CURRENT WAR TOPICS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIII, Issue 74, 26 November 1915, Page 5

CURRENT WAR TOPICS.

The news came yesterday that the King's Premier, or mouth-piece, M.' "' Skouloudis, has resigned because of " ' '' difficulties with, Britain. ; / Of course, , many . , interpretations may be » put upon this resignation. ; Either ,Canistantine will not give in to the 'En- |. ;j .tente [and his (Minister will not' sup- | , ,s \ part ,him,) or ~the King has decided ,i to; yield and ,to find a scapegoat, and ;- incidentally t toi .bring in a man who ' t will d°! what the Entente wishes, he .. i; .dismisses his man. Cbnstantihe has now had three of the Skouloudis ilk, and none of them have had a say of .■ r -their'6wn in the government or policy of the : Venizelos is the strong man of Greece, although a Cretan who once drove a Royal Prince out by armed resistance out of his native isle. The King must recognise the strength of this man, and finds that in spite of all he can do, : i ' that Strong. Man represents the will l '?' of* the nation as a nation, military ; and other services included. As sol- ■ 'fliers', the army, must obey their Com- ' W .citizen's their | attif. " tilde is not popularly with the King.j It was Ve«isselos J who managed the ~, machine which made Greece what She i is to-day; he won their last war for .'them, although Constantino was thet military man responsible for the field Work. The writer would not be surprised that the resignation of Skouloudis -is a certain sign that Kitchener has won the day and has intimated that must come back in the best interests of Greece and everyone else. Of course, the King may find another puppet, but the time for that dilly-dallying business is over and everything must be straight sailing, such as Kitchener is used to and demands. It certainly looks as if the matter is fixed to the mutual benefit of the parties concerned. This is confirmed by an official message just to hand that states that Greece has cordially agreed to the demands of, the Allies. The question now arises as to what Greece's army is to do. Unless Greece does not wish to fight, it is very desirable to make her demobolise considerably on the policy of "once""bitten, twice shy." If Greece . has decided not to allow the landing of troops to go on, then she must seriously and finally flout the enemy. That being so, it is Greece's wisest policy to fight against her former friends or masters and settle the question of vengeance. But, perhaps, the Allies are absolutely sure of being able to drive the enemy out without Greek ■ assistance, or else , they would stipulate Greece's entry. Of course, there is the question of the Serbian attitude if Greece did fight. Therein lies, perhaps, the * cause of another row in some day to ' come. Serbia will want to know all about it, and the matter will need careful and masterly handling to put it right for both.

Regarding the military situation in Serbia, the Serbian War Minister's statement in an interview at Salonika said that Serbia has still 200,000 men after the loss of 50,000 in casualties and prisoners. That is a fair estimate, and is considerably nearer the mark than German versions, which would make it appeal* that very nearly the whole Serbian army had been put out of existence. The Serbian losses are not very startling when their tactics are considered—to inflict the maximum of punishment on the enemy at the minimum of cost. The Minister hinted a little at the activities of the Italians being rendered difficult over the question of Albania. What is meant is that Serbia would prefer to see the >tij»»i.«t».-» - *

matter finished without Italian help, because she knows that if Italy gets into Albania she will never go out, and that means the vanishing of Serbian hope of an outlet to the Adriatic, for which she has fought so long. Italy, the writer has always maintained, does not 'want Serbia to have .that outlet, and that is why she'has not' sent 'fche>. 150,000' available' men she' referred to ! some''time ago to Serbia:. I Still,' the master ; may' he .amicably ari>ange.d, as there are more than one port on the coast, but then, again, Italy does not want Serbia to have' any. From our point 'of view, that 'is selfisii, but in the international life every country is for itself, with ' perhaps one noble exception. However, the final-stage of the campaign against Gorizia is approaching, and then the available Italians will be needed in the more open country to push the success as far as possible. The writer maintains that Italy will hot assist in the Balkans in any other way than to push the Austrians and hold up troops that the enemy need and, will need in' the Tyrol. The Russian part is again to.the front with a message that Rusisb, has 200,000 troopsi ready if fight. It looks as if the Russians are, on a smaller 'scale 1 for the same business that so upset'the Allies' 1 plans in Greece. l In any case, they will have the precedent of Greece. The report states that Russia will fight if the Roumanian army comes in. Of course this is ambiguous. Russia will fight on, whatever side Roumania takes, but the position is not encouraging. Until further news comes to hand little can be: said.. The Japs are helping in a valuable manner by sending .large consignments of big guns to Odessa. Why to Odessa? It can only mean that the Allied campaign in the Balkans is to be more than a side show, and will involve the determination to capture. Constantinople and the Bosphorus forts.