PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3002, 13 February 1917, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

No respite is being granted to the enemy in the Ancre valley, which has recently been the scene of an almost continuous British advance—an advance beaded for Bapaumo and tho railway junctions in its neighbourhood. Sik Douglas Haig to-day reports the capture of a strong system of hostile trenches on the southern foot of the Serre Hill. A gratifying feature of the affair is that the enemy prisoners taken outnumber tho total_ British casualties. This obviously is a case in which no suggestion can bo made that tho Germans were sacrificing ground in order to save men. Tho enemy defences wcro penetrated on a front of three-quarters of a mile, but to what depth is not stated. Tho .result of the action, 1 however, is a forward step towards enveloping Serre Hill, »me of tho strongest positions remaining to the enemy on that part of his front in the Somme region which withstood attack when tho Allies opened their offensive last summer.

Correspondents who have recently reviewed tho position on the Riga front are unanimous in testifying that tho Russians have made a highly important diversion in that quarter. To-day it is stated by the Daily Mail correspondent at Petrograd that the Russians arc holding their gains in tho Riga region on a front of seven miles, and that the enemy has concentrated all available forces and incurred losses recalling thoso of tho Battlo of Verdun, in vain attempts to recover his lost positions. The bare story of events on the Riga front since tho New Year is that tho Russians, by a swift surpriso advance across the frozen marshlands, struck deeply into tho Gcrma,':' lino where it approaches tho Gulf of Riga, and in subsequent lighting lost somo of the cultured ground. Tho essential point, however, is thai, the. enemy: 'front in this locality has been greatly weakened. The railway junction of Milan, which supports this part of tho front, is .seriously threatened, and if the Germans lose Milan they will have to fall back to i a much longer and wcakor lino ex.-' tending to l.ho outer Balli'j coast.7 i'be statement of tbo Dai.li/ Mail cor- 1 respondent that the whole of tho enemy's left flank is threatened is probably not an exaggeration. If the Germans fail to hold their present line they will find it a difficult matter to maintain their occupation of the Baltic Provinces on a longer and weaker line. Meantime, by partly developing their threat, tho Russians have imposed upon the enemy a profitless and costly task in which for some time ho has made no headway. His losses are mounting up, but his weakened front has not been mado strong again.

Tun capture of a. liquorice, factory may nut seem to be a very imposing military achievement, bull Liio announcement, in a report from Mesopotamia, that_ a liquorico • factory across tho Tigris from Kut-01-Amara has been captured probably means that a period has been set to the defence of the latter place by the Turks. Indeed, it may easily mean a good deal more. The liquorico factory which has thus como into prominence stands on the south bank of tho Tigris, separated by the breadth of the rivci; £80 xardo). £Rom tao

south-western face of Kut-el-Amara. It was converted by the Turks into a- stronghold stiffening tho flank of their line where it extends at this point to the Tigris. With tho liquorice- factory the British have captured a range of trenches and pushed back tho enemy to a depth of from eight to twelve hundred yards on a front of more than three miles. Tho position, briefly, is that the British are now facing Kut across the river around a great part of the small but pronounced bend in which it stands. They aro also driving tho Turks back into tho interior angle of a, larger bond in tho Tigris, immediately west of Kut. In this bond tho Turks havo no other means of crossing the river than by boat. Formerly they had a pontoon bridge at Shumrau, nine miles upstream from Kut, and about five miles west of that placo in a direct line, but as long ago as the middle of December they were compelled to remove the bridge and tow the pontoons upstream. How far west of Kut the British area of occupation extends is not stated, but the Turkish forces south of the river aro very dangerously placed. It holds good also that 11 British crossing of tho Tigris west of Kut would sever tho Turkish communications with that place, and with tho positions which (as information stands) the enemy still occupies on tho north bank about 14 miles below Kut. It would ho a simple matter for th* British artillery to knock tho houses of Kut to pieces and mako tho place untenablo, but the guns aro likely to bo employed to better purpose'in forcing a crossing which will pavo the way for an attack striking across tho enemy's communications.

Applying tho general rule tliat an uncontradicted enemy statement (jiould bo accepted, it is probably true that tho Austrians gathered in a considerable number of prisoners in recent local attacks east of Gorizia. Italian reports indicate, however, that this was tho measure of tho enemy's success, and that his own losses were- heavy. It is stated tiafc all the ground entered by tho enemy has beon recovered with the exception of a few advanced trench elements.

One message to-day states that there is better news of tho submarine campaign, late reports telling 0? no big snips being sunk, though some trawlers havo met that fate! It is wisc_ to treat statements of this kind with reserve. Excellent grounds exist for believing that the anti-submarine measures of the Admiralty will ultimately prevail, but to expect big immediate results would bo to invite disappointment. There will probably bo many fluctuations in tho rate of destruction before tho enemy flotillas are so reduced as to mako their defeat manifest.

A stoky which is happily without parallel so far as tho Allied, armies are concerned, is told to-day on the authority of tho French newspaper, La Libre Parole. t lt is to the effect that a Rumanian General betrayed 'the army under his command in a battle fought on Decembor 1, and }ias been degraded and sentenced to fivo years ponaj servitude. Presumably such a story would not have passed the censorship had it not been at least substantially correct. If the circumstances are- correctly reported tho former General Socecu J escaped very lightly. Tho charge laid against him is that by arresting his array in the full tide of a successful attack he wrecked the plan laid by General Bekthelot (head of the French mission) for driving Hackensen back across the Danube. A failure from this cause south of Bucharest may easily have accounted for the heavy losses which woro suffered by tho Rumanians in the next stago of their retreat. A week or ten days after tho episode in which General Socecu was the central figure, they were defeated, on tho front between Bucharest and tho_ northern mountains, with losses which were certainly considerable, though not as heavy as the enemy claimed at tho, time. It will bo remembered that tho enemy reported the envelopment of the Eumanian Second Army, which had retreated from tho Prodeal Pass. This claim was subsequently refuted, and it was shown that tho Second Army had escaped, with tho sacrifice of rearguards. But tho fosses suffered in the retreat were still of serious magnitude, and they would certainly ho increased by such an act of treason as is reported to-day.