CURRENT TOPICS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXX, Issue 69, 26 June 1916, Page 5

CURRENT TOPICS.

'I he Kussian advance in the southera end of the Kiga-ltoumaiuan line continues to be most satisfactory, and to-day we read of the complete occupation of Bukovina by our Allies. The stories of the brilliant work of the Cossacks and the support accorded them by the infantry make encouraging reading. The capture of booty and prisoners as the result of the

Russian victories in Bukovina is enor-

mous, and the Austrian General von > • Pfianzer has been forced back to the • passes of the Carpathians. In the north reports show that reinforcements have been brought from the Italian and French fronts, which is something to be thankful for as les- . sealing the pressure in these theatres. The next thing we may expect, always provided General Brussiloff can continue to feed his guns, is *srther a breakage in the" Austrian line, or, and more probably a general withdrawal to rearward eningpi}fc: .the, .salients or /bulges that existi;at jp*eeen,t: as a result.,of the Russian. -blowsV , Quit© possibly, the ' \ will! retire as. tar as the, Lublin-Lemberg line. All the enemy: generals referredi;to are well known. Vonf Pflanzer: was.' at, Ceernowtiz. Von Bothmer commands the next

army to the northy* and above him comes Bohm-Ermolli, north-west of Tarnopol. These three hold the same relative positions'that ihey held during Ivanoff's September advance.

General Brussiloff, who is responsible for the conduct of the Russian advance, succeeded Ivanoff as com-mander-in-chief of the armies on the so"uth-western Russian front early in April. The actual planning of the advance has; oao - doubt,j t . been done by Alexieff;. the (Imperial'Chief of Staff, but''for its!--! carrying .out Brussiloff woukl-be responsible. Ivanoff was said ,to have resigned his command for health reasons. At any rate, he was generally'Considered one of Russia's best generals/ and it was with his successes on this same south-western front that the long Russian retreat may be said to have come to an end. But whatever may have been the reason for Brussiloff's appointment, it is proving a very successful one. His previous record may be considered brilliant, though, owing, no doubt, mainly to circumstances, it is very uneven. When he succeeded to his present command he was at the head of the Eighth Army, one of the group which is now under him, and it was he who led the army of the Carpathians, which at one timo threatened the Hungarian plain, but had to retire on account of what was happening elsewhere.

THae position in the Balkans is growing more interesting, 'the Bulgarians are reported to have occupied the frontier forts to the north-west of Salonika, and the suggestion is that these were evacuated by the Greek soldiery on the call for demobilisation If so, it is only another act of treachery on the part of King Constantino and his pro-German Government, and which is likely to meet with due con-

sideration by the Allies when the next j turn of the crew i 8 found to have become desirable. At any rate, the

time cannot be far distant when the Allies' offensive from Salonika vill be imperative. The Bulgars cannot be allowed to overrun the country and establish themselves behind fortifications already considered sufficieu i>l>' strong by the people of the country. The report of the release of the Greek shipping held up by the blocluulj is on the face of it a good ?igu of improved relations between st .o Allies and the Greek Government. A Goiman paper endeavors to throw cold water on the efforts of th»> Allies to thwart Greece, pointing out that whatever the Government does the King will soon take a separate bland, and that in this he will have the support of the army. Now, this Is the opposite to what 'we have been toiu in the past. The Greek soldiuy tue said to have a very soft side for the Anglo-'French, and abhor the Bulgars, which makes the action of the King in giving free play to then natural enemies all the more base. Now Itoumania is said to have had an offer from Russia of Czernowitz. to induce her to. come in on the side of the Al-. lies. The situation is quite possible, but highly improbable. , ,

On the west front, the Germ.ins aro still.battering away at .Verdun. The, Gerraan War Council is said, to , lie behind the lines in this theatre, a.id the Kaiser is depicted as being dopressed, over the situation, anu that he has "allowed himself to be persuaded into other plans than those which he had made up his mind were necessary to carry the position. Whether this is so or not matters little; in fact, inore's the pity, for the combined intelligence of the Staff would most probably evolve some infinitely better programme than the great War Lord himself. The contention, *hat even if Verdun were fairly soon to fall the whole business ought to be regarded as a German failure is banned up, in effect,* by the very outspoken German i fwriter; Maximilian Harden, editor of • -'.'Die Zitkuhft." Harden attacked the, highly optimistic speech made by the Chancellor, who had remarked upon the general satisfactoriness of the military position. "So he did not expect Verdun to fall before Whitsuntide," says Herr Harden, "or that the speedy fall of this fortress, which has been menaced since February 21, would crush the French confidence in victory, make possible a rapid advance into badly-fortified country, and compel a decision for peace. But even if Verdun were to fall before the end of May, the French people would liave had time to accustom itself to the loss of this town as to the loss of Lille and Maubeuge, and J'offre would have had time to build ub the positions between Verdun and Paris according to all the rules of the most modern art of war." Harden adds that "military moans will not suffice to dam the deluge which still seems to many people a war like other Avars," and points out the inconsistency of the Chancellor's assurance that Germany could not be starved with his fresh attack on Britain's policy of starvation by blockade.

"All men in Germany are not liars. There is one honest man among them. His name is Liebknecht, and, incongruous as it sounds, he is a member of the Reichstag for Potsdam," writes Mr F. W. Wile in the Weekly Despatch. "Socialist and incorrigible too of militarism, he is the only absolutely consistent and irrepressible opponent of Prussia's war that tyrannised, Hohenzollorn-ridden Germany now contains, f believe that the Pvaiser would consider the departure of Liebknecht

from the, scene-—by fair or foul mean

—a victory for the tottering • Hohouzollern war cause equal in magnitude to the capture of Verdun. At present Liebknecht is more or less of a voice cyring in the hypnotised Prussian wilderness. Even the Socialist parlia meuiary group has 'expelled' him from its supine ranks, in which, of course. he is palpably out of place. But i foresee the dawning of the day, however remote, when Karl Paul August Liebknecht will no longer be fi prophet ! without honor in his mad country."

The burden of debt which the war 'entails upon Europe is mounting to ■such colossal figures that the imagination cannot measure its prodigious proportions by any previous standard. It is estimated that the war loans up to the middle of March total £5,800,000,000. The war loans of the Entente reach approximately £4,000,000,000, and those of the Central Powers over £1,800,000,000. It is estimated that the war is costing about one hundred millions a day, or over £BOO,OOO every hour. Of Great Britain's loans approximately £500,000,000 have gone to her Allies. Assuming that the war will last another year, additional loans of over £7,000,000,000 will be required which will bring the grand total of debts of the belligerent Powers to the astounding sum of £18,400,000,000, as against, £5,454,600,000 previous to the war. When it is remembered that each of the Powers prior to the war was seriously perplexed to discover new sources of taxation to meet interest charges, the problem becomes apparently insoluble with these charges nearly * quadrupled. The estimated population of the seven Powers enumerated above is 417,000,000, hence if the war lasts another year the total debts will exceed £44 a head. The interest bearing debt of the United States is less than £2 a head.