PROGRESS OF THE WAR
Theke is further good news today from the main theatres. At tho moment of writing the Italians add nothing to the story of thoir attack on the fortified Herrnada Plateau, but they report continued success in tho mountain area north, of Gorizia. They are advancing over tho Bainisizza Plateau, on which the captured Monte Santo is one of the principal elevations. Tho success .won certainly facilitates tho extension of the operations against tho enemy positions further south, and possibly endangers the whole Austrian lino cast of the Isonzo. Tho victory on a sensational scale prodieted by correspondents is not unlikely to be realised. Meantime the continued success of the' offensive is attested not only , in tho ground gained, but in the steadily increasing returns of prisoners and material captured. * * * «• In another swift blow, on this occasion cast of tho Mouse, tho French havo recovered another considerable section of the Verdun territory won by the Germans at such deadly cost 'last year.' The French drove homo their attack on a front of two and a half miles and penetrated to a depth of more than a thousand yards. On the southern outskirts of the villago of Beaumont they are about'a mile and a half south of the lino on which they stood when the Germans opened their great offensive eighteen months ago. The 'moral effect of the developing French victory on tho Verdun front is likely to bo pronounced in tho case both of the enemy troops and civil population. The Portuguese forco in the AVestern theatre, which has been mentioned in several recent reports, is believed to consist of an army corp? of two divisions. Its location was indicated by Sir Douglas Haig yesterday in the statement that : 'the Portuguese repulsed raiders southcast of Lavcntie." This placo lies about half a dozen miles south-west of Armentieres. Tho Portuguese havo been holding a short section cf the Western front for months past. The first Portuguese contingent—soo officers and non-commissioned officers—arrived in Franco last December. In January, 20,000 Portuguese —known as tho "Tancos Division," because they were trained at Tancos, near Lisbon —landed at a French seaport, and marched into camp. It was a complete division— infantry, cavalry, artillery, aviators, auxiliaries, all fully equipped —and ifc was then stated authoritatively that another division was practical on route, and that 100,000 more men were in training in Portugal. The new Portuguese Army has a khaki uniform, made after tho French style, but with the British service cap. Tho uniform it has just discarded had a red cap ,ind bright blue tunic. The organisation of the nnw array commenced about tho middle of_ 1916, and tho work of training, which is described
;is very complotu unci thorough, wsis participated in by a, mission of British and French officers, who arrived in Lisbon last August. The average Portuguese soldier is like his Latin kinsmen of France and Italy—short, dark, agile, and hardy. The Portuguese in France are commanded by General Tamagnani d'Abueu. Tho military assistance which Portugal contemplates giving to the Allies is by no means inconsiderable. It has been variously estimated at from 150,000 to 250,000 men.
A recent message- stating that the United States Shipping Board has submitted a programme of 1270 ships aggregating 8,000,000 tons, in addition to 2,000,000 tons already in coursQ of construction, possibly means that the programme which was in hand when General Goethals recently retired from office, has been considerably expanded. Un certainty on tho point arises from tho fact that tho timo in which it is proposed to complete the enlarged programme is not stated. The position on July 14, when General Goethals was still in office, was reviewed by the New York Evening Post in the following terms: "The President's order authorising the Emergency Fleet Corporation to assume- tho full powers given tho Executive- to build ships and to purchase or requisition partly-com-pleted vessels and ship materials has been followed by a quick clarification of tho whole situation. General Goethals had his programme ready for tho President's word of release. Chairman Denjian has already practically assured approval of it. It shows that wooden ships have by no means been slighted, even though the ultimate emphasis will bo upon steel. Contracts for 348 wooden ships of 1,218,000 tons have been let, and contracts for 100 more are pending, whilo contracts for only 77 steel ships, of 642,800 tons, have been let. In the future steel construction will be particularly 'speeded up. Two Government-owned plants are at once to bo contracted for, which will turn out 400 such ships of 2,500,000 tons in a maximum period of two years. Already designs and materials for the yards are ready. Finally, as was intimated a fortnight ago, yards which now have more than 1,500,000 tons of shipping for private account under construction will be federalised, the ships commandeered, work expedited, and newi construction undertaken as fast' as they aro cleared. Thus Goethals's programme looks to placing the United States in possession of a minimum of about 6,000,000 tons of shipping within two years. For this immense work more money, will naturally bo needed. Even wooden ships will have their place on the seas when peace comes, while our steel fleet will bo invaluable." While the United' States is planning to build at least e.OOOjOOOtons of shipping in two years, Britain hopes to add nearly 2,000,000 tons of now shipping to her mercantile fleet this year, and to double that achievement next year. The total shipping losses of Allies and neutrals by submarine attack and in other ways up to the end of April, 1917 (after more than two and a half years of war and threo months of the present "unrestricted" campaign), were, according to French official figures, 8,040,000 tons. Shipbuilding on the scale proposed by America and Britain, and the coincident additions of other nations to their mercantile fleets, will not alone defeat the enemy submarine campaign, but will certainly represent a very big contribution to that end.
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Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3175, 28 August 1917, Page 4
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1,003PROGRESS OF THE WAR Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3175, 28 August 1917, Page 4
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