CURRENT WAR TOPICS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 5, 9 December 1915, Page 5

CURRENT WAR TOPICS.

‘.-U. i ; ; ;• ’ Frequent, undue criticism is fired at the Army authorities afci Home be-' cause it takes a long time for Allied troops ter get movihg or' at rive the different'• fronts in ‘quick ’ tfm'e. This iS ! particularly marked itx ‘ the ‘ ’ * Salonika affair." 1 “Why don’t they' land 406,000 troops,” was a remark heard'‘by the writer 1 ' recently. Another remark is : often passed to the effect that the enemy ! get ! troops

away quicker, and consequently catch the Allies in short numbers.,Now, to the glib minds of’many people, the

mention of sending'the troops is all { • that is necessary. But consideration must be given to the question of equipping thh transports, the loading of supplies, and the actual embarkation of the men. iTo one whohas had an experience of the proyis- ’■ ioning b£’'transports, and the necessary ’fitting ‘ thereof, to. say iipthingj of the actual embarkation j ahjcT the hundred I ''ahS one details imposed by -/ red tape and otherwise,‘ the despatch - - rt f'- . ,■ , of 1500 troops seemejd Jong enough. The despatch of a hundred thousand men is not a day’s job. Thus in the . actual work before anchor is weigh- , ed a lot of time slips by. Then, if •we take Salonika for an example,

the sea journey from Britain is long

At the end of the journey, there 'is the work of landing the troops. At

Samoa it took from raid-day on the day of landing till mid-day two days ,after to land the troops and supplies, working with large gangs of natives and troops, day and night without a stop. To do the same for 100,000 > • men \tould be, in fair proportion, a { much/ longer job. The ability of the •nemy to move quickly from front v to front is explained by the central B position they hold in the Continent, whence their railways r.un without in- § terruption. Whereas they , move from the hub of the wheel as it | were, the Allies have to run around J the , rim, before they arrive at the A spoke which they intend to use. The Fife matter is not as easily done as said.

To-day a little news of the fight-, jl ■ • ing has conic to hand. The Bulgarians claimed to have driven back % the French along the Vardar and p that they are continuing L suit. The word pursuit locffs bad, and it - .seems that the Bulgars have j . gained a big victory. The writer is inclined to 'put the Bulgarian communique in a modified form that is suggested by the High Commission-

er’s report. The High Commissioner

| reports that Bulgars made an attack |';4 in the Vardar, but were repulsed by , the French. The enemy have a 4 . peculiar habit of sending reports be-Uw-fore the fight is over and invariably

Wbi claim a win. They seem to have M made a mistake this time. A lot of V Balkan matters appear in a very difj. ferent light when both sides of the : story are compared. Before the I. Bulgars can attack the French or the British effectively they must cross the Vardar., This they have not done, as their attempt to bridge the river was beaten by the dfeadly accuracy of the British artillery. _/ lost heavily in the attempt. pte According to the Paris journal, I';-- Figaro, the Serbian official quarters p in Athens assert that when the 191Glj; 1917 classes are called up Serbia will r have 250,00 Ci new troops. They state I , also that they have suprises for the I enemy, whose whole campaign will II b© brought to nothing. This may or I , mny not be a little indulgent talk-

ing, 'but' there seems to be something in it! l: '’ When on© remembers that large numbers of Serbians were re-, ported •be in 'Albania'i without arms' also Considers' the tactics (if ! the Setbb in/i retreating; d’lowly pn the lindS* rtf -the ’ Russian' retreat,, there'.’ u refriiiinsr ' the '' senii-conviction that the Serbs have nqt yet. been sufn fipeptly dealt with, and are an important danger. ‘ ! The calling up of the new classes" would' be useless, unless they' • could be armed 'and equipped; * Sebbia herself could not arm ‘ them, hut Italy has declared her intention to revictuai the plucky army and supply them with munitions. The-calling up of these classes is now justified because they can be ‘armed. On these grounds, the writer is of opinion that unless the Italians are driven from their projected landings, the Serbs will be able to carry out a vigorous cam-paign-with the Allies before many Peeks' are 1 over. '' lift the meantime the enemy are steadily 'being caught ,iu, the- throes of a.mßrilka« winter, and the > pressure om thenl : is- /being .increased'elsewhere. ;The keeping of enemy forces, in the Balkan! .is , valuable to us as long as they do not wipe the Allies out—which is not very likely. But, until the winter slackens, nothing much can be done on either side. The report of one of the New Zealanders being in hospital suffering from fi-ost-bite is sufficient evidence of- the hardships of winter campaigning.

Following on the landing of Italian 4 troops in Albania, we may ~ expect some naval activity on the Austrians’ part and perhaps a straight-out battle. The Austrians must show, their worth now or never.