CURRENT TOPICS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXX, Issue 71, 28 June 1916, Page 5

CURRENT TOPICS.

The retreat of the Austrians before the Italians was a marvellous turning of the tables of war. For sixty hours they went back helter-skelter, abandoning arms, ammunition, dead, and wounded. So fast did they go that the Italian infantry lost touch with the. rearguard and the cavalry had a hard job to. keep up with the foe. At cer"tain points, it is stated, the retreat developed into a rout. No wonder Rome was flying flags in honor of their success. General Cadorna thanked his staff the other day for the thor-

oughness Of the concentrations necessary to stop the Austrian offensive, « and no doubt ere this, ho has taken

the opportunity, to further extol their

fighting virtues.- The Austrians are having a very bad time just now, and there does not seem much hope of improvement for some time, if ever. Germany has got her hands full, and if, the Austrians can-be kept on the .Tim'' there is nothing more likely to produbeJthe beginning of the ond. In tfal'V there' is no saying what the morrow will bring ; forth.- ;

The French report that the position at Fleury 1 is while In the direction,* of Thiaumont' tK% made progress.in the local'operations. indeed, thei-Sj is'talk of enlarging the ground gained there, which is hard to ■understand in face of previous statements that the enemy had driven a wedge in between the main French positions at Thiaumont. On the left of the Meuse a night., attack,, on a trench west of Hill 304 was repulsed. Grenade fighting appears to be the order of the day and night.. ',i;i

' With the. exception. of- a few words concerning the Russian operations in the .middle i section of the Riga-Rou-manian line, news is most meagre from this theatre. Not a word further about the entry of the Russians into Transyl;Varna 1 or' north' of Gzernowltz, ' where the Austrian's seem to have been in strong defence. The Russo-Roumanian relations are very friendly, as would appear from the treatment of the Roumanians by the Russian commands in Bukovina, but it seems almost useless to expect any satisfaction out of this quarter of the continent for the Allies without taking what is wanted and then asking for permission. That, at any rate, was the position Greece was placed in.

The German newspapers have been pouring contempt upon the announcement of the arrival of the Russian troops in France. It is spoken of as "a comedy the wretchedness of which is too transparent to produce any soit of uneasiness." One cr at the mott two shiploads of men is suggested »s as the extreme number sent, and the Berlin "Lbkal Anzeiger" remarks that "The Russians are at present totally incapable of giving serious support to France since they have large armies tied down not only on the German, AustrorHungarian, and Bessarabian ' fronts, but also in the Caucasus and in Persia. The fact that the French and their Allies welcome this sham support with such enthusiasm only proves how bad the state of tilings must be in France." These Gorman newspapers know probably no more about the numbers of the Russian

troops in France than we do; but if they know even as much they must be aware "that they are talking nonsense (remarked ono war critic). For, though the actual total of troops sent or to be sent to Marseilles has not been announced, there is evideace that it is much greater than the. enemy press would have people believe that it believes. There have been four contingents so far; one on April 25, a second on April 28, a third on May 2, and a fourth two days later. Thero may be more to follow. And though there is perhaps nothing in the suggestion, published in America, that the the number to be sent altogether amounts to no fewer than a quarter of a million, it is noteworthy that accounts of the arrival of the contingents at Marseilles have mentioned in each case, "a great flotilla of transports.'' One report, in the "New York Times" of April 21, speaks of "35 British, French, and Japanese transports," which were supposed to have been waiting to carry the whole, .or part of the force. A hundred Russian officers are sajkfc'tp .have preceded <the arrival of the first contingent, and gone on to Paris to. aminga;|ar the reception ofj the troops. All this looks as though; it was'-a'case'of'more than a thousand! or two. Myioi>Ai-f-'f> '■■■' -u ' ■»' I'J?'™ j

One point that' is sometimes forgotten by people who do not see the use of what are called subsidiary ' cauW paignß is that the diversion' of forces which they make necessary is m many cases" only temporary. For instance, a great part of the forces that wero ( needed to subjugate tho Cameroons and German South-west Africa was probably'transferred to other''♦ighcing areas as soon as these places became British, and the same thing will apply in German South-east Africa. The army commanded by General Smuts must be a pretty considerable one, as colonial fighting goes. It includes some 20,000 IJnioti; nieu alone, and before these camp on, the scene •. at alii there was.a ,fair num, hereof Indian, and colonial, t^qppji^,iho.ugh; _.some. of. the Indians ,may, have , Jieen > removed, to Egypt, or, Say that Smutsi commands 30,000 men; a proportion of these will no doubt be needed to police the great area of the captured colony, when it is captured. But the greater number will probably be free to volunteer for the Western front, and upon this the Union will then be able to focus all the energies it has to spare for Imperial affairs. However, the Union cannot be expected to do as much, in proportion to its resources and population, as Canada or Australia. General Botha has had, as is natural under South Africa's peculiar circumstances, a good deal cf political opposition to contend with, and though Afrikanders as well as South Africans of British blood have come forward splendidly to fill the ranks of the expeditions sent against the German colonies, they cannot be expected to feci exactly as a Britisher would on the subject of what is, after ally as much as anything a racial war.