The Daily News. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1914. PROGRESS OF THE WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 87, 8 September 1914, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1914. PROGRESS OF THE WAR.

According to the official summary of the past week's operations in France, there have been battles oil various parts of the front which in other wars would have been considered operations of tiie first magnitude, but now are merely incidents. A strategic withdrawal and contraction, we are told, were necessitated b) the initial shock on the frontiers, and in Belgium also, by the enormous strength the Germans have thrown west. This strength the attenuated British army had to meet, which it did successfully, guarding the left flank of the whole of the French lino from a deadly turning attack. It is not surprising, therefore, to learn that the British casualties to date have been 15,000. There is some satisfaction, however, in knowing that the losses inflicted on the enemy have been threefold as great, winch is to say that British arms have already put out of action more than one German army corps, comprising .probably the pick of the Germans engaged in France, for only the best have been placed against the "meddling Britishers" who have dared to stand in the path of the arrogant, ruthless Teuton. It is difficult to understand from the meagre information vouchsafed us what i 3 -behind this continued retirement of the Allies. Has the German main army, the Crown Prince's, which was forcing its way into France, through the lleuse valley, defeated and pushed back the French forces, giving help and strength to the German right? We fancy this must be the case, or the Anglo-French armies on the left, which at different stages were reported to have held up the attacking force, would not have steadily given way in order to maintain an unbroken front. Foiled in their efforts to turn the Allies' left or drive a wedge through the Allies' front, the Germans are trying other enveloping movements, being particularly active in the cast and southeast. At Verdun, the French have cheeked the German advance, whilst in Lorraine and the Vosges the French have been partially successful. It is stated in the cables that the Germans are in overwhelming force at certain crucial points. This is the whole art of successful war—to bring the greatest pressure to bear upon the weakest part of the enemy's position. The Germans have searched and found the weakest points, and massed their forces and hurled them against the enemy, without counting the cost, which has been enormous. The effect has not been quite that desired, but the pressure has been suflleiejit to force and bend the whole of the Allies' line until one part is now practically resting on Paris, This may, of course, be part of the Allies' strategy, having for its object the holding and wearing down of the invaders until the Russians have established themselves | strongly in German territory. But on paper, the Anglo-French forces should have 'been able to stem the attack on tho Belgian and French frontiers. France's mobilised forces were put at four and a-half millions. Britain probably has 200,000 men in France, with the ; Belgians making a force opposed to the Germans of approximately five millions. Of this immense number, at least three millions should have Leon available to resist the Germans. Tho latter's mobilised forces amount to iiva millions. Xot more than half this number would be employed against Belgium and France. So, as far as numbers go, the Allies should be quite equal or superior to the Germans. Yet there is no disguising the fact that so far the results have been in favor of the Germans. It is explained that the German howitzers are greatly superior to tho French, and tlwt they actually have il7in guns in action in the field. Wo have been told ever since tho Balkan wars that the French artillery was infinitely superior to that of the Germans, and that this advantage would make all the difference when the clash came. But the Germans evidently have liad something up their sleeve. Krupps must have supplied guns of an old type to the Balkan belligerents and kept the latest and most efficient for tho use of their own people. We were told, also, that the French aircraft wa» vastly superior to that of the German, If the cables can be relied upon, the advantage in aerial work, both of aeroplanes and dirigibfcs, has so far rested with the Germans. In this respect tho French must have also been misinformed. Still, there is 110 cause for alarm. Whatever successes the Germans have gained they have had to pay terribly dearly for. Their losses must have 'been awfui. They cannot possibly go on sacrificing thousands i'nd thousands of live 3. Whilst the Allies' line remains unbroken, the Germans must always expose themselves to the devastating fire of the Allies. Tho Allies, evidently, are taking no risks of a general or vital engagement a* this stage. German success depends absolutely upon their dealing a decisive blow to the Allies and sending their shattered forces reeling back to Faris; tor the Kussians, who have by their successes at Leiaberg and elsewhere entire- ; ly crippled the Austrians, from whom no offonsho movement of any consequence is now possible, are converging 011 Germany from three points, and will soon be over the Vistula and over-run-ning the German States. Tho Russians are in inexhaustible force, and can pour in their millions. They may be checked for a time, as they indeed have been ill West Prussia, but their very numbers will continue to press onward and in the end overwhelm Germany. The Germans have in the past professed to despise the Russians as a lighting force, "but a more formidable force the Germans will find

they liavc never been "up against." The

' rapidity of their mobilisation proved the - efficiency of their organisation and administration, elements lacking in the Manchurian campaign ami responsible for their downfall on that occasion; the successful campaign in Galicia, including their escape from the German-Austrian enveloping movement and their putting in of a masterly counterstrokc culminat'ing in the destruction of the liugo Austrian army, shows that the Russian generalship is of a very high order; whilst the brave, almost reckless, conduct of the rank and file proves them to be the equal of the best troops in the world. The Germans have reduced warfare to a fine art, but the Russians have learned a lot during the past eight years, and will prove worthy of the Teuton's finest steel. Germany is between two fires, and if she does not get severely burned, as she thoroughly deserves to for provoking this sanguinary, devastating, ruinous, criminal war, it wiU be tho great surprise of the world.