PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 93, 12 January 1918, Page 6

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

A little light is cast to-day upon American military preparations in a. statement by the United States Secretary for War. Training and transportation, Me. Baker states, are proceeding at unprecedented speed, and already there is a substantial American army in France leady .for'active service. Naturally he withholds -more specific details, but available information goes to show that America; will be ready to take an important part in the land war. this year. Some ,of the latest American papers in hand provide Eome information on the point. Commenting upon a statement by Mr. Lloyd George that lie was anxious to i know how- soon America's first million of troops might be expected in France,' and that it was more imperative than ever that the United States should send as many troops as possible across tho Atlantic as eai'ly as possible, a Washington correspondent observed that appar-ently-the American Government had been .waiting on the Allies for a decision as. to whether they first wanted American supplies or men. There was not tonnage enough ha added, to meet maximum demands in both categories. An apportionment of tonnage, was .one of the principal things the Allied War Council must decide.

Cektaini.y, the correspondent went on to remark, there was no disinclination on the part of the American authorities to transport troops. .Mr. Lloyd Okorgb's observations were taken to mean that British policy, which a few weeks previously had laid most emphasis on tonnage f or supplies, and not men, had changed as a result of events in Italy and Russia, and that henceforth the need for men would be stressed. "Should the Allied War Council," he continued, "therefore decide that America must send her armies to France more rapidly than has been planned, the bulk of the training will be done across the Atlantic and the drafting proccss on this side' will.be accelerated, the contents of cantonments which have been filled with troops of the first draft being gradually emptied into the transports to make way for the second and third draft armies. . .

Generally it is predicted here that it will take at least a year to transport a million men, but there arc high hopes that this number will have reached France by the summer

of 1918.' . . . More and more is the feeling growing here that the war is only beginning, that the Allies are only now getting together, and that, while they are preparing for three years more of war, they are bendihg every effort toward a military decision during the yea? 1918." ..

An item of news which deals .today with conditions in Southern Russia shows that although the Cossacks are still inclined to take an isolated stand, there are some possibilities of an organised attempt, not only to overthrow the Bolsheviki, but to establish a regime of moderate Liberalism.. Most of the leaders mentioned arc wellknown' figures. Savinkoff, who was at first Assistant Minister for War under M. Iverensky, and subsequently War Minister, has been named as a man who may be destined to play a big part in the restoration of orderly government in llus : sia. He is described by Mr. Robert Crozier Long, an acknowledged authority on Russian affairs, as the one capable and practical'man who has come to the front in the Revolu- J tion. According to Mr.. Long, Savinkoff is an ex-Terrorist, and under the autocracy was actually organiser of assassination plots, but he is a sworn foe of Bolshevikism, and appears to have striven honestly to avert, anarchy. Meantime there is no sign of progress in peace negotiations. Trotsky is quoted to-day as boldly defying the representatives of the Central Powers, and declining to consider any settlement save one which would leave Russia free and independent.

' People oversea Dominions will welcoirfe the counter-blast sounded by the British Workers} League to the anti-Imperial note which has been very marked in some recent utterances on behalf of British Labour organisations. Airing their views on the subject of the former German colonies, some English Labour men have shown little ability to distinguish between Germany's unscrupulous exploitation and barbarous ill-treatment of African races and the constructive work their own kinsmen in tories—work which has made definitely for the benefit and advancement of the negro. Thus the Labour Party in a rceent manifesto declared .that ."the- colonics ' in .tropical Africa shou'd not be the; booty of any nation,, and exploited by capitalists,.' All. the belligerents, should abandon drca,iis- of an African empire, and transfer the present', colonies to the League of Nations, which would form a permanently neutral' African State. This, tosay tho least, passes much too lightly over the enormous difference between British,'and .German methods of colonisation. The movement of protest against the attitude of the Labour Party which is now being organised is supported by some prominent Labour representatives as well as by other men of standing, and it is to be hoped that it may result at least ?n a much closer examination of the facts than seems as yet to have been attempted by a considerable section of the British public.

No'doubt'exists as to the attitude of the overseas Dominions in regard to tho disposal of the former German colonies. Australia and New Zealand long ago made it plain that they aro determinedly opposed to the restoration to Germany of the islands she formerly held in the South Pacific, and there should be the more reason to cxpect tbat'thesc desires will bo respected since the United States and the Latin American Republics have precisely tho same interest as the British Domin- j ions in excluding Germany from colonics which- she admittedly regarded, and still regards, as strategic bases. The restoration of_ any of 'Germany's former African possessions Would also run directly counter to the desires of tho Dominions, and, as General Smuts and other leading authorities have pointed out, would be a frightful calamity for the negro races concerned. The destiny of what used to be German South-AVcst Africa hardly seems to.be a subject- for debate. Its German inhabitants at-tacked-the South African Union by intrigue and in open war.. Its subsequent conquest' by Union forces was an act of retributive justice,; and the people of the Union will not easily bp induced to relinquish their conquest. As regards German East Africa,, more difficult questions are raised, but it is unthinkable that the territory should ever be restored to Germany.

No fault'is to be found with President Wilson's declaration that there must he "free, _ open-minded, ancl absolutely impartial adjustment of all colonial claims, based upon strict observance of the principle that, in determining all such questions, the interests. of the populations concerned must have equal weight with tho equitable claims of the Government whose title is to be determined." But in naming a plebiscite as a. means to this end President . Wilson suggests a method of procedure which it would certainly be extremely difficult, and might in practice he found imposI sible, to adopt. Even Hit. Lloyd George's idea that chicfs and councils in the tropical African territories are competent, to speak for tho tribes does not offer a hopeful solution. If the negroes were simply asked whether they preferred British or German rule, tho issue would be well within-, their comprehension, and there is no doubt as to what their'answer would'he. But it would bo fantastic to suggest that prinii-. tive races arc capable of weighing such an issue as internatipnalisaiion. There is, .however, no escape from the position that the fate of the former German colonics must he determined as an international.

, issue. It is all the more necessary that the British Dominions should take every opportunity of impressing their views not ouly upon the British Government, but upon the Allies in genfcral, and it is fortunate that in General Smuts they have an able and admirably qualified representative to speak for them in the Allied councils. if * « * Some time ago it was announced by the Admiralty that British naval forces had .sunk a Gorman clectrie-ally-controlled boat off the coast of Belgium. British newspapers since received by mail add some interest--ing details. The type of craft destroyed off the Belgian coast, it is stated, has been known'to the Naval authorities for a considerable time past, and four such boats have alleady been destroyed: They are regarded by the Admiralty as freak vessels. The first came to grief some time ago by running into a pier on tho German coast. Two-others were destroyed as far back as September. Their destruction was made, public, but they were not described :is eleotricai craft. The. fourth was destroyed as announced by the Admiralty. It is explained that the boat had a petrol engine, was electrically* controlled from .the land, and was convoyed by an aeroplane. It is not definitely stated,' however,' whether the control operates with or without wires. Mr. Archibald Hurd, in a recent article in the London Daily Tclci/ntph, rejected the tneory of wireless direction. ..."The device," lie says, "was just"'a moving mine, with controlling wires. The word 'mine' is used advisedly. The hull contains nothing but the propulsive mechanism, consisting ot a very powerful engine, the control gear, and a mass of 'high explosives. As the vessel moves forward she pays out a wire electrically charged, after the manner of the Brennan torpedo, the other end of the wire being secured either on shore or on board a ship beyond the range of attack. Thus this crewless man-of-war can bo moved hither and thither at as fast a speed as the observer on shore may direct. The object, of course, is to make this automobile mine ram one of our ships, and if it be efficiently controlled .and can bring off its bump before it is hit by gunfire, the enemy scores; and there is a joy-day-in Germany.' Whether its movements are directed by aircraft is ' not. .known, but probably this is tho case, the observer up above the sea signalling back to tlie... observer ashore or in the harbour ship what course should be steered."

The point about aerial. direction has been cleared up, as stated above, but whether the boat was controlled by wireless, or, as Mr. Hurd thinks, by means of wires giving electrical control of the steering gear, has not been made known. A boat controlled by the last-mentioned method wottld be a weapon of comparatively limited possibilitos, _ but if mean's were devised of efficiently directing by wireless a swift boat carrying a big explosive charge, the result might be to transform existing conditions of naval warfare. In tho hands of the Allies such a weapon might materially assist a solution of the much-discussed problem of "digging out" the German Fleet. According to Mr. Hurd, British experiments In directing bomb vessels by wireles's_ have failed, but that past experiments in - this category have failed does, not necessarily mean that the problem is insoluble.