GENERAL ITEMS.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 October 1915, Page 5

GENERAL ITEMS.

CONDUCT OF THE WAR. PESSIMISTIC "GRANNY" TIMES. (Times and Sydney Sun Services.) Eeoeived Oct. 12, 5.5 p.m. London, Oct. 11. 'The Times says that the Government will meet Parliament under circumstances parallel to those in June. Then, as now, there was a popular awakening to the discovery, based on hard and indisputable facts, that something is seriously amiss with the conduct of the war. There is no division of opinion to-day about our failure to impress the Balkan peoples. From the. first moment of the war, when the Germanic empires stood alone against us, right down to last week's landslide, one miscalculation seems to have followed another with almost mathematical certainty. The series began with the pathetic belief that Austria-Hungary would prove lukewarm, which prevented a clear-cut Balkan policy. Next came the slow, half-heeded breach with Turkey, who was bought by German gold. Bulgaria, who was willing six months ago to throw in her lot with the Allies, is now allowed lo follow suit. Next is the neutrality of Greece, whose' whole interests are bound up with the Allied cause; Roumania is passively isolated, and we are no longer iu touch with the aggressive Russian armies. Germany is breaking the blockade with a vengeance. The adverse balance in the war and in the whole Imperial position is sufficiently serious to need strong and prompt redress. The Times asks: Was there true co-ordination between diplomacy and military knowledge? and proceeds: "We will never know all about the disastrous blunder in the early stages of the Dardanelles, but it is notorious that every department worked independently of the Admiralty. The 'War Office reckoned on foreign help, which did not come; and the navy, tired of waiting for the army, began operations on its own account. The army arrived too late to find its chances, and a surprise attack has turned into a long and costly struggle in elaborate trenches. Nevei in the whole history of warfare was sheer incompetence fraught with such tragic results. Everything unfortunately points to a want of cohesion and gr"P" THE PROBLEM. FRENCH OPINION. Received Oct. 12, 10.5 p.m. Paris, Oct. 12. Newspapers comment on the undesirahlencss of weakening the Western defensive to despatch troops to the Balkans. 'The Quadruple Entente must be co-ordinate in action, and the question is, what are England, Italy and Russia prepared to do. M. Maurice Barres, in the Kcho de Paris, declares that the Allied armies need a permanent High War Council. The burdens of thu Balkans ought to be distributed after examination amongst all the forces. M, Barres quotes Jlerr Bcrnhardi's article on the mistakes of the Allies, wherein he says the Quadruple Entente committed a strateg-ie mistake in not co-ordinating. The Figaro says that the Allies' interest in Serbia, though considerable for all, is more considerable for some, notably Russia and England. FRENCH VIEW. HELP ST.OM OTHER ALLIES NEEDED. Received Oct. 12, 11.40 p.m. Paris, Oet. 12. Ic Temps says that France and England have already assumed the whole burden if the Dardanelles, and they munt in the Balkans receive liberal help from Russia and Italy. GERMANY'S AMBITIONS. CONSTANTINOPLE, NOT CALAIS. London, Oct. 11. The German papers, oll'ieially inspired, are raising a new cry that the real objective is not Calais, but Constantinople. With one voice they proclaim that the capture of Belgrade is one of the greatest successes of the war. The Tagoblatt Zeitung states that the public have been over long accustomed to the wrong idea, that the war would be decided at Calais. Now they find that Britain is more vulnerable in the Balkans. .Military Powers like'Gcrmany, Austria, Turkey, and Bulgaria are not going to be bullied into obedience by England and her Amercian servant, because England is temporarily mistress of the sea. Writing to the Sunday Herald Sir Edwin Pears describes Germany's determination and ambition to get through Serbia, Bulgaria and Constantinople to Mesopotamia and Egypt. The Balkan campaign is therefore of peculiar interest .to Australasia.