Bombardment Continues at Verdun

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 86, 17 March 1916, Page 5

Bombardment Continues at Verdun

Enemy on Defensive in the Balkans

Russian Attack on Trebfcond

Dutch Liner Mined or Torpedoed

SINKING IN THE NORTH SEA

CURRENT WAR TOPICS.

There is nothing. much to report from:Verdun to-day. Bombardment appears to be the order of the day and night. The enemy, who claims to have made progress at Crows' Wood, is digging in or constructing new works *s another cable puts it, while the Allied report gives .even less particulars. Whatever is happening, the censor as evidently keeping the news to himself. -

One short message reaches us from the Balkans to the effect that the enemy are strengthening their defences at Ghev'gehli, and are constructing new works at Demir Kapu, evidently fearing an Allied offensive. This opens up the question of the strength of the Allies in this theatre.,. It is estimated that;.the Franco-British, forces total anything up' to, 400,000,, though half of -that .-number may; be nearer the mark. To account, for the .new move of the enemy, it may be considered quite"' certain that* his forces have been weakeri»&<to meet'the Russian attacks in Galieia and Bukovina/ On the other hand, > the position of the Allies \ is• so strong that it has- even been suggested in The Times that General !' Sarrail might possibly be sent> back to France at the head of an army which would help to turn the tide on the western front! It is not at all likely that anything :of the kind will.happen, as that would mean the total abandonment of Salonika. General Sarrail has a tough problem to solve. An advance would need great'forces and' would be facedwith,great natural difficulties, involving the leaving of a long line of com-munication-leading down through Greece;"and bringing down upon his head--the worried Bulgars fighting, in desperation for their very life. Of course, there is no certainty that an advance will or* will not be "made, but the chances are that General Sarrail is likely to think long before lie moves out of the trenches.

Trebizond is being attacked by the Russians on three sides, from east and south, and from the sea, so that its fall cannot long be delayed. No doubt every reader has anxiously watched the progress of the Russians who landed at Rizeh, which is some forty miles by sea from Trebizond, but anything up to 100 miles by land owing to the mountainous nature of the country along the Black Sea. The roads are poor and owing to the difficulties ot transport over the mountain spurs and intervening valleys, it has taken the force as long to travel that 100 miles' as it would to travel 300 miles on a good road. This accounts for the delay in the actual attempt on Trebizond, the capture of which will be almost as serious a blow to the Turks as the capture of Erzerum. -Strategically, it is quite as important, in view of the fact that the Russians can, by improving the road to Erzerum, use it as a base for protecting the Russian flanks, if they are compelled to defend !Erzerum when the Turkish reinforce ments arrive. If the Turks have sufficient supplies, they will no doubt put up a stubborn resistance, for they must either fight until relieved or surrender. The only other course is to retreat into the mountains or attempt tr marc halong the coast; in both case r they must suffer severely, in one instance from pursuit by the Russians and in the other from the additional punishment from the Russian Fleet.

Considering the fact that the Rus-so-Turkish front along the Caucasian frontier is no less than 700 miles long, the cabled assertion that Krzerum was the gateway to Turkey may have seemed just a little exaggerated. But it was not (remarks a writer on the war). An army might almost as well be expected to advance on a broad front across Switzerland as' across, the line between the Black Sea and the Caucasus. The whole country is a jumble of mountains, through which movement is only possible upon a very few tracks. There is. indeed, only one road across •he frontier by which large armies can be supplied, and that is the ancient trade route from Erzerum to Kara. The heavy fighting always occurs along this route; it did a year ago, and has now. This is not the result of chance or lack of strategic resource, but nf cw.r»grs't>mcal necessity. Armies 'can only travel where their supplies and guns, and ammunition can be carried. It is impossible..io. follow the Armenian fighting -properly - \vithout kiipwing something about the great plateau upon which Erzerum stands. The city itself is GOOO^t., above the sea, and yet it is a city of the,plain. , Not 'far away Mount Ararat, ,rises ) to a heighfi of 17,000 ft —a thousand' more than Mont Blanc. , The plateau is h| tangle of mountains | among whicb, rather dreary stretches of plain and broad, fertile valleys lie isolated, from one another. \ A system of communication over its peaks or through its gorges would tax the resources of modern engineering. All through history it has been difficult to weld it together or to govern it from any centre. It? seems destined to be the home of isolates or hostile tribes, full of ,refuges for the persecuted or the persecutor, not easily" to be permeated by any law or civilisation.