PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3056, 17 April 1917, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

, At time of writing the position on the British front in France is in' its broad features much as it was described in late news yesterday. The British are within a few Hundred yards of St. Quentin on the •iorthwest, and have further invaded the enemy defences a little furthar north. If Lens has not yet been completely occupied, its conquest is evidently imminent. Any delay that has qcourred in completely occiTpying the town is apcounted for in the' official reports and in a long dispatch from Mr. Philip Gibbs. The matter is epitomised in Mr. Gibbs's statement that a quick advance through' Lens would have been made at great and needless sacrifice of life. The. southern and western suburbs were penetrated early on Sunday morning, but nothing would have by an immediate, assault upon a fortress which in any case.was doomed. The British advance north and east from the Vimy ridge determined the fate of Lens by laying it open to attack from the. south.' Mr. Gibbs states that the enemy was- thrown into a panic by the British, forward movement in 1 the south, and made w : ld efforts to withdraw troops, guns, and stores from Lens, but that some of the troops wore subsequently sent bapk to fight a delaying battle and gain time for, the improvement of the. rearward positions on the Dro-court-Queant fine. News may arrive at any hour that the whole of Lons is in British hands, and, dominated as the town is by the British artillery, it is unlikely that the enemy will succeed in doing much more than he_ has already done in the way of withdrawing men andmaterial; It seems likely that • the enemy will pay a heavy price for whatever time he -may . gain by clinging to his remaining foothold, in Lens.

It is not only at' Lens that indications, have been afforded of the, enemy's keen.anxiety regarding the security of the line upon which he must presently retire. To-day's re- , ports tell also of determined counterattacks, in which the enemy incurred .very heavy sacrifices, on a front of about half a dozen miles, astride the Bapaunie-Cambrai road —mostly to the north of that highway., The- attacks made no impression on the new British positions except at Lagnkourt, which village the enemy entered, only to be immediately afterwards dislodged by Australian troops. Lagnicourt stands a couple of miles south-west of Queant. The latter place is a strong bastion in the line covering Douai and-Cambrai upon which the cnomy is retiring. The British are pressing in upon this line from the west and working round to the south of Queant, much as,, in conjunction with the French, they are developing an enveloping and converging movement against St. Quentin, further south. As has been said, apart from his short-lived success at Lagnicourt, the enemy failed to gain any relief by his counter-at-tacks,, and the threat to the stability of' his line, is in no. way diminished. ' * o • • » , The latest extension of the Alliod offensive appears in a, successful attack by the Belgian Army/in the re-

gion of Dixmude, about a, dozen miles south of tho Flanders coast. For a long time past tho Belgians have been oolding.a short section of the northern front, the precise extent di which has not been officially stated. South of Dixmudo and to a point a mile or two north of that place, the line of battle follows the l'ser Canal. Dixmude is on tho east bank of the in tho hands of the enemy. The Belgians penetrated J;he onemy's second.line, but whether in a raiding attack or in a permanent advance is not stated. The Belgian Army has an effective strength of something like 500,000, and should bo able to take a not unimportant part in. the offensive as it develops. I Extracts are cabled from an article in which Colonel Bepington throws interesting light upon-tho extent to which Hindensueg's plans .have been wrecked by the vigour of the Allied offensive. He states amongst other things tha,t the transfor of German troops from Russia to France has begun. , A few months ago it was estimated that about threefifths of Germany's total available forces wero in the Western theatre, and it is unlikely that, the proportion has since been' reduced. If at this stage of the Western campaign "tho Germans are under the necessity of transferring troops from East to West their prospects of undertaking any offensive enterprise on the East front must be regarded as poor. According to Colonel Kepington the Germans have massed sixty divisions on the British front in the West. Assuming that he is well informed, this state of affairs manifestly opens up good prospects for the Allies. Even by drawing considorable reinforcements froni Russia the enemy could not, effect such a concentration against the British without seriously weakening other sections of his Western line. • • ■••#.--■

Though she is not able to immediately throw an army into the : scale, America is giving further notable proo's of her determination to mako free use- of her resources in assisting to bring Germany to dofeat. Within the • last day or two aho has projected a shipbuilding' scheme, under which it is intended to construct somij 3,000,000 tons of shipping ini the space of twelve months, and the House of Representatives has. unanimously approved a war loan which will enable the Administration to advance £600,000,000 on easy terms to the Allies. Now it is reported that President Wilson is arranging a commission to Russia to provide material aid, and it is expected that similar commissions will be sent also to Britain, France; and Italy. . Discussing not long ago the scale on which America would be able to extend the traffic she'has hitherto carried on as a neutral into the organised assistance of an ally, the New York World remarked:—"This is , a conflict not of armies but of industries ' and economic resources. Mr. Lloyd George once said that the last £100)000,000 might win the war. The United States not only has the last £100,000,000, but it has many times £100,000,000. The day that this country, enters the war the economic re-, sources of the Allies be doubled. We can practically care for France while recruiting, an army of our own. The German General , Staff may delude itself into the opinion that it has challenged the immediate war-power of 100,000 men. What, it is really challenging is. a war-power of £40,000,000,000 and a-. financial and industrial system that can be indefinitely mobilised." America was slow to> enter the war, but now that she has" entered she is proving herself an ally worth having, and if Germany is incapable of realising her own degradation-she must at least be sensible of the folly of'having invited the enmity of such a formidable antagonist. ; -

■Yesterday it was' reported that a critical situation had arisen between Spain and Germany over the .sinking of the. Spanish steamer San Fulgencio, but a statement by .'the Spanish Government denies, in effect, that any crisis has arisen, and adds that Germany is facilitating Spanish imports from America, provided that contraband imported remains, in Spain. It would appear that in spite of the indignation with which many Spaniards regard Germany's crimes at sea, there is still a balance of parties and opinions in Spain which makes the Government shrink from any decided course of action. Indeed, its latest statement bears a strong family resemblance to the arguments employed by the Clerical, reactionary, and pro-Ger-man Spanish newspapers in belittling the importance to Spain of Germany's policy of unrestricted piracy and murder, and' defending it as a legitimate answer to tho British blockade. These papers urge Ministers to avoid awkward consequences by diverting Spanish commerce from Allied to neutral countries, and circulate reports that Germany will assist the Spanish fruit industry, sell interned ships to the Spanish Government, and so on. Absurd rumours of this kind, according to a well-informed correspondent, encourage the pacific multitude to hope against hope -and weaken tho Government's determination. Vigorous action is advocated by the Liberal and Radical Press, but between the- contending.elements the Government has hitherto been in a state of passive equilibrium. According to the same correspondent, however, the American rupture with Germany is likely to encourage the Spanish Government to adopt a positive policy, and a,still more powerful incentive to action lies in the paralysis of commercial interests upon which tho country's' existence depends. The- British blockade of Germany caused comparatively little "damage to Spanish interests, and exports were fifty per cent, greater in 1916 than in the yearbefflre the war. Submarine piraoy, ,on the other hand, threatens to paralyse both export and import trade, and much as the Government, is disinclined to adopt a positive policy its liand may be forced by widespread unemployment and distress.