks that in an attack like this there is no plac# for "cannonfodder." The unskilled, soldier has disappeared. He must be expert at something and all must be expert bomb-throwers.

-It * * * AVhen the uew tactics were tried north of Verdun, the Germans, for some reason, did not place a barrage in the way of the not, indeed, use their artillery in any way that was expected. The result was that the French casualties were astonishingly low, when the nature of the advance and the value of the captures are considered. The Germans, always quick to learn, may apply the lessons taught them by the French in' these advances. The French tactics, it is said, are the result of a study of the Germans' system of attacking. The German plan, brought at Verdun as near perfection as it has yet t been developed, was a hurricane bombardment by concentrated' heavy artillery, and then ' an overwhelming infantry attack in mass formation. Thatj preliminary bombardment was not as effective as the preliminary bombardment that now precedes the French attack, the Germdns have no guns to give them the perfect barrage with which the seventy-five reinforces the advancing infantry, while 'tho German mass attack was simply atr invitation'to'unprecedented slaughter. The Germans at Verdun attained their earlier objectives, but the cost in men was appalling- The French substituted for the mass attack "the advance of three open, lines behind a barrage,, and rcduccd their casualtics amazingly.

Since the French drove home their last great attack east of the Meuso events have indicated the application of tho new tactics, with satisfactory results, by both British and French,- at different points on the Western front. On sevoral occasions more or less important positions have been wrested from the enemy at comparatively slight cost. No donbfc tile late British success cast of Beaucourt, when its details are mado known, will prove to be an addition to tho list of such' achievements. It is do secret that tho new French tactics are being adopted also by the British Array. In particular the high 6tate of efMcncy rtaohed by its artillery is one of tho most wonderful features of the ' wonderful achievement in training and organisation which the army to-day rep re- ' sents. The superiority which tho Allies have established in tho Western theatre is far from being measured by mere numerical strength or weight of metal. Mention of new tactics should not, -of course, be taken to mean that one set", of methods has been entirely dropped and another eot adopted- 1 Long before tho Battle of too Soimuo had

run its cows© last, autumn there were manifest indications that the Allies were conserving life by improved tactics which at. tho savlio t.inio were operating with increasingly damaging effect upon the enemy.