PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3192, 17 September 1917, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

The latest available news from Russia makes it practically certain that, as an attempt to substitute a military dictatorship for the rule of the Provisional Government General Korniloff's' movement has completely broken . down. 'At the same time the danger of civil war is still in plain sight. It is reported to-day that General Kaledin, one of Korniloee's supporters, has reached tho Don- district—an extensive area in Southern Russia, northeast of, tho Sea of Azov, and ono of the principal Cossack districts— with three divisions of cavalry and ono of infantry. Whether theso troops are Cossacks is not stated, but the news carries a plain suggestion that the ■ Cossacks may be contemplating a revolt against the authority of the. Provisional Government. For the time being this concentration of forces hostile to the Government in Southern Russia is the arresting feature of the situation, but its full significance- has yet to be disclosed. Fortunately tho policy of the Cossacks up to the. present has been marked by patriotism and steady common sense. They regard the excesses of the revolutionary extremists with keen disapproval, but are unlikely to engage in a hopeless revolt which would merely accentuate the terrible difficulties under which Russia is labouring. * * * * Apart from the possibilities arising from Kaledin s concentration in Southern Russia, the situation 's reported to' be improving. There are some prospects of a Coalition Government being formed, but it is indicated also that the peace-at-any-price faction among tho Socialists is becoming more assertive than ever. Apparently it dominates tho Workmen's and Soldiers' Council. But for the fact that the Germans now completely command, the Gulf of Riga—a development which was to be expected—tho military situation shows no great change. In spite of. disorders behind the front the Russians are well enough organised to maintain the struggle in the region north of Riga, and at some points to wrest positions from tho enemy. * * * * On the Western front matters arc much as they were. If tho enemy has gained relief _ in the Eastern theatre no indication of tho fact has yet been given in the other main theatre. An enemy attack on a short front in the Verdun area cannot be taken as an exception to the generally ruling conditions. Tho scope of tho affair was small, and most of very limited area gained was speedily won back again. Sir Douglas Haig reports successful raids and some progress in local fighting.

It is again reported to-day that tho Italians have captured Monto San Gabrielle, the. great mountain fortress north-east of Gorisda, but the news is conveyed in a message which has apparently been much delayed in transmission, and cannot be accepted as an accurate record of late events. As a whole the news from the Italian theatre shows that the opposing armies aro locked in a grim and practically stationary struggle, but it is remarked that the balance of losses in this stage of the battle turns decidedly against the enemy.

The German reply to the Papal Note is the last thing needed to prove that fJiat document has no practical bearing on the question of peace. Germanj' "accepts the Note as a basis of negotiation," but makes no mention of restitution or of reparation for the criminal outrages of which she has been guilty. She proposes, in effect, to negotiate on equal terms with the nations whom she deliberately sought to destroy and to conclude a peace on the basis of the existing war mapsuch a peace, as President Wilson had in mind when he said recently: "They (the military masters of Germany) have but ono chance to perpetuate their military power, or

even their controlling political influences. If they can secure peace now, with tho immense advantage still in their hands, they will have justified themselves before the Gorman people. They will have gained by force what they promised to gain by it—an immense expansion of Gorman power and an immense enlargement of German industrial and commercial opportunities. Their prestige will be secure, _ and with their prestige their political power. If they fail their people will thrust them aside. A Government accountable to tho_ people themselves will be set up in Germany." . . . The German reply furnishes all necessary evidence that we are still faced by a militarist coterie intriguing for peace on their own terms, and not by a nation determined to obtain in tho only possiblo way by making just restitution and reparation and supplying guarantees for the future.