CURRENT WAR TOPICS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIII, Issue 72, 24 November 1915, Page 5

CURRENT WAR TOPICS.

The latest news is of a decidedly encouraging nature, and there seems to he no doubt that Kitchener’s mission has borne good fruit. ' This is to be seen in the denial by the British Office; of any seizure of Greek * vessels, oi" that there is‘ a blockade of Greek ports. -To some s readers tliis may mean that the cables have been telling- theria more lies, but more, than likely—nay, it may; be taken for granted—the ! screw' that was > put on > until the accomplishment oft Kitchener’s mission has beent loosened. -It is well this is so', for the temper of the; Greek people might have given avay under the strain of too lengthy or too severe measures of such a kind, that is to say, public opinion now favoring the Entente might have veered found to the side of the Prussian Field ‘ Marshal, their King, Constantine. ' The excitement which, we are informed, prevailed at Piraeus will no doubt have subsided, and'lye take it that the result of, the : lengthy Cabinet sitting after Kitchener left is to he read in 'k the Foreign Office’s denial of a blockade. Piraeus is the harbor and port of *i Athens and is six miles distant from that city. The harbor was commenced about 450 8.C., and was for some time connected with Athens by two walls, each 60 feet in height, enclosing a road , between them. Piraeus exports huge quantities of marble, the shipment in 1910 being 8,553,600 tons. There are also flour and cotton mills, machinery factories, soap works, distilleries and shipping. It is the chief port of entry in Greece for imports, which amount to over £2,000,000 annually. ’ With the foregoing news before us, the reason for the inactivity of the Allies, or perhaps, their apparent inability to link up with the pressed Serbians is easily accounted for. There was, of course, the danger of Greek action imperilling the whole of the Allied forces. Now that some, sore of understanding appears to have been arrived at, a forward move to I the, Serbians’ assistance may’ at any j moment be expected. The capture by, the French of an important- height 1 near Velds in face of big Bulgarian 1 odds is a fresh triumph for General I SarraiL, who is nothing if not a brilliant strategist. t

Not the least pleasing of the news to-day is the marked success which has attended the Allies’ flying corps on the Western Campaign. For some time, especially at the beginning ot the war, writers harped upon the sluggishness of the British authorities in aerial warfare, but we have had plenty of evidence recently that this matter, has been remedied to a big degree, and now it may safely be said that Britain’s air fleet can be trusted with any job that requires looking into o’er land and sea. The credit of bagging ‘seven of the enemy’s aeroplanes as announced to-day must not, however, be claimed for the British aviators alone. Our good friend and Ally, France, without doubt, leads the way in aerial navigation, while in the matter of dating the Frenchmen are unsurpassed, and these brave fellows, you can go nap, have had a hand in this great achievement. Time is daily proving more feasible even the bombardment I of Krupps, and that, too, with very successful results. i The Mediterranean seems to have become the principal field of German submarine activity just now. At first ( it was the North Sea, and then some of the bigger and recently-finished ves-

sols slipped round past the Gib, and got to work in the Aegean, where they succeeded' in torpedoing the Triumph, Irresistible, Ocean, and the rest off the Gallipoli Peninsula. But after a while, when the big ships retired, for the most part, to protected harbors and the monitors came'in, their activities in both these i seas very much di-j mini shed. They were never able to get inside British ports, or through the ! eastern mouth, of the Channel, and after a few acts of carelessness by ,the British‘authorities ,(as for instance in the. case of, the three Cressys,. which need never have been sunjt). ,thp list of submarined warships everywhere came practically to an. end. That is, as far as 1 German submarines, wave concerned, for the British submarines have still been able to do business with German warships, as in the case of the Pemmern and'the Moltke, not to mention smaller vessels. The Germans continued amusing themselves in the North Sea by sinking harmless merchantmen and drowning their crews. Lately, hqwever, they seem almost to have deserted the North Sea for the' Mediterranean. .It may he that a useful base-.or bases, hidden somewhere about ,the ; Irish coast, have been discovered by the British authorities, and closed permanently, so that they have nowhere to look in and'refit. But it is much more, likely , ( tfie,V have gone where they realise 'thby can do the most harm. There should he a good chance of establishing submarine bases along the shores or among the islands of the Mediterranean, and in the track of the Salonika-bound transports there ai-e splendid opportunities for destruction. German submarines do not work at the same time iilrboth seas, simply because there are not enough of them. There is good evidence that the Allies have been sinking them at a- rate rather faster than Germany can build. Nor are the protective methods which the British Navy has found so successful in other waters failing here.

There were many people, amateur Napoleons and professional critics, who, when Sir lan Hamilton was recalled; patted themselves on the hack and told their next door neighbour (and any others who happened to be within earshot, and that not necessarily a yard away): “I said all along that Hamilton was no good.” Many have rushed their opinions into print, and one of these gentlemen has found that his opinion is not held by the men who were commanded by Sir lan Hamilton. Chaplain-Captain Bush-King made assertions in the Otago Daily Times which brought forth the following reply sent* from the nine members of the Medical Corps who were in Gallipoli tilil the end of July;—

“It is hardly fair that even an army chaplain who has'been in Gallipoli should be allowed to cast aspersions on the fighting qualities,of a general, unless he is fully cognisant of facts. In this morning’s issue of the Daily Times Chaplain-captain Bush-King asserts that General Sir lan Hamilton was never at Anzac, infers that this was due to lack of personal courage, and draws a picture of New Zealand and Australian troops fighting with nothing but their sense of duty to uphold them. We do not know where the chaplain was during the latter part of June, ’hut it is common knowledge amongst many returned soldiers that General Hamilton landed at Anzac one morning, visited headquarters, and several points in the line. We know , this because we saw him personally, 1 and are not relying on second-hand information. Those who saw General Hamilton in New Zealand, and were inspected by him, would not be likely to forget him. To assert that the Colonial troops were disappointed with their leader is liable to create an absolutely erroneous, a distance of 10 end of July, at any rate, it is safe to

say that all ranks had the greatest confidence in his ability, and it came as a great surprise to us to learn that he had been recalled. Another point in which Captain Bush-King is wrong is that he says that General Hamilton’s headquarters were at Lemnos, and that he could not possibly get to the Peninsula’ in under four hours. The’ general’s headquarthat a commander-in-chief’s life is far to 12 miles from Anzac Beach, and in a fast little despatch boat—which ho often used, th.it distance could have been easily covered in an hour. “We are more of the opinion which Mr Tennant expressed in the House of Commons at Home when he said that General Hamilton was more with his men than any other general. “The above was one occasion only on which Sir lan Hamilton visited Anzac, and ho may have been there at other times that we did not know' of. But Australasian trops at any rate realise that a commander-in-chief’s life is far too valuable to lie needlessly exposed by daily life in a shell-swept zone. “We were on the Peninsula for 14 weeks, not in a fighting unit, but in the New' Zealand Medical Corps, and we do not consider a non-combatant should presume to judge a general. The above is a plain statement of facts, and the writers, although they would not object to the publication of their names should Chaplain-captain Bush-King demand them, are yet adverse to their names appearing in print. We realise that a man of General Hamilton’s prestige and position does not need the support of those who would be called pawns in the game,but we wish to state that we hardly consider it ‘playing the game’ to level unfavorable criticism against him, when for reasons not yet published, he has been recalled lo England. This is especially so when the criticisms are not based entirely on fact.”

The Otago Daily Times also publishes the following in support;— “It was easy enough to criticise, said Major Mackesy, in an interview given to the press at Whangarei, and one of i those who had received a good deal of criticism, was General Sir lan Hamilton. However, people should analyse what they read. Sir lan Hamilton was hot acting on his own initiative in i these matters. His decision had had to be agreed to by all the generals and their staffs, and also by the French generals and their staffs, who weio working with us and not under us, as l s6ine appeared to imagine. It was not? rational to' conceive that 10 of Tomilitary officers Who had m<icie a life ; of these matters would walk into a thina 1 blindfolded. ' It*i% ; as nbt ! feHsibleJ I What action' seemed :r beht at the time'was adopted; and if-that proved to lie wretng it was a geneial error of judgment, and the ! blame could * hot justly he laid on the shoulders oi | ahv one general. , During the oper-J ations ion Gallipoli Peninsula they had admittedly lost a great number of men, but perhaps this was the only crisis they would ever be called upon to face. Knowing the conditions under which the men had been fighting. Major Mackesy said he did not consider the [loss of life hiore necessary for \vhat?b»d been gained.” .