The Dominion. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER. 23, 1918. THE WAR IN THE EAST

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 1, 23 September 1918, Page 4

The Dominion. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER. 23, 1918. THE WAR IN THE EAST

Fairi.y plaia evidence has been supplied during the last few days that tho Entente Powers have no thought of neglecting such opportunities for effective action as exist in tho outlying theatres. On the Macedonian front the Allies have opened and are vigorously developing an offensive which threatens the enemy's main communications along the Vartlar, and may compel him presently to undertake an extended retreat. Equally promising events are reported in Palestine. The Anglo-Indian army in that theatre has attacked with brilliant success. The Turks have been driven out of strong defensive positions extending inland from the coast ten miles north of Jaffa, and are retiring north in disorder, closely pursued and .with' their lines of .retreat in some places seriously menaced. Even in their immediate aspect these events supply a fairly conclusive answer to those who urge that any diversion of Allied strength from Western Europe, is unwise. It is, of course, universally admitted that the central'issues of the war will be determined on the battlefront which extends from the North Sea. to the Adriatic, and that it is on this front that ; the Allies are best placed to develop an overwhelming superiority of strength. But it does not by any means follow that tho Allies can afford to bo content with conditions of stalemate in tho theatres in which they arc in contact with Germany's minor allies. At the narrowest view', and as a means of hastening military victory, it is certainly desirablethat all possible, pressure should be bidught to bear upon Bulgaria, and Turkey, and it has an important bearing on the matter that the season which best lends itself to active campaigning In the Turkish theatres corresponds"; with _ that in_ which there is of necessity a considerable slackening of activity in -Western Europe. But it is to be said also that .prospects of inaugurating a .stable and lasting- peace at the end of the war are in'a material degree dependent upon the ability of the Allies to reverse and transform ex.-, isting conditions in Eastern Europe and on the confines of Asia. In its baldest form the idea- that the war will be won and lost in Western Europe, and that anything that happens elsewhere is of minor importance, takes far too much'lfor granted. Indeed, any view which ignores or the fact that new dangers have arisen in tho East which must be, as far as possible, directly met and countered, is radically unsound. A positive reminder on the point was given in the news which arrived last week of the British withdrawal from Baku. In its simplest terms this news means that Germany ; driving eastward by a route which was unthought of when the present war opened, has gained a commanding position on the western shores of the Caspian Sea. Tho establishment of a British garrison at Baku was at best in the nature of a forlorn-hope. All but a very small part of tho Caucasian territory was already under Turco-Gci'man influence before the mission to Baku was undertaken. Tho force detailed for the enterprise was of necessity small, and it was dangerously isolated. It is , not surprising that it has been compelled to withdraw after suffering!heavily in an unequal contest with superior enemy forces, The failure of Armenian support at Baku affords the last proof needed that the Armenian and Georgian tribes in the' Caucasus arc incapable, for the time at lSist, of a bold effort f6r their . own liberation. It has been well said that in their progress to the Caspian the Turks are opening new paths of Asiatic empire to Germany The possibilities raised are dealt with by Mn. J. A. R. Marriott, in a, recent article in tho Fortnightly ■ Review. Observing that while Germany's schemes of penetration in Asia Minor and Mesopotamia have been blocked by the success of British arms, tlic folly and pusillanimity of Eussian anarchists have offered her alternative routes to the Far East, ho adds :■— It cannot be pretended tliat Berlin to Bokhara is quito as attractive a project as Berlin to Basra. The Tralis-Cuspian line is neither so direct nor so convenient as the Bagdad-bahn, but it must bo confessed that it is in the last degree exasperating to tho opponents of Germany that as soon as the carlior and superior project han been defeated, n very tolerable alternative should have revealed itself. Nor mtist it ho forgotten that tho routo Via Kieft and Baku runs through a country which is exceptionally rich-in grain, oil, and minerals. lm-' portent commercially, the route is not loss - important strategically. Ono of tlio I stations on the trunk road to linkhara is Merv, whence a branch line runs to the frontier of Afghanistan. Tho menace implied in tho mention of those names cannot prudently be ignored: though it may bo admitted that a line of communication depending for its continuity upon the good will of Poles, Cossacks, and Armenians, to say nothing of tho tribes of the Trans-Caspian' provinces, can hardly bo described as comfortably secure. As regards the gravity of the issues raised by the extension of Germany's new eastward drive muclvof course, depends upon the possibilife of recovery and reconstruction in Russia. But a state of affairs in which Germany, with Turkey acting on her behalf, controls the whole length of the Trans-Caucasian railway to its terminus at Baku, is not one with which the Allies can afford to be satisfied. In view of the menace to the buffer states adjoining India, Britain is even more closely concerned than her Allies to devise effective counter-measures. Lateevents at Baku illustrate the difficulty of directly' defeating Germany's sEastcrn projects in tho shapethey have now taken, but fortunately there are other means of approaching this _ result. Decidedly the moet promising would seem to be effective action in the Balkans and in the Turkish Asiatic theatres. Both Turkey and Bulgaria a.re weakened in their allegiance to tho Central Empires, and Turkey has suffered heavily by internal disruption and disorganisation and in a long series of military defeats. If she were compelled by further misfortunes in the field to sue for peace, far more important results would be involved than the elimination of one of Germany's minor allies. .Compelling Turkey to capitulate, the Allies would gain naval access to the Black Sea, aiicT on that account alone would bo infinitely better placed than they are to-day to checkmate Germany's revised projects of Eastern expansion.