The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1917. THE WAR'S CHANGING ASPECTS

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 28 September 1917, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1917. THE WAR'S CHANGING ASPECTS

(With which is incorporated The Taihapo Post and Wairaarino News).

There are several significant movements in the progress of the war which seem to indicate that new phases are developing rapidly. It was earned yesterday that Falkenhayert had his headquarters at Aleppo and that he was organising a Turkish force to retake Bagdod. That Falkenhayen is at Aleppo there may, perhaps, be no doubt, ■' but that statement will not carry conviction to very many. That he is somewhere in that locality, and that a German propaganda is circulating a story about a march on Bagdad more ,nearly, we think, represents the truth. What is obvious is that troops are leaving England in large numbers for gome fresh scene of action, but just where they are going can at present be only conjecture. This country is more than |Drdinarily fnterestted because the appearances point to New Zealanders being withdrawn from France and being dispatched elsewhere. There may be large concentrations of Turks at Aleppo, but they are more likely to be there in connection with the Jerusalem position than that at Bagdad. Eussia is now regarded as being out of the game in Persia and Mesopotamia, but Eussia has more than once proved 'to be the dark horse. Eussia has performed exploits that will read almost like miraeles in the history of the war. 'A little firmness and determination in the new governing regime is all that is necessary to make Eussia's machine normally effective again, and cables arriving give most satisfactory cause for hope in that connection. Our men in Europe may, of course, be on the way to reinforce General Maude, at Bagdad; they may be going to add force to the new offensive which has been promised aud seems to have commenced in Greece, Servia and Albania, or they may be en route for Italy as the result of the Allied Council of War held in Paris to consider General Cadorna's claim that the Italian front is the nearest and quickest way to Berlih. *o little has leaked out, or been said about Cadorna's claims that the silence seems significant. If there had been anything *k)f the impracticable about them we should probably have learned the facts, but as the, 1 ? . were or such im-

portance as to warrant attention by a Council of War, we can only conclude that the whole Italian question had become one of considerable importance. Since the Council of War was' timed to take place. Italian activities seem to have become more aggressive in Albania, and less so on the Carso and on the whole Isonzo front. Italian armies in Albania are, of course,,, /sdth Sarrai|rsi forces in Macedonia, and we are fairly well aware that conditions in Greece, warrant just such a reserve in the rear of advancing armies as our New Zealand lads would furnish. Our men have just that reputation as fighters that would discourage recalcitrant and treacherous Greeks, and inspire enthusiasm in those that are loyal. To act as reserves in Macedonia would render the utmost service in a Macedonian offensive by keeping the rear of the armies free from acts of treachery; it would also give our men the much needed respite from the incessant din of guns and the nerve-wracking scream and bursting of shells they have had to endure almost since war was declared. It is indeed difficult to judge of the ultimate objective in the movement of New Zealanders from France, but we are inclined to favour the Macedonian project rather than the Mesopotamian. It is admitted that campaigning in the latter country is a great strain, physically, on the men, and health conditions are notoriously "bad, in fact the conditions are such and the nature of the campaign is such that there would be little to ease the long strain that New Zealanders have been subjected to. Whereas Greece is an ideal place in which to spend a European winter. To whatever place our men are being transported, they are being brought nearer home, their journey to New Zealand/ is being notably shortened. There is a remote possibility that taking this movement towards home into (consideration with //the ; Prime Minister's statement that the end of the war is much nearer than most people think, there is some method about what the British authorities are doing. The whole circumstances are, however, so deeply uncertain from lack of information that anything said can be nothing but conjecture; the intelligence of what is taking place is "insufficient to build an opinion upon. We know that New Zealanders are being moved, if not the whole force, then a part of it; there is nothing definite about anything other than tthat movement of New Zealanders is taking place. Until it was announced that an offensive against the British in Mesopotamia, the most noticeable aspect of the war was thei entire absence of any definite purpose in the German High Command. Military and naval leaders seem to be floundering with no real objective, other, perhaps, than to secure as early and as advantageous a peaee as possible. She may yet make some supreme and desperate effort at an offensive, but everything seems to be operating against such a view. The toils of millions are closing rapidly around her; every ship that can be spared is carrying the finest soldiers, guns and munitions from the virile new world across the Atlantic, and the third most powerful navy is being now ranged against her. The talk of ferreting the Hun ships out of their hole is again current; it is officially claimed that airship and aeroplane raids on England will soon be a thing of the past; it is stated by the Admiralty that the submarine effort is rapidly succumbing to Allied methods of antipiracy; German armies are beaten in France and Belgium in their ewn methods, and we now have them inventing and adopting new schemes of withstanding Allied onslaughts which are nothing more than making their retreat easier, by keeping their greatest forces and heaviest guns right in the rear instead of in the front as formerly. Britain is not very likely to take on this latest German system, which will render short rushes more easy of accomplishment and losses less for her armies. Germany is now 7 without any tried plan and we may await with interest the trial and failure of methods she is experimenting with. In all probability w r e shall not have long to wait for the news that New Zealanders have arrived at some port of debarkation.