NOTES ON THE WAR.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVI, Issue 16751, 5 January 1915, Page 7

NOTES ON THE WAR.

ON LAND AND SEA.

appears fairly to have *sken command of operations in France, and if the wet spell continues for any length of time it may profoundly affect the relative positions at particular points. In Flanders probably both sides will suffer alike, for on all flat country the drainage of the entrenchments will be a very serious problem, and it may even be found necessary to abandon flooded lines. Perhaps by this time the engineers have found a solution of the difficulty, though the report that many men are suffering in the feet from the continuous standing in water does not suggest that the conditions are at all satisfactory. And yet even in flat country the draining of the trenches cannot be impossible, in view of the number of men available. It sometimes happens that field works have to be constructed in land where water occurs in quantity close to the surface, and then the problem of drainage simply has to he solved.

But whatever devioes may be adopted for the improvement of the trench system the conditions under which tke men are fighting must he dreadfully distressing. It is a fairly iisafe guess that the hospitals on both sides are crowded with rheumatism and pneumonia cases. It is stated by a French correspondent that the Aisne and M.euse fronts are the healthiest, the sufferings of the men there being due chiefly to the intense cold. A good deal of snow has fallen all over the wide battlefield, but naturally the Vosges area has had most of it, and according to reports the troops in this high country have suffered singularly little during the cold ssells..

Some very vivid stories are told in the English journals of the flooding of the country south of the Yser, occupied by the Germans. The suggestion came from one of the keepers of the great sluices at Nieuport, controlling the water in the canals. He pointed out to the Belgian engineers that by using the railway embankment as a dyke and by breaking canal banks at particular sections, most of the land in which there were German trenches and gun positions would be flooded. His plan was adopted. The culverts in the railway embankment were filled in and the fire of heavy guns was concentrated on the canal banks. The banks soon gave, way and the water poured over the surrounding country. In some cases German guns have been located in the midst of five or six feet of water. In these circumstances it is not at all surprising that this area of country was speedily clear of the enemy.

The earlier report received yesterday showed that the Allies had continued to make progress in the neighbourhood of Albert. On the Aisne they had some success on the plateau of Nouvron, rising ground, some 150 feet above sea level, to the north-west of Soissons. In this area the Allies are well clear of the river but to the east of Boissons, at Celles, Vailly, Ohavonne and Soupir, the bluffs come right down to the stream and the hills rise sharply to the north. Further east, at Vendresse, Craonelle and Craonne, the Allies' lines are probably three or four miles north of the river. The only other position that calls for comment is that in southern Alsace. There have been reports of French activity during the past few weeks to the north-west of Altkirch and also to the south of the town, but now the advance appears to have reached a point from which the town itself can be shelled. The recent progress in this region has been quite substantial.

One of the features of the cam* paign on the Russian side is the use that von Hindenburg—recently created a Field-Marshal—is making of his railways. There is no room for doubt that ho concentrated a very powerful reserve on the Vistula at Thorn and Graudenz, which was utilised when, at the Kaiser's direction, he undertook the invasion of Russia by Napoleon's chosen route. That enterprise was held up in the Suwallri government, and after tho retreat into East Prussia the force left in the Lakes region was only sufficient to hold back the Russians. The rest of the army was hurried to Posen and assisted in the advance into Poland. Tho way for this invasion was prepared by a special force that had: been organised at Kalisz. The second invasion of Poland, following on the retreat from the Vistula, was intended to be a great enveloping movement, the strong German left having been organised at Thorn even while the bulk of the German forces was still retreating. The, interesting question is where von Hindenburg will attempt his next demonstration. The battle on the Bzura and Rawka has by this time developed in such a way tihat there is no prospect of a German enveloping movement from the north, but two lines of railway, assuming them to have been restored, can be utilised to concentrate forces in the Tomaszow region, where a forward German movement has lately been announced.

The Turks do not appear to be making any particular progress with their military operations. The campaign against Russia, in the absence of good maps, is rather difficult to follow, and probably the average reader haa not yet felt sufficient interest in the movements to invest in a good map of the country. Details of the strength of the opposing forces are not yet available. The earlier operations were chiefly confined to the frontier guards, hut the Russians made an extensive excursion for tho purpose of disturbing the Turkish concentration in the Ezerum district. At any rate there is no evidence to suggest that the Russians ever seriously undertook the invasion of Turkish territory, and it looks as if the war von this front were only just beginning in earnest. The big defeat Buffered by the Turks shows that Etiver Pasha was in rather too great a hurry with his plans for the invasion of Russia. Von der Goltz, who is said to have left Constantinople to take command of the Turks, will not make the same sort of mistake. Von der Goltz, by the way, ought to know what the Turkish Army can accomplish, because he was head of the German mission that reorganised it a few years ago.

There are only rumours concerning the menace against Egypt. The appointment of Djavid Pasha to command tho. Turkish Army of tho south came rather as a surprise, because Djavid was certainly not in the confidence of tho conspirators who forced on this war, and although ho was Minister of Marine he did not even know what the Goeben and Breslau were undertaking hostile operations against Russia in the Black Sea. It is stated that Djavid died the night he reached Jerusalem , to take command there, but in view of the utter unreliability of information concerning the Turkish preparations it is scarcely' worth while commenting en the reports. Djavid Pasha, by the way, was one of the Ministers named as intended, victims of an assassination jalot lately discovered in Constantinople,