PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 205, 18 May 1918, Page 6

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

On the bare particulars thus far supplied, the exploit of an Italian naval officer and throe petty officers in entering the port of Pola and torpedoing an Austrian Dreadnought promises to stand out as one of the most daring of the war. If, as seems to be implied, the torpedo struck home, the affair should constitute a record also in regard to the amount of damage inflicted on the enemy by a given force. Italian naval forces have on a number of occasions raided and bombarded Trieste, but in the raid on Pola, which is Austria's chief naval base, much more formidable dangers and difficulties had to be faced and overcome than at Trieste. Nothing is said in available reports about, the character of the Italian craft which made the attack, but since only four Italian sailors were engaged, the contcst evidently was of the David and Goliath order. So small a crew cannot have operated a submarine, and it is improbable that a launch' carrying a spar torpedo could penetrate a formidably fortified naval port like Pola. In the circumstances it seems likel> that the attacking craft was of a type which has been evolved during the war—a vessel combining some ol the features of a seaplane with those of a shallow-draught motorlaunch. Not much is known about these craft, but they exist; they are much swifter than any launch of normal type, and are _ capablo oi carrying and discharging a torpedo. Such a craft, gallantly handled, may have been responsible for the attack on the Austrian battleship.

There are four Dreadnoughts of the Viribus Unitis class in the Austrian fleet, and one of them at least has been completed since the war began. They are ships of twenty thousand tons displacement, carrying each twelve 12-inch guns in their main batteries and a secondary armament of twelve 6-inch guns. They have a designed speed of 21' knots. Further details of tho Italian exploit will be. awaited with interest. Assuming that the reports as yet in hand arc accurate, the ship struck was in any case one of the four best Austrian Dreadnoughts, and it may have been the latest addition to the capital fleet of the Dual Monarchy.

There is still no definite change from tho conditions which have now ruled for some weeks on the Western front, but the continued stress of aerial fighting and raiding suggests that the lull is 'ikely to be broken in the near futuro. . Somo reports to-day which speak of an increasing vigour of artillery bombardment, ; notably '.in Flanders, point to the same conclusion. ■

The terms in which General Maurice refers, in an article quoted to-day, to the appointment of General Foch as Generalissimo make it more than ever difficult to understand why he made his extraordinary attack ou the leading memC'crs of the War Cabinet, but are at least satisfactory as indicating that opposition to the unificatioirof the Allied command has withered even in Britain—it hardly arose elsewhere —to insignificant proportions. As far as they are quoted, General Maurice's observations make out an excellent case for the centralisation of command which has been effected. 110 remarks that themt-i----cal days of March made..the appointment "of a supreme, commander urgent, though previously the- English. and French were able to "rub along" independently. It can hardly be doubted that they would have "rubbed along" to still better effect had the command "been -centraliscd at an earlier date;. 1

It was reported a clay or two ago that the Allies had replied to enemy overtures through the Geneva _ organisation on the subject of poison gas that while they wore prepared to consider the abandonment of. this weapon, they attached no value to German promises, and must take measures accordingly. The explanation of Germany s action in this matter is possibly supplied by a correspondent of the New fork Evening I'otl, who' observed in a recent letter to that journal that in the matter of poison gas "the German co-ordination of science and efficiency had fallen down again.". Ho adds:' "Any German professor ought to have been able to tell the Ivaiseh, before he introduced gas into the war, that the prevailing winds of the temperate zone arc westerly, so that the advantage from the use of gas will be reaped, by the combatant who occupies the western position, so that it is to the advantage of the eastern combatant to maintain the doctrine that gas is foul play and must never bo used." Probably it hardly occurred to the writer here quoted that Germany would in fact prove equal to the masterpiece of hypocrisy lie ironically suggests. !