PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 32, 1 November 1918, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Both in Allied and enemy countries a general capitulation of the Austro-Hungarian armies is anticipated, but as news stands the Italians are still being strongly opposed in their offensive east of the Piave. Heavy captures of men and artillery have been made—tho latest official report in hand puts the totals at 33,000 prisoners and several hundred guns—and tho enemy has been ousted from an extensive tract of Italian territory, but it is not suggested _ meantime that his defensive organisation has collapsed. It nevertheless seems ■ likely that ho is threatened with a military disaster of great magnitude which he will hardly escape (otherwise than by surrendering before it is too late. • i

Although big captures have already been made, the Italian attack to its present point of development', has been marked by caution and an evident determination to avoid the mistakes of, over-confi-dence. There is.little doubt that so far as tho immediate obstacles to be overcome are _ concerned, the Italians and their allies could easily have made a much more extended advance than they have yet attempted in the' low country east of the Piave. But with the enemy holding the mountains and passes which flank the battle area on tho north ,such an advanco would have given an opening for counter-attack which even the dispirited Austrian armies might have turned to account. The Italians have given no such opening. Thus far they have pursued two main objects. With some assistance from British and French divisions and an American regiment they have broken the enemy's resistance on the Piave and deprived him of that river as a defensive barrier. Simultaneously they have extended their hold eastward along the mountains on their northern flank. As matters stand it is apparently in this area' that they have made their most pronounced progress. Italian troops have reached Vittorio, which stands on tho edge of the mountain country, about ten miles beyond the Piave. Further south they have crossed tho River Monticano and captured Conegliano, a road-centre six or seven miles from the Piave at Montello. The Italians are at once safeguarding their own' flank and levering the enemy away from an important section of his commit-' nidations through the mountains to the north. _ At the same time they are attacking and gaining ground, north of Monte Grappa, the mountain mass from which their ■ line turned south-east by way of Montello and along the Piave to the sea before the present offensive opened.

There are developments full' of peril for the Austrians on their front of more than forty miles between the mountains and the Adriatic. The Italians are rapi'dly creating the conditions which will permit an enveloping movement on tho north. According to one of to-day's messages the .enemy's position is further complicated by heavy inundations of the entire lowlying region along the coast, which allow only the. narrowest territory for an eventual retreat. With these conditions established there is a promise of early and great events in tho Italian official statement that between the Brenta and tho sea (that is to say, on a line extending to the Adriatic from the eastern side of the Trentino) three-quarters of the Italian Army is > engaged, together with the 14th British Army Corps, a French division, and an American infantry regiment. So far as' official pronouncements are concerned it is a departure from precedent to issue such a warning as is here implied. But no doubt in this case it is considered that the enemy is incapable of making adequate preparations to cope with or checkmate the impending attack, and that he may see the wisdom of surrendering without waiting for the blow to fall. It certainly seems likely that if the .Austrians decide otherwise they may discover in the very near future # that the Italian territory over which they advanced so gaily in the closing days of last year was a gift from the Greeks. * a *■ *

Except in the area north of Verdun, where the Americans have made an appreciable forward step, no very important event is reported at time of writing in the Western theatre. Tile French arc not making as rapid progress as they lately seemed likely to in driving in what remains of the enemy salient between the Oise and the Aisnc, but they arc probably making only a limited effort in this region. It' is on and towards the flanks of

the German line, rather than in the centre, that big developments are to be expected. The American achievement iu capturing the village of Aiugreville, which stands three miles west of the Mouse and fifteen miles north-west of Verdun, is measured by the fact that in this region the enemy is desperately contesting every foot of ground. On their front astride the Mouse the Americans havo advanced very slowly in recent days, but they are gradually breaking into a range of positions which, with the railways in rear, are vital to the stability of the enemy's defensive organisation even if he should fall back to the Antwerp line, and from that to the line of the Meuse.

Political turmoil in Germany, real or alleged, again bulks large in the news, to-day, but it is quite impossible to test the accuracy or precise significance of this or that report. Essential facts, however, are emphasised in a reply made by Lord Robert Cecil to a questioner in the House of Commons. The Assistant Foreign Secretary stated that there was no evidence that the power of the- Bundesrat—the German Federal Council—had been in any way modified, and further that the German Ministers who now pretend to speak as a people's Government were appointed by the Kaiser and arc presumably liable to dismissal at his hands. ' The.Bundesrat for practical purposes works in secret, without reference to the popular wjll, and exercises absolute authority in the region' of Imperial affairs. There is no evidence meantime that-popular forces have gained or are gaining the upper hand in Germany. Possibilities of bringing the war to an end and imposing just conditions of peace are measured,. however, rathei' by the likelihood of an early collapse of the Dual Monarchy, which would make Germany's position hopeless, than by any expectation of spontaneous reform in the ' latter country.