PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 262, 24 July 1918, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Further reports to-day confirm the recent announcement that the United States and Japan have reached an agreement in regard to intervention in Siberia, and some indications arc given o£ tho lines on which it is proposed to act. According to a Washington correspondent the two Powers will combine in a joint military expedition, but it will merely hold Vladivostok as a base- for' the Czccho-Slovaks in their operations against the released jAusfcro-Gcrinan prisoners who arc at largo in considerable strength in sonjc. parts of. Siberia. If the correspondent is right in his assumption that the other Allied Powers will not participate, this is no doubt merely a matter of convenience. It is fairly certain that any action jointly approved by Japan and America will command the approval of the rest of the Allied rowers.

In view of tho enterprising fashion in which the (Jzecho-Slovaks have sot themselves to restore order in Siberia, it seems by no moants inipossiblc that intervention on tho lines now suggested may contribute in a valuable degree to the restoration of Kussia and to the defeat of German schemes of penetration. At all events the experiment should either produce satisfactory results or demonstrate that bolder action is demanded equally in Russia's interests and in the general interests of the Allies. Epitomising the view taken in Washington, an American writer observed recently that it was obvious that if tho rohef of Russia was to be undertaken it must be through the Far Eastern gateway. "The suggestion has been strongly made hero," ho went on lo remark, "that aid extended to Russia in Siberia, if accomplished through Slavic olcmonfa and without friction, would eventually lead to the establishment of other district governments sympathetic to the cause of tho Allies, which would soon he eligible to receive further aid, and that, gradually, this assistance could bo extended, Russia, rehabilitated, aiid strong anti-Ger-man sentiment built up and supOf the Czecho-Sl6vaks the same writqr observed that: "They are substantially the only troops in Russia to-day who do not regard themselves as bound by the BrestI Litovsk treaty or subject to orders from tho Soviets alone. Thesetroops, in part, marched from tho Austrian to the Russian trendies with bands playing, and, in effect, enlisted to fight the Central Powers to a finih'h. Their status in .Russia is unassailable, and their relationship to the •β-nlcnte principles of continuing the war unquestioned."

To-day's reports point to a tremendous intensity of conflict on many parts of the Aisne-Marno battlefront, but at time of writing no very important movement is disclosed. The enemy is said to /bo drawing upon the reserves of his northern armies in efforts to improve the highly unfavourable situation in which ho is placed, but thus far his efforts to this end have been without success. Even if they make no rapid progress, the Allies have tvery reason to bo satisfied with the situation as it stands. They dominate the enemy's chief communications in the Marnc salient, and throughout its area he is fighting at a heavy disadvantage. It would be difficult to imagine a jrreatcr contrast than that between his present position and the nodtion he hoped to attain when he resumed the offensive ton days ago. An unofficial report credits the Germans with a small but important recovery of ground between the Oin'cq and the Marnc, but the latest French communique in hand shows that any' advance has been made it has taen made by the Allies.