THE SERBIAN CAMPAIGN.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIII, Issue 36, 12 October 1915, Page 4

THE SERBIAN CAMPAIGN.

I Tho hows of the Fall of Belgrade is [ at first a spectacular alarm, but it ' must not he regarded, as some think. a s decisive. Belgrade is on one side of the Danube and Hungary is on the other side of the river so that a crossing of the river covered by heavy CJerman-Austro artillery is not such a great undertaking. This war has proved that entrenchments in strong positions are more ably defended than ■ cities which are a death-trap in the face of heavy artillery. The Serbs have strongly placed positions south and south-east of Belgrade in the Halien Mountains which form a horseshoe, the eastern wing of which extends as far north a-, Semendria. The disastrous .Austrian invasion in the early part of the war commenced with a retreat from Belgrade to those mountains. The Austrians pursued them from easi and west of Belgrade horn the Drina on one side and up the valley of the Moiava on the other. The Morava valley is said to lie flooded ai present. The railway to Nisn runs down this valley. Therefore the. invader to continue advancing has to leave railway facilities and use the rough country roads. The Serbs are reported to have some 300,000 veteran warriors who have seen actual warfare in prepared positions. These troops in the earlv part of the war were cleverly handled and utterly

routed the enemy who was exhausted by his march and without the munitions and supplies necessary for an arduous mountain campaign. "Whether tiie Germans ran overcome these difficulties is Raid to say. 'nit it is sure that the Serbians are ready for them, and assisted by British naval gunners wil] succeed in delaying the advance sufficiently to render the prospect of relief of the Turks remote. The Serbians are practically safe from attack in the south by the Bulgarians, whose intention was dramatically thwarted by the arrival of Allied troops at Gyevgeli in southern Serbia,near the Strumnitza where the Bulgarians are concentrated. The fear of a stroke front the Allies, either from Serbia or from the s ea coast, will probably keep the Bulgarians at their wit's end and fully occupied. Generally, the p-i<i-tion of the Serbs is better than when the Austriaiis invaded their country early in the war. Protected from Bulgarian attack by the danger of the Allies and the uncertain sphinx-like attitude of Boumania and Greece, Servia can bring practically her full force? to bear against the northern invasion.