CURRENT WAR TOPICS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 98, 31 March 1916, Page 5

CURRENT WAR TOPICS.

The policing .policy of the Allies in Greek seas has resulted in scenes of great disturbance in the Grecian Parliament and also in the streets of the capital. This is hardly to be wondered at, as the actions of the Allied ships and troops, which were outlined in this column yesterday, were such as to be very nearly unbearable by a Nation with any pretensions to selfrespect and dignity. That the Greeks are a high-spirited people is not disputed, evidence of which is breathed in every page of their history, and the modern aspirations of the Hellenes are dear to them in no less a degree. When the matter of the Allies’ movements were mentioned in Parliament, the Premier immediately a bad time on refusing to give any explanation of the affair, and he was freely hissed. In the streets the people demonstrated so boisterously that the services of the cavalry had to be called up to suppress the disorder. This does not seem very much like intervention on our side, but at this distance the exact reason for the people’s anger may only be guessed at. The Premier is not, it ,is said, very kindly disposed, towards the Allies, and, as likely as not, it may be the attitude he assumed on that .occasion •which stirred the pro-Allied feeling to assert itself so strongly. For support of this contention, there is the fact that the Government as a whole is under the influence of King Constantine, who stands allied by blood to the side of the Central Powers. On the other hand, however, the demonstrations may have been the result of natural indignation at such high-handed action by the Allies, and serious trouble may be at hand. Still, it would be good to know just where we are with ’Tino.

No doubt the reason for the unrest is supplied by a cable just to hand as the paper was going to press. It is stated that a vast espionage and submarine supply organisation was discovered at Corfu, and forty arrests had been made, including the landlord of a leading hotel. Just so! The Premier refused to explain why this hud been allowed! No wonder the people demonstrated against the Government!

On the whole, the news from the theatres of war is small in quantity, but in quality there are one or two important features to be recorded. We have been {permitted to know that the British now occupy about a quarter of the Western front, and in telling us this the censor refers to the great support which the British have given to the French in recent trying times. The tone of the message is optimistic in the extreme, and it is heartening to read that whatever the Germans may do in their attacks on Verdun, “they cannot upset the pre-arranged strategy in the great offensive which is coming.”

The second event in importance that has come over the cables is a great air raid by four squadrons of Austrian airmen. The affair is said to be the most extensive of its kind since the war started, but it is satisfactoiy to leant from Rome that beyond slight damage caused by bombs there is not much to deplore in the raid. As to ho# the raiders fared, it is reported that four of their machines were downed. In the (particulars sent to us* Verona, the ancient city of Venetia, is mentioned as having been bombed. Verona is on the river Adige, seventytwo miles west of Venice, and contains some very fine historic builciings, notably, the Gothic Cathedral, which dates from the 12th Century. The city also possesses a Roman amphi theatre in an almost perfect condition. The air defence at Verona must be strong and of the latest description, fo/ the enemy were forced to retreat, fortunately leaving* their task of destruction uncompleted, and the damage was slight.

The sinking of her steamers puts Holland in an even worse fix than America. For whereas America has time and room to manoeuvre and make up her mind, Holland jg bang up against the mouths of guns, whichever way she looks. Her land frontier runs along German terrntory for two-thirds of its length—over 300 miles. It would be hopeless to try to hold such a frontier against the troops that could be brought against it. The most Holland could do would be to hold her eastern and southern provinces for long enough to enable her army to retire upon the river defences, which can guard that part of the country in which the largest and most important cities are situated, and ultimately Amsterdam. These lines consist partly (on the south) of broad and deep rivers, and partly (on the east) of lowlands, easily flooded; and they have saved the country before now. But it does not need the example of Belgium to prove how disastrous it would be for Holland if her thickly populated, highly organised territory became the scene of a campaign, and that even with the Allies to help her and victory ahead. Accordingly, whatever may be the individual leanings of her people, as a nation she has done her very utmost, first to preserve a punctiliously correct neutrality, and next to make herself as ready as possible to tight if she must fight. In the last 10 or 15 years, as the growth of Germany’s naval and colonial policy increased her fears for the safety of the mouths of the Rhine and the Scheldt, she has added very greatly to her power of resisting invasion. She • has increased her army estimates, she has abolished the old system of recruiting, under which service in the army was not compulsory for those who could afford to pay for a substitute, and her artillery anil fortifications have been improved and kept up to date. Moreover, when the war began she was the first neutral nation to mobilise. Within 48 houis she had 300,000 men at their posts.

If the Dutch steamers were really sunk by German submarines, then Germany has done a very foolish thing (states an Australian authority). For, though, as the writer in the “Daily Chronicle” remarks, Dutch ports, and particularly those at the mouths of the Rhine and Scheldt, might be of considerable advantage to Germany, the right to use Dutch territory uould be even more valuable to the Allies. If the German line in the west can, no more than that of the Allies, be pierced, and if the thinning down of its. defenders until they are no longer numerous enough to man it should prove too lengthy a process, gn en Holland’s leave and a way would be open to get right round behind' ’t. True, the troops carried round would have to travel by sea, and by a sea, at that, which would at least hint of possibility, bo swarming with German submarines. The success of such an attempt would depend, among other things, upon the efficacy of whatever measures the British Fleet might bo able to take and keep these submarines off, and safety of the transports generally. -But marvellous things have been done in that line befoio novv —are being- done now, for that matter. However, if anything at all is certain, it is certain that Holland would not enter the war unless she were practically dragged in by the neck.