IMPORTANT RUSSIAN SUCCESS

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXX, Issue 32, 12 May 1916, Page 5

IMPORTANT RUSSIAN SUCCESS

LITTLE NEWS FROM VERDUN TALL TALES OF THE ANZACS Irish Nationalists’ Manifesto Toll of Unresisting Merchantmen

CURRENT WAR TOPICS.

Contained in an eight-line paragraph in the cables appears a very important item in to-day ? s news. It is nothing less than ’the near approach of the Russians in Mesopotamia to Bagdacj. We learn that the Russians have occupied the town of Kasr-i-Shirinfi which is 100 miles north-east of the sa,cred city and about the same distance west of Kermanshah. It is only a week or two since we heard that the pushing through Persia from the north-east had reached the latter place, and they appear to have lost no time. The booty which was captured at Kasr-i-Shirin was very considerable, showing that the enemy had been there in force and that it was a centre for their supplies, probably one of the outpost defences to the approach to Bagdad. Any assistance from the other Russian force at Diabetic, in the attack on Bagdad is o'nt of the question, even in the immediate future, as they, are some hundreds of miles,away, but there is no reason why the present conquering Russians, who have made such remarkable headway ijrom. the,, fjhqres oi the Caspian Sea, should not make a good showing on thejr own. There is the additional incentive- now of the rescue of the ■ i ;■• m ’( ini • troops that were so unfortunate at Kut-el-Amara. These must be somewhere in the vicinity, as it is not likely that they could be deported any great distance under the present conditions of the communications. Reckoning the progress of the Russians m the future at the same rate, or pven better for that matter, as the waterway of the Diyalla will afford them means of transport to Bagdad, which ia 'ne&r the junction with the Tigris, wo should shortly .hear of important operations in this neighbourhood.

I A./' |■' .0' : < ' , ■ ■ Ttye censor is fast making a name for himself as, a lover of what newspaper men term “tripe!” It Is about, time he wakened up a bit and got to tvork on some of the stuff that is coming over the cables about the Anzacs. Good as “the boys” undoubtedly are —the writer would be the last to distract from the honor and glory of their deeds on the battlefield—it should be remembered that they are not the only pebbles on the beach f That is just about how anyone of the Anzacs would express himself on the matter. It is quite certain that they do not want all the fulsome adulation that is being heaped upon them by unthinking correspondents with the object, no doubt, 'of tickling the senses of the Antipodeans. The famous 29th Division was comprised of Britishers from the Home Land as well as Australians and New Zealanders, and it stands to the credit of the former that they have allowed their brothers from “down under” to have the glory qf those tragic days.

But this is rather getting away from the point. The silly stories about the Germans welcoming the Australasians on reaching the trenches might be quite true, but, again, it is a compliment to the efficiency of their secret service more than anything else. Then we read that the Saxons lightly treated the fact that their Prussian brothers were repulsed by the Anzacs! And because some Highland admirer thought fit to write that the Anzacs would “play the dickens” with the Huns, the silly censor telegraphed it to the Anzacs' own countrymen I But the limit is reached to-day. We read about practical Anzac jokers at the front painting some white horses red and brown! True, no doubt, but what next!

A German officer of high rank, who was taken prisoner on the Dvina lately, had something to say about the Verdun offensive, and the reasons foi it. “Verdun/’ he said, “is an advanced post on our flank. How could we seek to march on Paris by other routes while leaving this salient thrust into our lines? We read attentively all that is written in enemy newspapers, and are'-surprised at your astonishment. According to yon, all we try is stupid, or at least impractical, or useless. We have, all the same, continued to act according to our conceptions. What matters the price? When it is absolutely necessary to obtain something the price becomes c question of the third order. Foreign

critics are appalled at our losses and astonished, at seeing us consent to them bringing regiment after regiment to attack in close formation, and that without hesitation. Be assured that Germany, more than anyone, Inn? need of these men. But what is to bo done —to be conquered before having attained our end or to overthrow the ad-versary-—that is the question. That is why each hour, each minute, each second even, is for us of extreme simportance, and that is also why wo find it to our interest to follow the method which others think too costly. Whatever our losses may be they would be infinitesimal in comparison with defeat.” The story may bo true; it is the Petrograd correspondent of the Paris “Temps” who tolls it. But the admissions the prisoner makes are undoubtedly of a kind that a Frenchman would like to hear. And anyhow, even a “high officer'’ on the Dvina might not know much about his general, ptaff’s plans for Verdun!

.Strangely enough ( the theory that the Verdun offensive is, in spite of its size and intensity, no more than a local operation after all, is supported by a Russian military .critic, • Colonel Shumsky, of the .Bourse Gazette. Ibis may be partly t accounted for by the distance between the eastern and \\ estern fronts,which has undoubtedly helped some Russians to imagine that because Russia has borne great burdens and her armies have fought great battles, the bulk of the fighting in the west is of comparatively small importance. Colonel Shumsky’s idea is that the Russian front, is still the enemy’s principal field of operations. As evidence in support he mentions the activity of the enemy lately on certain parts of this front. “We have every reason to believe,” he says, that in the spring the Germans will resume their acticity at the point where they failed at the end of last summer and autumn, and it seems clear that the operations will take the form of a great enveloping movement on both flanks. With this end in view the Germans will stand fast in a particular region, and using if,' as a base will endeavor to swing their two flanks round. The position they will try to occupy will bo the Pinsk Marshes, which lend themselves splendidly to such' operations. The region between Dvinsk and the marshes, together with Wolhynia and Galicia, will then be the scones of intense fighting.

It is interesting to compare with the report of the poor shooting of the 'German raiders at Lowestoft a Geiman opinion of British naval markmanship. This opinion was expressed, according to a London newspaper, by the lieutenant who was in charge of the armed crew that took possession of the Appam.• He had been, so lie«snicl, in the naval engagement in the North Sea in which the Blucher was sunk. The markmanship of the British gunners, he declared, as something little short of miraculous. His own ship, when she was struck several times, was shelled from “a British man-o’-war-—! believe he said the Lion. “Just fancy,” he said; “they were 11 miles off, and the Lion was steaming at the rate of 23 knots. Her first shell struck our deck and wiped off a 12inch gun and 50 men as though they had been swept into the sea by a broom ; and that this was not a mere accident was shown by the fact that in rapid succession two other shots fell in very nearly the same place.”