PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 4, 29 September 1917, Page 6

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

A matter in which the British War Office was slow f,o move was that of correcting the enemy's men-\ dacious reports, out it has promptly carried out this necessary duoy where German reports dealing with the Flanders battle arc concerned. As a result it is possible to set aside a good deal of what the Germans' havo to say on the subject as having no reference to the facts. It is not disputed that, in some areas of advanced fighting_ there was a certain amount of give- -and bake, but the essential facts relating to the latest stage of the- offensive are that the British gained, the whole of thoir objectives and Unit the enemy's counter-attacks wero repulsed. -In his latest report Sir Douglas Haig mentions that seven powerful' counter-attacks wero re : pulsed. ■ In drawing up his reports the enemy evidently aimed at conveying the impression of a. bitterlycontested battle fought on comparatively even terms. The idea of ignoring the loss of one town and reporting the retention of another which had not been attacked is not, of course, now. No doubt this sort of thing will serve its intended purpose in places where the truth is not allowed to penetrate, but it is, chiefly important as an indication' of the straits to' which thd enemy is reduced. Evidently he is afraid to let his own people learn the truth,and the truth will be so much the more damaging whe-i it can no longer be concealed. ■■ .

In one respect only to-day's British reports are much less favourable than those of yesterday. A record day for the- British airmen has been followed by one of heavy fighting and heavy losses on both sides, thought the balance still turns against the enemy. Yesterday it was reported that 24 enemy nachincs had been downed, as against . one British maohinc. , To-day the losses reported arc respectively 15 and 13. This docs not mcan,""however, that even for a day the enemy made an approach to even tcrms_ in air-fight-ing. Under the conditions which have become normal in the Western theatre the British airmen take infinitely greater risks than their antagonists, and it- is remarkable, in the circumstances, that their- losses arc not habitually, instead- of en rare occasions, nearly as heavy as those of the enemy.

Some interesting particulars of the French military strength and material resources were made public last month by M. Andke Tardieu, French High Commissioner to the United Sfcates._ In a published letter to • the American-' Secretary for War, ho states that France has three million mcn_ at the front, an increase of a million since the war began, that reserve resources aro sufficient "to maintain that number up to its present level for a long time to come," and that the percentage of casualties ' is constantly decreasing. At the beginning of'the war, it is added, France had MO heavy, guns; she now has 6000. The munitions output in August, 1!) M, provided 13,000 rounds of_ Geld-gun ammunition . per day; "it is now arranged for 250,000 shots of.'7.s's',

[(field-guns) and 100,000 shots .of heavy guns." Besides thus providing, for her own forces, M. Tardieu states, France completely' reequipped and rearmed the Belgian, Serbian, and Greek armies, and gave more than SOO heavy guns to her, Allies. j