Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star SATURDAY. JUNE 2 1917 THE WEEK.

Hokitika Guardian, 2 June 1917, Page 2

Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star SATURDAY. JUNE 2 1917 THE WEEK.

The Italian offensive continuea to be tbe chief fighting feature of the week. The lull on tbe western theatre, has been fnlly filled in by tbe punishing tactics along the Italian front. British artillery and British monitors have been participating in the gunchorus which is boomiDg the way to ' Trieste, the fall of which has been long predicted and somewhat deferred. The pause on the "Gorizia front was certainly a long one, but tbe time was devoted, evidently, to VB*y careful preparation, and the progress of tbe war now is showing the fruits* Simultaneous with Italy’s activity on the war front we have the Italian mission talking in the United States. Of all tbe addresses to America nothing has been said more coDoisely and to the point than Prince Undine’s speech to the Smate. Ha pnt the cause for the world war in a nutshell

when he said that “ the little nations which were entirely guiltless, and which had produced masterpieces of art and treasures of industry, bad been barbarously flaorificed.” He told, too, how personal slavery bad been introduced into Europe, equal to the worst period of medieval invasions. These two plain statements must have roused the sleeping conscience of the most indifferent Senator, and awakened him to the fact emphasised by the Italian Prince that the day would oomß when the Allied nations will be proud of their sufferings. Italy thus looms large in the war’s happenrago this week, and this prominence removes all reason for donbt and uncertainty as to just what was happening within during the period of our ally’s quietude. The Bitnation in internal Russia is still very complex and not very heartening. The mix-up following the revolution seems to deepen, and the cross purposes at which the different Russian parties are working seem to give point to the statement by a press correspondent that German intrigue is at the bottom of all the trouble. However, that may be there is no doubt the great,'huge nation is quite at sixes and sevens. It seems impossible to expect that so unwieldly a mass can be mouldered again into cohesion to be of useful purpose to help win the war. General Kerensky’s tour is reported to be a success *>mong the soldiers. Rub ia certainly wants the man to lead. The hour has W6i! struck, and if General Keren* ky should prove to be the mu tbe Allied cause will be well served. As fvr as one can discern things on a horizon so far off and so much c ragged with moving figure?, he is the one man who might be the sure instrument to emcees?, Russia cannot, baps for her regeneration from tbe present crisis in the political cabals which are inf;sting the capital. They are too contradictory of each other, too visiona. y in their outlook. Toey do not realise thatliw aud order art the'essential qhirgs for national strength, and so . permit them*elves to bo torn asunder t-Jl the time w.lt arrive .'hat they will bean easy victim lor an enemy to prey on, or* the time will eventuate when they will he torn asu dec themselves" by an internal civil war. The outlook for Russia is indeed bad, but it is not hopeless. The French, British, and American Minions 3ft re hastening to assis*, and an I flux of Japanese soldiers would be a useful antidote. This latter cont.ugenc7 has been suggested. Perhaps it is being aoted upon, The long campaign in East Africa is apparently now drawing fast towards a conclusion. When the heavy l rains set in the remaining Germans i bud been driven into the difficult country between the Rufigi river and the road from Kilwa to Lake Nyassa. They ware in two main g r oups, one concentrated in the Rufigi valley towards the coast, aud tbe other in the Mahengo region, further inland. The British pre*aurd had coma chiefly from the north and north- .vest, bat a line of pos ; s has been established westward of Mahengs, aud apparently when the weather broke a complete cordon was steadily being drawn round tbe regions in which the Germane wtre located. It was estimated that there were still some 40 or 50 thousand square miles of territory over which the enemy might retreat, so that the task of enveloping them would have employed a hage force. South-west and south there were possible ways of retreat, the sonth-weßt route leading down towards Nyassa and the south towards Portuguese territory. There was apparently an intention to land British troops on the coast south of tbe Rofigi, but tbe difficulties of transport in broken and largely unmapped country were very considerable, and the'rains came before plans in this direction could be matured. It is now stated that with the end of ths rainy season tbe Germans commenced to move southwards, away from the British columns. Of the main enemy force, we know only that it is ranging over a broad tract of territory northwards of theNovuma River, occasional columns raiding in Portuguese territory. The Mahenge forte marched south-west, bat split, and one portion slipped away to the north wist, and wai subsequently encountered by Belgian columns sixty miiea south of Tabcra. At the beginning of tho oampaign last year there were aboat 16.000 enemy troops under arms, largply native levies, of course, but ia tbe subsequent rettvat this army must have melted away ratber rapidly, and probably there era not now half as many to be accounted for.