CURRENT WAR TOPICS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXX, Issue 59, 14 June 1916, Page 5

CURRENT WAR TOPICS.

The Russians are doing groat strokes on their long front against the Austrians and Germans. There is a line in the cables pointing to the fact that the Germans are taking a hand in the game for.the purpose'of countering the forward movement of the Russians at the southern end of the country. The German forces are more particularly .interested in the holding of the line from the Baltic for three parts of the line's length, the Austrians being strongest on their own borders. In Bukovina the Russians are stated to be fighting in the suburbs of.Czernowitz, which is the capital of the province/with a population of about 100, 000, and which already in this struggle has tasted the bitterness of war. Further north, at Buczacz, fifty' miles away, the Austrians, assisted by the Germans, forced the invaders to give ground slightly. But everywhere else the Russians continued their victorious march. In the province of Volhynia, news come to hand of the shifting of the whole line, and Lutsk has been left behind, and the towns of Vladimir Volhynski and Kovel are being approached. The latter is 200 miles west-rio ; i - th-west of Jitomir, on the border of the provinces of Kiev and Vo'lhyh'ia, and the former (an old 9th century town) is 28 miles south-south-west of. Kovel. This will give some small idea of the great advance that the Russians have made. The river Bug has then to be crossed, and the important town of Cholm, the terminus of the Brest Litovsk railway, will engage the attention of the Russians. Indeed, the more one looks into the movements of the invaders, the more alarming does their position appear to menace the enemy.

The 700-mile front between a little north-west of Riga on the north and the .Roumanian border on the south is divided geographically into three separate parts, and operations upon it are affected by three separate seasons. In.'the centre'of' the line are the famous Pinsk or Pripet Marshes, wfykm/are an almost, impossible area for manoeuvring. Here the Germans hold'a number of more or less isolated positions which depend for their security upon the nature of the ground. These positions' might almost bo called an 'archipelago, except that the Pripet area is Crossed by a number of embankments and causeways, by a few railways, and also by ways which are connected along the hardei stretches of ground. The Russian. hold opposite and similarly discontinuous posts. The main supply line ol either of the two comparatively small forces which are here watching one another is the railway which runs from west to east through the very centre of the nprs'hes and through Pinsk. The Pripet area may therefore, says Mr Hilaire Belloc, from whom most of this description conies, be regarded as a breath in the general continuity of the lines, such as does not exist upon any other front. It compels both parties to treat what is north and what is south of the marshes separately, and it therefore condemns each to some considerable anxiety whenever its opponent takes the offensive. The seasonal differences are also important. In winter there are constant intervals of partial thaw, and decisive work can hardly be attempted, though it is possible to move considerable bodies of men. Then comes a second season, the spring thaw. During this brief season armies can hardly move at all. Trenches are flooded, the low levels turned to morass or shallow sheets of. water, and the roads to deep masses of mud. It will be remembered how. about this time last year, the operations upon the Narew came to an end

abruptly, and remained suspended until early summer. 'Hie cause ot this was,the thaw. Finally the thaw over, then comes a season of at least six months in which operations upon a large scale are possible. This was the period of the great Austro-German offensive last year. It should be added that the southern of these three great sections of the Russian iron;, is open earlier than the northern.

The reflex of the Russian victories is to be seen in another quarter. There is stated to be great excitement in Roumania owing t 0 the Bulgarians having closed the frontiers for the purpose of covering the movements of their troops, and to prevent particulars leaking out of the fortifications being erected on the Dobrudja front. This can only mean that the Bulgars are afraid Roumania is on the turning point to join the Allies. At any rate, that is the view held by the average newspaper reader, who 'argues that with Greece practically out of the way and the northern frontier being now clear of Austrians, the time is ripe for an offensive against their natural ene-; mies, the Bulgars. There is no doubt the considerable difference in the campaign in the Balkans, in fact, that it would mean the speedy end not only of Turkey, but also of Bulgaria, leaving tho forces of the Allies to concentrate on the Italian, Russian, and French' fronts.

Regardless of consequences, the Crown Prince is continuing to send his men to certain death. Attempts to push forward their success, at Vaux Fort are meeting 'with repulses at every hand, but still, the cables today inform readers, there is no cessation of the German determination to find a way through. On tho British front in Flanders, a big concentration of the enemy is reported. The magnitude of the movement is such as to' warrant the weakening of the German garrisons in Flanders, and also to a lesser extent their i forces in the south towards Verdun. This must be expected, of course, if only as a set-off against the Russian offensive, though the value of even small success against the British at Ypres and in this sector would bo tvorth enormous losses. Monday's battle at Verdun on the west side ol the Mouse is described as hellish. When trie next Ypres battle comes ,to be re-written, present facts point to some stronger word having to be found in the vocabulary of war to adequately describe the frigbtfulness.