PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3060, 23 April 1917, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

A message published on Saturday stated that the Turkish Grand Viz-ier-had arrived at Berlin to make representations regarding the seriousness of Turkey's position and hor inability to continue the war effecr tively unless all the Turkish troops in Rumania and Galicia were withdrawn ' and a substantial body of Austrian and Bulgarian reinforcements sent to her aid. The truth of this report cannot bo definitely tested, but in essentials it gains a good deal of colour from the. campaign news which is published' today. Material successes have been won by the British forces operating against Turkey both in Mesopotamia and in Palestine. General ■ Maude reports a particularly brilliant achievement in the first-men-tioned theatre —an advance up the Tigris ' a,nd an . attack on Turkish positions which resulted in the capture of something over twelve hundred a cost of only '■73 British casualties: These figures in themselves demonstrate how com- 1 pletely the Turks were routed. They must; of course, have lost a large number in killed and wounded apart from their loss in prisoners.

The fighting reported covered a considerable extent of country. On Tuesday the British forced the passage of the Shat-el-Adhaim, a tributary which flows through the country cast, of the Tigris, between the main river and the Persian border. The confluence of the Shat-el-Adhaim and the Tigris is about 55 miles north of Bagdad. The conguest of the Shat-el-Adhaim crossing cleared the way for a movement up-river on the opposite bank of the Tigris. It was on this'side that the Turks wero attacked and routed in their main position covering Istabulat station. . Istabulat is twenty- miles or more west of the point at which the Tigris is entered by the Shat-el-Adhaim, and about 65 miles (as the crow flies) north of Bagdad. At the point to which operations .are carried in available news, the Turks were still being pursued, presumably north of Istabulat. The advance of the British main body up the Tigris should make it possible to speedily sweep away the TUrkish columns which have been operating in the neighbourhood of the Jebel Hamrin hills; between the Tigris and the Persian border. It is another detail of some : importance that, having reached Istabulat, the British hold a good deal more than half of the section of railway' which runs north from Bagdad along the west bank of the Tigris. The northern railhead of this section, as far as is known, is at Tekrit, 40 miles north of Istabulat. The' short length of railway they still hold will not be; of much use to the Turks, but the section as a whole, even if the line has been damaged by, the retreating enemy, should De a material aid to the British advances.

North of Tekrit, as information stands, there is a railway gap of 250 miles. It;is known that the Bagdad railway in its eastward course through' Southern Asia Minor has been carried as far as Nisibin(27o miles east of the Mediterranean coast at Alexandretta), and it is of course possible'l. that part of the gap of 250 miles between Nisibin and Tekrit has been filled in by recent construction. It may be assumed, however, that there is still a gap of considerable length, and if the British are able to rapidly link up the railway from their sea-baso with the section north from Bagdad the Turks, in contesting a further British advance up the Tigris, will find themselves at a serious disadvantage in the matter of i communications. .

Taking account only of distances the task facing General Maude and his army still looms very formidably. They are distant approximately 160 miles in a direct line from Mosul, which is the . main Turkish depot on the Tigris, and Mosul is, roughly midway between tho positions reached by the British on the Tigris and those held by the Eussjans on the southern confines of Armenia. The British are already in touch with a Russian force which advanced through Persia and crossed the border north-east of Bagdad, but.it is unlikely that any very large Russian force will reach the Tigris valley by way of Persia. Events since the capture of Kut-cl-Amara—to which the advance on Istabulat makes a promising addition—have shown, however, that very rapid progress is possible in the Mesopotamia!) theatre, and an effective junction-- between the British forces which are moving up the Tigris and the Russians, who are for the time at_ a standstill in Southern Armenia, can hardly now be regarded as an impossibility. Factors of distance and of transport difficulties will not in themselves nave the Turkish provinces from extended invasion. MciV and guns are the determining factor, and indications at present are that Turkey is hard put to it to maintain her resistance. A hardening of the defensive somewhere north of the present point of contact on the Tigris is perhaps to be looked for, but an active resumption of tho Russian campaign in Armenia is equally, probable; and this development would heavily increase Turkey's present burdens. As matters

ni'e shaping -iii Mesopotamia and Palestine, and with the prospect of effective itussian co-operation in Armenia, an attack upon the Bagdad railway Vvllere ib wbsely iijjpl'6'achcs the-Boast of tlie Eastern Mediterranean in tlie regibil of Alexarldretta seems to hold increasing possibilities. This railway is Turkey's maiu, and only good, transport line both in her .eastern campaigns, in Afrnteiiiii and. Mesopotamia and in tile tarnpaigu in Palestine. With a- very large part of her forces engaged in .these .outlying- areas she would probably be hard put to it to defend the Bagdad railway against direct attack, and failure to defend it would spell irretrievable disaster.

News c ft'om Palestine shows tluit the British are again on the move towards Gaza. The report as yet in hand is brief, and relates to , a battle still in progress, but it records an important, preliminary success. The starting-point of. the attack was the Wadi Ghu'zzeh, fifteen miles north-east of Eafa, a coast town on the Turco-Egyptian frontier. It will be remembered that towards the end of March the British occupied the Wadi Ghuzzeh in order to cover the construction of the broad-gauge railway which now follows the Mediterranean coast of the Sinai Peninsula arid is being carried into Palestine. Probably the railway has now been laid as far as the Wadi Ghuzzeh or to its near neighbourhood. An attempt was made in March to capture Gaza (which stands fifteen miles north of the Wadi Ghuzzeh) by a sudden dash. The enterprise did not succeed, but the' Turks were baaly defeated in extended fighting, and suffered .very heavy loss. The Mvance on Gaza has now been resumed, and as information _ stands the Turkish advanced positions have been captured on a front of half a dozen miles, the ground gained has been consolidated, and the battle is still proceeding. . . .

News from the Western theatre in hand at time of writing is .good, but calls for little remark. The French offensive is developing methodically, and in spite of the enemy's laboured efforts to prove the contrary there is every indication that io is handsomely fulfilling expectations.' It is enough meantime to set' against the enemy's general assertions the fact that in addition to capturing a scries of vitally important positions the French have taken 19,000 prisoners and over a hundred guns. Reports dealing with the British front tell of progress at some points, but, at the moment of writing, disclose no exceptional development.

Reports from Russia continue to point to an improving state 61 affairs. It is true.that the fact is incidentally disclosed that many soldiers returned to their villages 'at the time of the revolution, but it is indicated that,a great part of these absentees have now returned to the fighting line. The statement by the Russian Premier (Prince Lvoff) which appears to-day, though, it is made in guarded terms, warrants an optimistic outlook, and the same is true of General Alexieff's message to General 'Nivelle, which is in effect an ; assurance that the Russian Army will not be found wanting at, the appointed hour. ■

German destroyers have often made fleeting raids in the vicinity of the Straits of Dover, but the experience of the latest raiding flotilla was not of a nature to encourage a repetition of these adventures. Five enemy destroyers, after shelling some ploughed fjelds a few miles from Dover, were intercepted by two British patrol vessels, evidently destroyers, and two at least of the enemy ships, possibb , three, were- sunk. It was from every point of view a particularly fine bit of work by'the Dover patrol.

A message from Chrisfcianfa which appears to-day indicates that Norway is arming her merchant ships,, and it is added that though this is only a preventive measure it means Srar with Germany. Probably it does, but Norway has little enough cause to hesitate' in view of the fact that German piracy' has deprived her'of a thirds of her mercantile fleet and sent three hundred of her sailors to their death. A definite break between Germany and Norway would hare.an important bearing upon the anti-submarine campaign, since it would remove any obstacles that now exist to the pur- , suit of submarines in Norwegian territorial waters. Months ago Norway closed her territorial waters to Gorman submarines, ■ but the prohibition would be .much more effectual if the British Navy, instead of being stopped at the three-mile limit, were free' to extend its operations right up to the Norwegian coast. , ' . . ' /