ALLIED ARMY'S SITUATION.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXV, Issue 8306, 26 November 1915, Page 5

ALLIED ARMY'S SITUATION.

GREECE MAY BE STUNG TO

ACTION

LONDON, November 24.

Mr Ward Price,- in a message from Salonika, says that the future of the Allied forces is obscure. They are waiting for LordKitchener'^ tour to clear up some uncertainties. "We landed under 'misapprehension, which it is important to remember. Greece had requested certain forces to co-op-erate* with her troops, and the French were landing at Salonika when M. Venezelos was forced to resign and Greece abandoned her promises. With 200,000 Greeks we could have defeated the Bulgarians while the Serbs held back the Germans. But the real objectives were to rescue the Serbs and prevent the Germans linking up with Constantinople and sending much-need-ed shells and .supplies to tho Turks, who would now have been defeated. It will be a long thno before we can, iiorn Salonika, hamper' the Germans' use of tl'e route for munitions to Gallip/ii. This it i^ impossible to prevent, and st wil 1 mean a considerable increase in Ihe dilficiilties in the Dardanelles. On 1 I'front is 120 miles from the railway to I Constantinople, a great distance in ! such a country as the Balkans.

"Furthermore*, the anomalies nnd uncertainly of the Greek attitude o\ricloud tho .position. Greece is domLnted by a desire to keep out of the war. and/if impossible, then lo fight on the winning side. The King, the General Staff, and the majority of the people) believe that Germany is winning, b t, on the other hand, tho greater part of the wealth of the country is in tho hand,- of Britain, who has command of the M>a. Battles on her frontiers are inevitable .soon, the enemy probably following the Serbs across. The Bulgarian occupation of Monnstir would stir the jealousies of Greece-. Anything might sting her into action on either sde. "The French ;ive holding back the Bulgar- on the Teherna. also on tho heights on the Bulgarian frontier, whore part of the British contingent is held in reserve, the rest being encamped eight miles from Salonika, in excellent health and spirits. Tho AngloFrench and Greek Armies, with a sprinkling of Serbs. Butears and Turks, rub shoulders, and there,, are remarkable arrays of warships, transports and hospital ships in the harbour."