The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 1918. THE BATTLE FRONTS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 147, 21 June 1918, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 1918. THE BATTLE FRONTS.

For the cause that leeks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance. For the future in the distance,' And the good that toe can do. i = 1

Putting the m-oet reasonable construction upon the rather incoherent and conflicting accounts of the fighting in Italy that have reached us from both sides, we can safely say that the Austrian offensive, of Tvhich so much was predicted and i expected by the enemy, is so far a pro-i nounced failure. The vital point in. the j Italian lines, as most people understand,; is the mountainous region on the west,' which overlooks the plains. If the Aus-i trians were once in poeseesion here they eouH promptly outflank the- Italian defence eastward to the Adriatic, and; render the line of the Piave absolutely I untenable. The Allies would be compelled to retreat, leaving the northern plains and many famous and opulent cities to the enemy; and the material losses thus inflicted, serious as they might be, would yet be of infinitely less importance than the shock to Italy's military prestige, and the loss of confide»ije that would inevitably follow such a reverse. To achieve these objects the I Austrians have concentrated large and' powerfully armed forces, and they have preseed their attack in accordance with German tactical traditions regardless of sacrifices. But so far this offensive, so long heralded .by the boastful threats of the enemy, has effected less than any of the other great "drives" engineered by the Central Powers since the war .began. In the mounta.iu region, where Britieh and French troops held the post of honour, the Austrians lipve gained practically nothing, and have sustained heavy losses. On the Piavc front, where the local conditions favoured the offensive, they have made relatively little headway, and the comparatively small bodies of troops that liave forced their way across the river are now in serious peril from the heavy counter-attacks of the Italians, while their supplies and communications are endangered by the rieing of the flooded stream behind them. It may be too soon to form an accurate estimate of the situation sn this front, and we must do the best ■Wβ can to draw a lino ibetween the rival Austrian and! Italian communiques. But, after making all reasonable allowance for the natural elation of our gallant affies, we may fairly conehide that the enemy has made very little headway in the initial stages of the offensive, that he has suffered severely, and .that he is not likely to advance much further in the face of the heavy concentration of reserves made possible by tlhis deJay. All fcbis is, of course, extremely encouraging, not only because it seems to dispose, at least for the time, of the danger which has so long menaced Italy, but because the improvement of the situation here must react in our favour; all along the AVestern front in France, and Flanders. There, for the moment,' there as a lull in the fighting, folio-wing | on the breakdown of the last German 1 offensive on the Montdidier-Noyon front, and tie complete failure of the. enemy's desperate efforts to capture R'heims, or to advance westward from Chateau-Thierry. Of course, this tem-j porary cadm is nothing but a breathing; space, which the Germans are utilising: to the utmost of their powers to bring

up reinforcements and to organise further attacks. We must expect a. speedy renewal of the offensive in one direction or another, for, ac we must constantly reiterate, the Germans cannot afford to wait.. Then: present position is from the military standpoint tenable only so long as they retain a marked balance of , men and gune in their favour; and with the Americans pouring in at the rate of a large army • per moath, delay must mean disaster. But the political situation in Central Europe as an even more uTgent incentive to immediate action from the standpoint of the enemy. Even in Germany there is no doubt that the long postponement of the "crowning mercy" which the Kaiser promised his people four years ago has grievously shaken the confidence and depressed the spirits of the nation, and there are sinister omens on the horizon which bode ill for the Hohenzollern dynasty in the day of final defeat. But in Austria the situation is infinitely worse. The disaffection that has sprung from the nationalist aspirations of the Czechs and Slovaks and Jugoslavs has now shaken the Dual Monarchy to its foundations; and an «yen more imminent danger is the widespread discontent and disorder due to the hardships endured by the people, the disasters and losses of the war, and the terrible scarcity of food. All these causes taken together may help to explain the failure of Austria to utilise the opportunity afforded her .by Germany's recent offensive. 'With only a limited amount of information at our disposal it is impossible to say why Austria, even if she could not spare men to help Germany in France, did not time her "drive" in Italy so as to synchronise exactly with the German "drivee" towards Amiens and Paris. Presumably the Germans could not afford to .wait any longer, and the Austriane were delayed by unfavourable weather conditions. But whatever the cause, the result has been that the two Central Powers, instead of co-operating on carefully concerted offensives, initiated at the same moment on the two fronts, have struck their blows independently, and have been to all intents thwarted in detail. The Central Powers have not yet reached tho point of exhaustion, but the failure of these two great offensives, with such a short interval .between them, marks not only a grave lack of coherence in their military policy, but a decline in effective strength which brings us perceptibly nearer the one possible end of this colossal conflict.