GENERAL ITEMS.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 December 1915, Page 5

GENERAL ITEMS.

REVIEW OF THE WAR. ®Y MR. HILAIIIE UELLOC. Times and Sydney Sun Services. London, Dec. 16. Mr. Hilaire Belloc, in Land and Water, points out the difficulty of defending Salonika, because the heights most suitable for the defence of the town are contained by the line of the uufordable Vardar, which constitutes a very extended three-quarters circle requiring time for consolidation. Reviewing the situation, he says that the enemy's higher command still believe that political action will enable them to achieve the salvation of Prussia and her dependents. They no longer talk of European domination, but are concentrating attention on a settlement leaving Prussianised Germany intact. They believe this is possible through the political weakness, diversions, and lack of common leadership Among the Allies, and the intervention of further neutrals on her side.

The enemy know 3 that the east and west are the decisive theatres of the war and that he must keep 2J million men on the west front and against Italy, and more than this on the east front, and V/s millions for communications and auxiliary iservices. Germany has exhausted her efficients, and the reserves not called up will yield a maximum of 800,000 men. He is gambling on the power to hold out with a gradually increasing proportion of ineflicients until accident brings in further neutrals. The addition of Greece and Roumania would temporarily relieve the enemy. He knows the reserves of the Allies are overwhelming, but relies on the limitation of the Italian forces. Italy has not even declared war on Germany. Time, coupled with the stupidity of the Ancona outrage, is strengthening the bonds between Italy and the Allies. .Secondly, grave delay is unavoidable in rearming Russia; and thirdly, there is a difficulty in officering the Russian armies. Lastly, the nc-w British armies are handicapped by the rapid and novel organisation. The enemy must soberly see that time is working against hint. The German public has been induced to believe that the war has already been won, and this has an element of weakness, leading to sudden disillusion when the prolongation of the war brings affairs very rapidly against them. MR. CHURCHILL HAS NARROW ESCAPE. Received Dec. 18, 1.2.5 a.m. London, Dec. 17. Mr.JWinston Churchill has had a nartow escape. A German shell wrecked his dugout and killed his orderly. THE CONSCRIPTION QUESTION. London, Dee. 17. Liberal and Labor members of the House of Commons formed a deputation to Mr. Asquith, protesting against conscription as a great blow to liberty and social progress. HOMEWARD BOUND. London, Dec. 17. A contingent of medically unlit New Zealamlers has left Plymouth homewards. Bands played them out of the harbor. The contingent includes several D.C.M.'s and a party of Maoris. NOTES FROM THE TIMES. MUNITION WORKSHOPS GUTTED. Received Dec. 17, 5.5 p.m. Times and Sydney Sun Services. London, December IG, The Times' Toronto correspondent reports that three departments of the Grand Trunk Railway workshops have been gutted, and fourteen hundred munition workers have been rendered idle. The series of such Incendiarisms is extensive.

INSUFFICIENTLY ADDRESSED. Hon. TlfiJmas "Mackenzie, speaking at London, said that nine-tenths of the parcels o£ the comforts sent out to Gall'ipoli and the Dardanelles have been improperly addressed, and have been returned to the High Commissioner's office. WHAT WILL BULGARIA DO? An interviewer with King Constantino telegraphs on Tuesday saying that the moment has arrived when Greece musk give a decision. Circumstances make it probable that the Central Powers will request similar facilities to march through Ureece that have been granted the Allies, but are the Austro-Germans numerically sufficient? If they are insufficient, will they invite the Bulgarians to accompany them, and will the Bulgarians anyhow consent to remain? The whole question turns on this. It is most doubtful whether Greece would sit still, content to see Bulgarians on territority they have lately won by life and blood. Even if the Government is contented, public opinion would probably prove unrestrainable. The Government can be trusted to run no risks. Caution has been their aim in a polity of neutrality, but the Government consisted of Greeks, and every Greek is a patriot. Greece would abandon neutrality if events united the Sovereign, the Government and the people. GERMAN WAR FILMS IN CHINA. Germans are displaying to neutrals hundreds of war lilnis. Those used in China are inscribed with descriptions in English, Chinese and German. The Daily Mail remarks that more than these are needed to wipe out the Chinese recollections of the German troops' ferocities in 1900. COtINT DERNBURG, APOSTLE. Count Dernburg Ims been sent to Austria, Hungary, the Balkans, and Turkey as the apostle of the Prussians' new Central Europe gospel. Lecturing at Vienna, he said that Central Europeans did not need a sea road north of India, but in~"?iie future must develop a navigable Central European canal system.