CURRENT WAR TOPICS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 20, 29 December 1915, Page 5

CURRENT WAR TOPICS.

Relations between America and ■ Austria have come to the point where “something must bust.” ' Austria i, now refuses to meet the American deft- mantis for the sinking of the Ancona i and prefers to break off. diplomatic : relations. With this reply, America ■under President Wilson’s guidance * ■ will'probably cease relations, and that ■, is ail. America cannot undertake a war, and will not threaten war seri- • ously. Indeed, the Worljd will be very surprised if she does declare war on Austria. V The paucity of news from ally of ' the frontalis becoming a daily clironi- ' cle that mak.es the interest of the public .wane. But things cannot oe ■done in a dap in this- great war, and ■ ; thp oreseht stage is one of suspense. : Thbre., is the Egyptian invasion question which is engrossing the attention of many. The likelihood is that, what 1 the Germans intended to be an attack ' on a large- scale will diminish to a desperate forlorn chance by Arabs ' and Turks hinder German officer?. It tpiist be remembered that the> Balkan campaign-. as. iflannecl by Germany was directed as a thrust at the Canal, and India. But the'Balkan campaign is net over, and though Serbia is. in thp hands of the enemy the Allies V revilly control the position, and the Ghrman attempt in Palestine cannot be successful until the Allies are “.driven out of the Balkans. The defence of the. Canal will he in tlie - hands of the British and Indian ttdops, who so easily repulsed the 1 Turkish attack of last February. The . ' attack then was made at what was considered to bo the only suitable time, considering the conditions of the desert which musd ho crossed. .The enemy are said to have built a railway across-the desert to get over the difficulty of a march. The whole scheme looks- well on paper, but :ev- - oral facts must be borne in mind. Primarily, the Canal is important to our hold on Egypt, India and Mesoi potamia. , Therefore, it is not sui- . . prising to read that correspondents ■ ■ frequently toll ns Egypt 1S teeming with British troops, while Indian troops are massed near the Canal, wlpch has boon rendered impregnable. The danger of the railway loses its terror when the marvellous gunnery of the,Navy is considered. Men who . ' have been on the Peninsula tell of the great shboting of the Navy, '-ml, indeed, the more one hears the more astonished one becomes. It would not take many rounds from one of the big naval guns to make a direct hit Cdh'thb 'railway,'.'and-.destroy it as fast ,a s it-could lie repaired, the writer is of opinion that the attack will be made about February but will not be in any greater force than previously, ft i? necessary for such a blow to be swift, and large bodies of troops cannot bo handled with the mobility required. The British are ready, and • the attackers; if they come, will probably get a very hot reception.

In the West there, has been a fieice , struggle between the I rcnch and. the ■ Hermans for- the famous Hartmann n Woilerkopf, which has cbntiged hands several times.. This position guards an important pass in the southern < ml of the Vosges known as the Col do Bussong. The French objective hue is apparently MulhauseP, which is a railway junction'of many routes from Switzerland and which is only about 8 miles from the Rhine. Success here will mean the turning of the Herman positions in Alsace. Here the French ,are oa German soil. A New Zealand battalion lias been / in action.in Western Egypt against the Senttssi tribes. ' Those are apparently Turkish Arabs who have • been bribed to attack Egypt from the west, while the eastern attack is ;/ poshed Martuh is some distance along the coast from Alexandria. It . is pleasing to know that they made good, in spite of the Turkish claim to success. ] ' ‘';- V '

1 The idea of Germany’s Balkan thrust is said (by a French sens On, M. Joseph Reinach) to have been fust conceived by the well-known German journalist, Count Reventlow: Count Ernst zu Rdventlow,' for that is his real name, has had quite an interesting career. Though lie is best known as a writer on naval subjects, he has done ail sorts' of things, including fruit-growing in America, an avocation at which, however, he had no success. ,He was originally a naval, officer, i but while quite a young man ho made up his mind that he could do more for the service, and for the pan-Germanism which is to a great - extent bound up with it at a desk than on blue water. At any rate, that was one of his motives. *He retired, therefore, and became a prominent member of the Navy League, and a propagandist and pamphleteer in the interests of the navy and panGermanism. Reventlow is among the’ foremost of “strafers,” and in 'Ms dislike he includes France, as .well as Britain, though his wife is a French countess. He has written a great deal for the “Berliner Tageblatt,’ ’and also for the pan-German “Tagliche Rundschau,” and now he writes for the “Deutsche Tiigeszeitung,” the organ of the Junkers and Agrarians. This journal was suppressed. the other day, a,s a result of. a quarrel between the German Chancellor and Grand Admiral von Tirpitz. Reventlow is a protege of the Admiral, who often uses him as a mouthpiece. This particular quarrel was said to have been over the question of German submarine “frightful-: ness,” which Reventlow arid the, rest of the'Tripitz party of course defended. In so far as the Balkan attempt aimed at obviating the blockade kept lip by the British fleet, though it might not he so welcome to the Agrarians, it would please von Tirpitz.