The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1915. THE WAR.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 348, 11 December 1915, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1915. THE WAR.

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

Only the slenderest hope now remains of the Entente's diplomacy !n the Balkans being anything more than complete failure. If correspondents reports are merely tinctured with truth the position of our armies in Greece is intolerable if not untenable. Austro-Germans appear to have full freedom of movement; they have started the Balkan torch and as they pass on towards Constantinople, their objective they are leaving the Balkan people to hold up the comparably small forces the Entente has so far landed. "We shall probably And that while abortive negotiations are proceeding with Greece effective plans are being developed to ensure successful movement somewhere, but the Frenchman's view, as cabled yesterday that the Allied hold on Salonika should be very much strengthened or it must be abandoned altogether, expresses the impressions latest news conveys to the world. We are in entire ignorance of what Germany is doing with the arm; that over-ran Servia. We were told that it was going east, but neither friend or foe now seems to know where it is. For nearly a fortnight German troops and guns have jeen pouring into Beligium and Lor-

•"ine, where they are coming from no one seems to know. Day after day it wa s flashed to us that Russia was amassing troops and war material at Reni and at Odessa; that a large Rus°;nn army had landed in Bulgaria, and that Austro-German armies had rushed east to meet them. Now we hear less of the Russian whereabouts than we do of the Germans. The latter are pouring into Belgium, but tfhere are the Russians that their o T.*>r reviewed? The whole Balkan situation is a mystery that will only be solved by time, of which there now seem* tt\ be very little left if the Kaiser's iviunipkant entry into Constantinople is to be prevented, .-.01

wa.? news we have recently received very little, the wires being chiefly used in broadcasting opinions centre-:-c around what Greece and Roumania will ultimately decide upon. Of course this cannot continue much long-

- and even at this moment it is not improbable that news of vitally important military happenings are on the way. It is not believable that all the talk of large Russian armies in Bessarabia is foundationle-is. Russian pride will be injured and Russian hopes of centuries duration will be dashed to the ground if Germany gets a hold on Constantinople. Therefore it is the common order of things that Russia should be plying every force and effort to averting what now seems almost inevitable. There has been a painful lull in Russian news on the Balkan question, but there are not wanting causes for hoping that- ; t m\j be the lull which precedes the stom.. A strong Russian offensive in fo'ukowina, another down the Danube! from Reni and a landing further south sa> at Varna, in Bulgaria is poss*bV, unci probably, what may have been in preparation. Should this, or something similar, eventuate it would without doubt influence Roumania in the right direction and enable us to see a compartively easy solution to present stupendous difficulties. Cables that have lately come to hand have tended more to confusion than elucidation of the Balkan situation. It must be remembered, however, that all intelligence from Greece is now being censored by a German, Baron von Schne, on Greece ' s behalf. In this alone there is nothing reassuring for the Allies, and although semi-official cables express some hope of Greece becoming amenable to reason everything seems to point to the opposite. Greece may be forced to remain neutral, but the value of such a neutrality may be guaged by the fact that her armies are fully mobJUsed. We have little to hope for from either Greece or Roumania, unless our forces at Salonika are very largely reinforced, a large army is sent from Italy, demonstrations are commenced by Russia and a vigorous offenscive is prosecuted on the Gallipoli Peninsula. It seems an absolute certainty that unless some such combination cf effort can be made nothing can stop the whole of the Balkans going ever to Germany. What form or direction the Allies' countering of the Austro-German movement 'viH take is at present a blank to us, for enlightment we have to wait. The Russians continue successful on the eastern front, and the Allied forces are more than holding their own in France and Belgium. It is very evident that something decisive is being worked up to from the continuous deadly bombardment that Germans are being subjected to, and from the feverish uncertainty in which German troops are being transported from, place to place. The Allies are giving no indication whatever of where the main force of their next great offensive is to be made. Preparations for such an attack are doubtless in train, despite the almost insuperable difficulties of conducting winter operations. There is little cause for concern in connection with operations in Mesopotamia. Success has only been delayed, for our British-Indian forces can be reinforced in a fraction of the time that the Turco-Germans can send help from Constantinople. To know that something decisive, be it ever so small, and been accomplished, would indeed be a relief.