CURRENT WAR TOPICS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 17, 23 December 1915, Page 5

CURRENT WAR TOPICS.

The Minister for Munitions makes some startling revelations in a statement: regarding the provision of. munitions and the astounding state of affairs which existed at the front before the matter was seriously taken u,).'! f The shortage, he says, was known to the troops and to* the enemy, but no one knew how really short the British were. Mr Lloyd | George shows how a mistake was made in regard to the kind of shell used. Experts stood out for shrapnel and considered that high explosives were becoming , obsolete. Later, these same experts ; realised. that in trench warfare high explosives, were the mast necessary. Th e organisation of the industry is dealt with in detail, shelving 'the' method taken to check, prices; The 'National factories put out' ill a week in" December thripe the' aikiotirit of' 'shells i put i outi by all the I 'arsenals ; in" the United Kingdom in the month of May, The speed in which a three-weeks' expenditure of shell can be replaced has been" reduced from 'a month to a week. By obtaining control of the metal market, £20,000.000 were saved. The visit of .Mi;, Asqu.i,fh to the front revealed the' importance of machine guns, and the number was multiplied, a new type being made. The Hon. Minister furnishes details of the increased output, and draws attention to the unfortunate " To ° I<lte" 1 < lte " ■ The \vhole statement is, a, j one,, and reallyi< what Britain can ; do if needed.. At the same time it has a tang of confidence about it, and for that we must be glad.

The withdrawal horn Suyla Bay and Anzad has drawn from the English newspapers .unqualified praise for the men who made Anzac an immortal word, the mere breathing of which will fire the blqod of those who have fought there, of the children of those that have died there, and of the whole loyal true British Empire. Comment 'is not required because everyone [knows the story of Anzac, but the ' story is finely told in a few words, "All was done that men could do, but all was done in vain."

The Russians seem at last to have made a move in the Balkans, and Mr Martin Donohoe, who is usually reliable, states that Varna is in ruins and the garrison have lost heavily. The Russians, he states, have captured the city. Nothing has been heard from I Russia or elsewhere confirmatory—land confirmation of anything the Russians do in the Balkans -is very desir'able. Varna has figured very often in conjunction with the Russians, and (Several times has been, reportedly, bombarded. But this is the first occasion upon which anything so definite has reached us of an actual landing. The recent meeting of the War Council in Paris was reported to jhav.e arrived at a definite policy which seems' to be beginning to work now. The decision in Greece, and the evacuation of Anzac seems naturally fol-

lou*ed by action on the part of the Russians. Russian movement in

'Bulgaria will keep numbers of the enemy busy, and the Turks will have to look to it that this actual, we hope, capture will be a direct threat on Con'stantinople. Russia apparently has command of the Black Sea and can ■ steam to the Bosphorus as easily as to Varna. If the Varna landing is correct, then it seems reasonable that (Russia will move from Reni.

J Sofia sends the bold opinion of the :Bulgarian journal, La Mir. This 'paper states that King Constantino of Greece has recognised that Germany and Bulgaria must invade Greece as a military measure of precaution. Certainly, it is the best precaution they could take and Constantino, as a military man, knows it. But the paper says nothing of Constantino's intentions if they do invade. The possibilities are that he will be forced to oppose them, willynilly personally, but at the demand of 'his nation and under pressure of the Entente. Even if ho does not oppose

them, he will not attack the Allies,

who will be left to repel the invader. No one doubts that that will be successfully done. Most probably the paper story is mere bluff, devised to satisfy the Bulgarian people who must be .asking why the Allies are not driven out. It is a debateable point whether the Bulgarian nation have their hearts in the war and whether thej would not openly ask questions. The Kaiser's gift of an armoured motor car to Ferdinand for personal use apparently was no idle ornament.

An American correspondent who recently visited Britain furnishes a sensational story of great preparations for an air raid which is designed to •■-carry out a single blow, the' destruction;, -of German' fdrtreisse# alia" a'r&erial. a t t Krupps. The detail of the fleets', does, not concern 'us herej'Unt'the possibility of such a raid does. Some" six months' ago'the' 'construction of a-'huge powerful fleet of airships was mooted, and it was generally understood that* \sueh fleet was being considered. The idea seems to be for onei fleet to start from England, go across the North Sea and bomb Essen and the German Another great fleet would start from France and attack the enemy communications and possibly the Rhine forts and bridges. The military would in the meantime push an aUack on the lines of the Germans. In these, days of wonderful science, there .is nothing Utopian about the story,' and it is very likely to be realised. The man who tells the story is" an,'aW oft { who ipHe ll#Wtm&ryWlJMi& and who has constructed a machine ansyvering the \leseriptioh' of the one in the cables, but on a smaller scale.