The Daily News. SATURDAY, JULY 28. THE WAR SITUATION.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 July 1917, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, JULY 28. THE WAR SITUATION.

The news from Russia is anything but cheering. By the infamous treachery of the Eleventh Army the whole Galician front has had to give way, the Russians surreuik-i my Tarnopol, Stanislau, and ether vital points, which cost so much to capture. Not only that, but the Eleventh Army practically made a present of its artillery, war machinery and stores to the enemy, whilst the artillery of the Seventh and Eighth Armies is in jeopardy. We are told by an English correspondent at Petrograd that the collapse almost staggers belief. The infantry of the Eleventh Army shot its own gunners in order to get the artil--lery horses on which to escape, whilst in revenge the gunners fired upon the runaways. This panic-stricken act left all the artillery in the hands of the enemy. Meantime, disturbing news comes from the interior. A mutiny has occurred at Kieff, and in South Russia there have been many demonstrations against the "dark forces," meaning, ifo doubt, the German agents, who are everywhere busy distributing their gold to bring about a crisis, and so enable Germany to deal Russia a mortal blow, or, as an alternative, to effect a "peace" with Russia that will give the enemy hegemony over that vast country and permit her to concentrate her forces against the Allies on the other fronts. Germany is playing a desperate game, and, it must be acknowledged, playing it with surprising results. She knows that with Russia active on the East front she must in the'end succumb to the Allies' pressure, but with Russia out of it, she sees a chance of retrieving her position, or, at any rate, of securing terms that will not mean her extinction as a first-class power. She is relaxing none of her activity in the west. Attempt after attempt is being made against the French on the California plateau, the fighting being as desperate and sanguinary as that before Verdun. She has stayed the advance of the British, and towards the sea she has actually attempted an offensive. It would seem, on the surface of things, that the enemy was never stronger than lie is to-day, but the loss of man-power that this fighting on every front is producing must be beginning to tell, and the war, it can now be seen more clearly than ever, can only be won by the process of attrition. By bearing the brunt in the first two years, France saved civilisation, but she has saved it at an awful cost, for she is now, as Marshal Joffre told America recently, bled white, and is desperately in need of American help. America has gallantly responded, and already placed in the front an army of 100,000 men, which will shortly be increased lo a million, with a second million in reserve. Meanwhile Britain, « »■

Bcious of the supremo effort needed, is securing every available man for the army, which must now he as strong as the total German forces, but it is another thing to use them, American officers from the front state that the German line is impregnable, but the fact that the British took Vimy ridge, with the Messincs bastion, adtfrittedly the strongest point of the German line, shows that with the necessary preparations tind abundant use of artillery, backed up by intrepid infantry, no part of the (ierman line is safe. \ Until, however,

the Allies are strong enough, a breach sufficiently wide to turn the enemy lines decisively may be impossible.' If Russia had held it would be a different matter. Her partial collapse must prolong the war. To look for a conclusion this year is to blind oneself to facts. If we can finish it next year, we will have re&Bon to congratulate ourselves. The danger is that Germany will occupy Russia, or a big slice of it, and dragoon its peoples, in the same way as it has dragooned others coming ■ under its fell sway, in which case the war would be prolonged indefinitely. Were

it not that the Russians arc so ignorant, they must see the abyss into which they may fall. Never was their liberty more threatened than it is to-day,, and never was their country in greater danger. Russia overrun by Germans and their emissaries, and anything may happen. But, as the London Times correspondent says, Russia's psychology is capable of extraordinary changes, and the whole situation may be as suddenly changed for the better as it has lately been for the worse. The enemy success may prove a blessing in disguise if it has the effect, of consolidating the Russians as a nation, and as a fighting force. A sick Russia is helpless, but a virile, united Russia is unconquerable.