The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1915. THE WAR.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 348, 4 December 1915, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1915. THE WAR.

("With which is incorporated The Taihape Post and Waimarino News.)

If the message, from an authoritative Italian source, that was published in these columns yesterday is dependable, then the Allies’ dispute with Greece seems to have ended satisfactorily. It was brief but it stated very distinctly, “Greece has given the All-' ies the required assurances”; a part of the same message was, will speedily assist the Servians.” We are also told from semi-official sources that Germany and Austria have ceased their offensive in Servia; this, with the fact that the huge Allied armies have not yet moved a very great distance from Salonika into Servia renders the position just about as obscure as it is possible to make it. Austria talks of marching over Montenegro, but such a whittling away of forces to gain nothing of value beyond a display of feathers to impress Roumania leems too silly for belief. Then what is happening! (Never since the war began have important operations been so effectively kent from publicity. Germany is extremely excited; she is moving troops -with feverish haste towards the East. Is it possible that she is no longer to be allowed to choose her own battle-ground on which to perform her military fireworks? It looks very like it. Her offensive against Servia is short-lived and a deliberate falsehood is given as a. reason for discontinuing it. It, will, almost certainly, be found that she has had very urgent

rails both from the East and the’West. It may be that Bulgaria is to have a taste of the medicine given to Servia. for Russia will most assuredly put all the force she is capable of to stop the German road to Constantinople. Russia has been massing troops and everything required in a military arid offensive in the vicinity of Bui ;■ *, la. The invasion of Bulgaria was expected da vs ago, but later messages state that Russia will not move till Juggernaut. forces have been accumulated. A second great Russian offensive, it seems, has been organised in Galicia on d "Ruhovina. on the northern boundarv of Rcuraania. In fact this force has priced to move and ’" ill nrobablv he found be" one of the main dis-fn’-b>r>rr element® 1 . Tf 5s nartieulsrlv pratifving that Gerninnv i° at, last comnpjiprj tn dance to +b« .Allies’ music: that the Allies are enough and Well eouinne/l to 'initiate pffopsivps in plaeec that are unn •> n p.d?— +e'rrifving the and tn ' IWf, T* machine. Their military pyrntftcb?^*

'M-e having to be abandoned in a struggle to keep back the Russians from sweeping them out of Galicia and Bukovina, and from subjugating the last tool to fall into German hands; while it is evident that a supreme effort has already commenced in France and Belgium to drive the Germans back into their own country. We are not allowed to know how far these offensives have developed, but we are told by no less a personage than Mr Bonar Law that our armies are moving slowly but inexorably to victory. Something that has thrown Germany into anxious desperation is happening and she is making hasty dispositions in an attempt + o minimise the results.

For an indication of what ‘s going to happen in Servia and Greece in the very near future, developments indicate that we shall not have long to wait. The great accumulations of men and munitions at Salonika cannot long remain idle, they must either move into the country or get out of it altogether, going where they can render more effective service. Distributions do not disfavour an idea that they may net be used primarily against unravelling the little B'alkan tangle in an indirect manner. It may be that Constantinople is the real objective of the Allies —of the huge Russian preparations at Reni —and that the tiVestern offensive and the Bukovina offensive are a part of a colossal triune effort to inflict defeat in three places. It cannot he denied that when Britain decides to move, she is well prepared and her movements have invariably been effective. It is obvious to the most careless observer of the war’s progress that deliberate actions are developing at three supremely important points,— in the West, in Bukovina, and in an undisclosed locality that is materially going to upset the German calculations about a road to Constantinople and eventually to India. There are rumours of a German attack on Egypt, but that possibility just now. is too remote to need being taken into consideration. No doubt the Kaiser would be only too ghid to alight on another thea - re where he might engage in more gallery play for the edification of Bourn an ia and Greece, but he will find present engagements too important to allow of his attentions being distracted. A good deal of interest centres around Roumania, and her Premier. Braliano has proved himself a pastmav.er rail-sitter; the hold of his seat is rapidly becoming more slender, however,. and only a few days may prove that Russian arguments are too strong for him, and he will be found going with II e flow of the Russian tide. While there is nothing very tangible on which to build anything like approximate estimates, of the real position, there is certainly nothing to cause the slightest feelings of pessimism.