THE WAR SITUATION REVIEWED

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 147, 11 March 1918, Page 5

THE WAR SITUATION REVIEWED

RUSSIA, SALONIKA, AND THE COMING OFFENSIVE TREMENDOUS PREPARATIONS TO MEET ATTACK London, March a In his speech in the House of Commons, on the motion for the war creclit, Mr. Bonar Law, surveying tho war situation, said: "We have knowledge that the Germans promised Turkey thai, they would expel the British frotn Mesopotamia, but they were forced to abandon their plans. Though Germany hoped to obtain much food from llussia, the British Government's information is that food produced in Russia thisyear will barely supply Russia herself. _ From every point of view, it is unlikely that Germany will be able to exploit Russia. We have probably a slight superiority in men and guns on the Western front, but wo are overwhelmingly superior in the air. Our forces iu France have been working to the utmost to strengthen the defences, and the results have been wonderful. We used more barbed wire in January and February than iu the whole of 1917. I am somewhat sceptical about the German offensive. Unsatisfactory situation at Salonika. The general position at- Salonika was unsatisfactory, ho added, but it was due to Russia's collapse. We did not oxpect a year ago to be purely on tho defensive. The General commanding recognised tho position at Salonika might become dangerous, as the Central Powers, with better communications, might send forcos which it would be difficult, perhaps impossible, for us to meet, but Germany's man power was not inexhaustible. She could not do everything at once. Sho would pay dearly for every yard of advance. It wag not difficult to justify He expedition. If it had not been sent Ger-

many would have controlled the Greok harbours, which wore vital for t* .i If tnc_enernv secured them and used them as submarine bases, it would be almost impossible to keep up communications with Egypt. The victories in \ Wjsopotamia and Palestine were not only n, moral and material gain, but an j immense military accession of strength. Lord Kitchener had estimated the troops necessary to save Egypt from invasion to be far larger than the total ; now operating in Mesopotamia and Palestine. i Unity Will Win. He had no doubt that if the Allies held together they could secure the results which they set out to achieve. Unless the Germans learnt that war did not pay, and that it was no longer possible for a group of men to plunge the world into misery, peace would be a defeat for the Allies. If the question of continuing the war. were submitted to a referendum of Britain the result would astonish the enemy and ourselves.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. MR. ASQUITH ON THE OUTLOOK . .. " London, March 8. Mr. Asqulth, in a speech at Cupar, in Scotland, said there were two keys' to the world position—the command of the seas and the.West front. Both remained in the Allies' hands. The submarine inroads, on the mercantile ' marine would collapse. Russia presented new and formidable dangers, hut "\ they did not fill us with apprehension. The so-called peace negotiations provided an instructive contrast between Germany's pretensions and her intentions. While Count von Hertling was professing acceptance of President Wilson's four principles, welcoming a Court of International Arbitra- '■ tioii,_and approving of the League of Nations, to which the- hulk of us, here and in America, look for the only effective safeguard, his subordinates were wanting terms not of treaty but of capitulation as harsh and humiliating as any in history, ruthlessly and recklessly mutilating a great national unity. If these Were carried out they would sow the weds of conflicts and embroil nations for generations.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.