CURRENT WAR TOPICS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 4, 8 December 1915, Page 5

CURRENT WAR TOPICS.

| " ' King Constantine is very much hurt, ' "at the suspicions Of his tnten'tionsl He '■ said he' %'ad';aWys preferred 1 'England '" : to qthel ii: 6'6iiniK6s,' i a'iid had spent' his; - holidafs' i-hefUvhut England had M-- '■, gotten^'^at-'nk was' ; the' King ■; of., Greece. In short, the gist of ; the., no one (

should regard him with suspicion be- ( cause he s^ent)hls? holidays in Eng- ," tland. He forgets his famous visit to ( Germany after the* Balkan wars, when he, qpenlv told the j Gpynan -Ministers tha,t v his success to the Ger- . man training, organisation, and ma-

terial. German spies also have spent .long, very hing, holidays in Britain also. He. will only go to war if he is sure of being on the winning side! •..,He thinks.,Germany is ( winning,, but ,', he has given his solemn assurance that ! Greece will never cherish designs .against the Entente! It is an insult . to think that Greece m its; is (.capable of treacheiy! ■■'■• He... justifies , I desire to be;,on, the winning, .side ,by saying, thafc ,the , Allies .have no de- , finite pflljcy Balkans. , That is , £foe fiohcy was very,definite .indeed. ,j|ißulgaria .attacked Serbia, G.reece',,had t !undei!takenby Treaty to assist th<e.latter.,: But at the critical moment Greece' abandoned her obligation, and left the Allies in a bad way. They had at once to arrange for troops to take the part that Greece had promised to fill.' That movement could not be carried, out in a day, nor can a new policy evolve in a day. Constantino defends his treatment of the Treaty with Serbia by stating that the Greeco-Serbian treaty dealt with the Balkans, and could only come into force if Bulgaria alone attacked Serbia and Greece. Keeping on the safe side again! He winds up by saying that he will never abandon neutrality, which he thinks he "has slightly done in allowing the Allies to land at Salonika. But it is remembered that when he acceded to M. > VenezilOs' request, he sent a messenger post haste to that Minister, telling him not to communicate lm| decision to the Entente Ministers,, ;>h he regretted giving thet consent. So his neutrality cannot be said to have • been voluntarily benevolent. He does net give an inkling to his intentions except the wearisome story of neutrality. Certainly he will be -neutral as long as it suits him, but his./word is not worth a cent. If he intends to remain neutral, why not give the assurances desired? The answer is that he does not wish to be bound, and requires freedom of ac- J tion, so that when the time comes he can do so without breaking the obligations. Dr. Dillon knows the game, and rightly says that Greece is jiot to be trusted, and that force is necessary. And when the time comes, perhaps that will be the definite policy that Constantino says is lacking. There is no doubt about tin question of whom Greece favors now. . Greece is p-o-Gemv.n. The "Times" has got another attack ofxacute military genius regarding the Dardanelles. In its history(?) of the War, the Dardanelles number S ays that if General Hamilton had flung the,dashing Australians against " the Turks in the south, instead of the

;tired 29th Division, he might have helped those at Krithia on April 29. and then| seen Achi Baba crowded withsjiis troops at sunrise. How .nicttl.v >.We have had a lot, of fine strategy and advice from the armchair genius on The, Times, but .it lis always talk, after the j evqnt and imodihed by, the importantj foldowedlby the consequent) "might;." Surely, a pUce on the "Wfar, Council!is ..reserved ; for,, such a genius, ,becau(se ,every thing, is so,, .easy n ty>f,flj*ft/ If ..,The Times;, should sack the man,, i be-, cause if j they allow comment to come then it is no j history! #j '.*}}'., , Peifhaps it may be meant for a text-book!

Despite reports to the contrary, there esems to be a good deal of discontent in Bulgaria, and to-day ttiere are two . instances thereof. The mose important is that General von' has been .sent with trVto rl altacP M the are unwilling to fight the Anglo-French, and, it may ? be * added, Eussia.,,. This strengthens 5 , reports that i;jte Bulgarians expected that, they would only be called upon to attack Serbia nnd occupy Macedonia, Avhich they regard as their own hereditary and national territory. The Becond item is no less than the execution of three students for plotting to kill King Ferdinand. This reminds one of the alleged presentation to that crafty person of an armoured motor car by the Kaiser. Apparently the gift is not altogether a useless one. Then, again, there report of a demonstration in front of the King's Palace in Sofia which was dispersed by the police. Things cannot be very, calm in Bulgaria. However, as long as the authorities have the whip handle." nothing can come of the troubles.

From the West comes the news that the Germans are pouring troops into the line. . There may be the coming of, a big offensive, -but the question is "Whose offensive?" The offensive may be rightly said to have passed to the Allies, who are liable to be on the move, at any time—that is' when the weather, clears. In the meantime, splendid air raids are being carried put, and munition works at Don have been blown,up by the, Allies at no loss to., themselves. Thus, the offensive seems to have passed, too, in aerial activites. The superiority in artillery work is on a par now, and the Allies are putting in some effective work with the new munitions, which are said to be had for the asking in any quantity.