Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star TUESDAY. APRIL 3 1917 THE BRITISH IN PALESTINE.

Hokitika Guardian, 3 April 1917, Page 2

Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star TUESDAY. APRIL 3 1917 THE BRITISH IN PALESTINE.

The British advance into Palestine, says the military critic of the Lyttelton Times, proceeds by one of the moat ancient of roads, and has now reached the plain of Philistie, Fifteen miles from Rafa, following the Coast route, the Wady Ghuzzeh is reached and five miles to the north is the ancient city of Gaza. An official message states that the advance was pushed to the Wady Ghuzzeh “ for the purpose of covering the construction of the railway.” The Turks possibly thought the opportunity had come to attack the British Hank as well as to hold the Wady line, and they had been gathered in considerable strength, for a force of 20,000 was beaten off. Their mein base for the operations against Egypt has been at Beeraheba, twenty-five or thirty miles inland, and it is quite possible that the British will follow their success by an advance in that direction, That the British forces are Bnffioient to clean up the whole business is apparent from reoent events, and the natural course would be to remove entirely the danger of hostile excursions on tho Egyptian frontier before proceeding with any great extension of (be campaign. The advance into Palestine, however, may have the effect of removing that danger, withouc the necessity for operations directly against Beersheba. The Turks have been very severely handled in all the recent engagements, and the strong mounted force employed has enabled the British to intercept the enemy’s retrea', to carry out large enveloping movements uud couscqueut-

ly to capture great quantities of war material, of which the enemy command in the region must now be experiencing a sarioua shortage. The capture of a Tnrkish divisional general and his staff suggests that the mounted men played a very important part in the fighting on the Waddy Ghnzzeh, and the pursuits is likely to produce further useful results. Failing the arrival of enemy reinforcements, the farther advance of the British can hardly be seriously opposed, though its pace will depend, no doubt, on the rate of construction cf the railway. At present the operations are beirg carried on over a fertile plain t rising to the east, where nndulating country is experienced, and beyond that is a formidable hill barrier. Except where the hiils came down towards Jaffa, the plaia offers an easy route to the north, but beyond Haifa it narrows until at one point the coast road is cat out of the rock. What the British plans may be in regard to this expedition into Prlestiae can only be guessed. The force employed is obviously considerable, for six infantry regiments are mentioned in the despatch, and the Anzac mounted division is also engaged, while one knows from earlier messages that there are other units in the region. The probability that Egyptian, Mesopotamian and Armenian Allies are working under one general plan is obvious enough, even though tha three armies are widely separated. They are all attacking Tarkey, and allot them are in euf ■ fioieui force to render the crushing of them in detail s» difficult task unless the forces opposing at least one of them are considerably weakened. None of the threo is striking immediately at the heart of Turkey, but their lines of advance are converging, and the eastern two—the Russians in Armenia and the British in Mesopotamia —may shortly be able to work together, provided the Turks do not make a very speedy recovery from recent disasters. The British in Syria are already opening a threat, against the enemy’s lines of communication with Mesopotamia, although Aleppo is still many miles away, and General Maude’s strong army at Bagdad cannot be effectively met unless steps are taken to stop the British advance from -Egypt, It is worthy of consideration that the British, both in Syria and Mesopotamia, are building railways as they advance, but on the Syiian Hide it may ultimately be possible to open now lines o? communication, though there is no re dly practicable port south of Haifa. Giza itself has no port, and Joppa, in spite of the increase of the passenger traffic before the war, has what is described as an apology for a port. Haifa, however, is quite well placed, and so is Beirut, to the north, though there the outer anchorage is unsafe. IJow-

ever the country is favourable to the defence if the Turks aim at stopping the British advance, and they have a railway through Damascus for the transput of troops and supplies, eo that it is looking rather for ahead to discuss the prospects of support from the sea for the B'itish Army io Syria. With Anril the rainy ee-arn comes to an end, and for six month* the forces in Palestine will have to depend op the wells and stored water, except when they reach one of tho perennial streams.