Thank you for correcting the text in this article. Your corrections improve Papers Past searches for everyone. See the latest corrections.

This article contains searchable text which was automatically generated and may contain errors. Join the community and correct any errors you spot to help us improve Papers Past.

Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image

GOLDEN PROMISE.

OUTLOOK ON WEST FRONT.

progress hindered by wra/ thke Conditions.

(Wellington Times' Correspondent). London, August 29. . September is upon us and with only a few weeks of good campaigning conditions still in front of us, vagaries of . the weather are a subject of chagrin and disappointment to all who have the cause of tue Allies at heart. The rainstorms of the last few weeks have favoured the Germans enormously in their efforts to hold up the British on the Flanders front and to preserve inviolate their submarine bases on the Belgian coast, for there can be hardly any doubt that if the state of the ground had admitted of extended infantry movement there would, before this, have been far more activity round about Ypres than the merely local enterprises which have been all that Sir Douglas Haig has been able to attempt. To what extent the weather has thrown us behind our time-table it is, of course, impossible to estimate without being in possession of the details of all Allied plans. The Germans sometimes taunt us with "waiting for America," but assuredly they on their part are pinning all their hopes on the weather frustrating the aims they attribute to us of clearing the Belgian coast line before the summer campaign of 1917 wears to a close.- Von Hindenburg, to do him justice, is co-operating to the utmost with his ally the weath-

er. He lias even taken some risks at Verdun in order to concentrate great | masses of troops and guns in Flanders —concentration which even though it does not arrest the Hrif.iali advance, may have the effect of nig it until sreal winter conditions afford five or six months' respite to tiie hard-pressed German army. I It may be, of course, that the heavy (rainfall in August w'ill Ihle •followed by a long and fine autumn. In that case there may yet be time for ub to gather in the full fruits of the victories we have won. But there is a growing belief that the guns themselves are in a large manner responsible for the atmospheric disturbance of the past month, and in that case a new and peculiar war problem has to be faced—a problem which could be more acute on the Flanders front than on any other.

AMERICA'S EFFORTS. With so much depending on the weather it is utterly useless to speculate on what the next six or eight weeks are likely to have in store for us. Everything depends'on the drying up of the ground, and if fortune should not favour us in this particular, we should have to reconcile ourselves to another winter campaign on very much the same ground which we at present occupy. This is the worst that could happen, and though in that case the summer campaign would not have yielded anything to be very eifthi'siastic about, it would nevertheless have given us seme solid advantages in yielding ns positions which enable us to overlook and obtain direct observation of the enemy's movements. The Germans are now on the low ground, and even if they are not driven back appreciably they will find themselves in very uncomfortable quarters for winter campaigning. Though the break-up of the weather may have set time on their side so far as the fighting of 1917 is concerned. Time is assuredly not on their side if we take a wider survey of the war's outlook. For whilst Briton and German are struggling in the mud of Flanders, America is getting . ready, and from all accounts she is going about the task in a manner which promises well for the future. The Americans are anxious to shine, and it will not be their fault, or through any lack of methodical scientific preparation, if ;hey fail to do so. Even during tht. ,'w short months that have elapsed since President Wilson signed the Declaration of wonderful tilings have been accomplished in the United States. Our American friends did not make the mistake some of cur politicians made of prating altout "business as usual." Their i>liolc- efforts are being directed to the prosecution of the war and to assisting the* Allies to bring that war to a definite and victorious conclusion next year. In* these efforts they are greatly assisted by" the munition plant they found ready to their hands, and by the experience, fought in the hard field of past mistakes which the Allies are able to place at their disposal.

UNHAPPY RUSSIA. '"" Whilst the horizon in the West is crimsoning with golden promise, the clouds in the East remain black enough. Russia, from all appearances, has not yet reached the end of her troubles. Kcrensky is waging a gallant fight to evolve order out of chaos, but all too often he finds his efforts frustrated by the Socialists and the Pacifists, whilst the unlimited supply of German money continues to pour into the country to assist any cause or movement which tends to delay the reorganisation of t Russia's military resources. Keren ckv's efforts at reform are complicated further by the fact that many of those by whom he is surrounded are Jacking in experience of affairs and have had no training in the art of government. In this particular even the old and much-maligned Duma possessed certain advantages over the new order of things. If the Duma could be brought oack, with a Government really responsible to it. much might yet be accomplished before next spring, for though the Duma was not elective in the proper sense, it had some claim to be representative of the different classes in Russia. The Moscow Conference, by general admission, has not cleared the air to the extent that was hoped, but we may derive consolation at least from the evidence afforded that the Socialists and the Pacifists are not destined to have things all their own way. The two strongest bodies in Russia to-day are the Cossacks and the Conservatives, and both these bodies are pledged to the prosecution of the war. Both, moreover, are working very much on parallel lines, and if they co-ope-rate in shaping the destinies of Russia to the common end which they are pursuing, M. Kerensky would find in them the strong and united backing which he requires.

AUSTRIA'S WEAKNESS. Having analysed both the strength and the weakness of the Allied position a little attention may properly be devoted to the position of the ( enemy. Even though the break up in the weather , should prevent Sir Douglas Haig from restoring a war of movement on the Flanders front, Germany's losses in men are known to have been excessively,

heavy. To that extent her ability to continue the struggle next spring has ,been weakened and her numerical inferiority in the West, of which she ■ already begins to complain in her official communiques, will be still further .emphasised when an American army enters the field against her.

Austria is the real weakness in the combination of the Central iPowors, and Austria is just now sustaining blows on the Italian front which will assurodJy quicken her anxiety for peace. The precise position on the Italian front is not very well defined. For military reasons, and in order to afford as little information to the enemy as possible, General Cadorna is giving no day-to-day account of the progress of his advance. But he has very large forces at his disposal, he has broken the Austrian line over a wide front, has captured between 20,000 and 30.000 prisoners, and there is a visible weakening of the Austrian resistance. Until the capture of Monte Santo was announced we were kept very much in the dark as to what was going on. But the capture of Monte Santo means that a great part of the Bainsizza Plateau is now in the possession of our Italian Allies, and though it is true enough that the Carso Plateau is the key to Trieste, the Bainsizza Plateau, in its turn, is the key to the Carso. Whilst continuing his attacks on the Hermada, both on the land side and from the giant monitors which are bombarding from the sea, General Cadorna, therefore, is endeavouring to turn the entire Carso position from the north. On his success much depends, for if the Austrians suffered a great military disaster in this arena of the war. its effect on Vienna would be incalculable. i

COMING ANXIETIES. Those who endeavour to peep into the future beyond the few weeks which still remain to lis of the present summer campaign are a little anxious about what may happen at Home when we begin to indulge in that now familiar process of national self-analysis which breaks out like a disease as soon as the summer fighting is over and we are called upon to face the long, weary wait which winter campaigning involves. But we have survived this experience in the pist and the situation this winter will (lifter in only two or three particulars from the position which confronted us in the winter of 1916-17.

We have been disappointed in our hopes of bringing the war to a conclusion this year, and, in the interval, Labour disaffection at Home has increased. But against these disappointments we are able to set the fact, that, in America, a new and powerful Ally is ranging herself by our side. Moreover, the winter months will not be wholly lacking in military movement. All indications are that the Turks, with such assistance as Germany is able to offer them, will make a desperate effort to recover possession of Baghdad. If they were free to concentrate all their resources against General Maude, tliey might very well succeed, for the British force at Baghdad has long lines of communication to maintain with the Persian Gulf. But any movement against Baghdad will almost certainly cause a repercussion on the Gaza front, and even if Russia is unable to do very much in the Caucasus, we have it in our power to keep the Turks very fully occupied j,n Palestine. The military position in the Far East promises, indeed, to monopolise a good deal of their attention as soon as the weather cools.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TDN19171105.2.40

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Taranaki Daily News, 5 November 1917, Page 6

Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,698

GOLDEN PROMISE. Taranaki Daily News, 5 November 1917, Page 6

GOLDEN PROMISE. Taranaki Daily News, 5 November 1917, Page 6

Help

Log in or create a Papers Past website account

Use your Papers Past website account to correct newspaper text.

By creating and using this account you agree to our terms of use.

Log in with RealMe®

If you’ve used a RealMe login somewhere else, you can use it here too. If you don’t already have a username and password, just click Log in and you can choose to create one.


Log in again to continue your work

Your session has expired.

Log in again with RealMe®


Alert