Progress of the War

Press, Volume LI, Issue 15268, 3 May 1915, Page 6

Progress of the War

Now Zealanders will, of course, be most interested this morning in the story of the operations at the Dardanelles, in which the New Zealand and Australian troops played a prominent part. The official account shows that our men were assigned a difficult task, and fought "with tho utmost bold"ness ,, in attack, and with great stubbornness in defence. Indeed, an Eng- j lish paper says they and the Australians were given the post of honour, for their attack is directed towards the Narrows, tho strongest part of tho Strait. They wero landed on tho western shoreof tho peninsula, nearly opposite Vac Narrows, and after advancing boldly, had to withstand many attacks, which they repulsed "with fiuo spirit and de- '• termination." They then resumed the oftvnih-e. Every New Zcalander will feel proud that our men have done to well on tho first occasion in waich work of tho highest importance, taxing all tho qualities of the soldier, ha s been given to them. In tho south of tho peninsula other British forces made a substantial advance. Tho result or the- operations is that the Allies have a firm footing on both sides of the Strait, and so can land reinforcements and ertores with comparative case and safety. Xews from France states that north of Yp:,o the Allies have made progress ranging from 500 metres to a kilometre, over "tho whole front," but tho width of this front is not .stated. Judging from Sir John French's report, the British were not concerned in this satisfactory advance. The most surprising intelligence in all tho war now s is the bombardment of Dunkirk. Unless tho Germans havo made an advance of which wo have not heard—and, not to mention other evidence, the latest French communique infers that they havo not^—tho shells that dropped into Dunkirk like a bolt from tho blue must have come from guns beyond the Nieuport line. It is about eighteen miles to NieuTiort, so tho Germans must bo employing guns of very long range indeed. It is worth mentioning, in view of this, that tho Queen Elizabeth's 15in guns could fire a shell from Dover to Calais, a distance of twenty-five miles. In tho Eastern theatre thero is increased activity. The Germans have invaded Russia from tlio iiorth-east corner of East Prussia, and, according to their "official reports, havo reached a town seventy miles from the border. This attack may be directed against Libau or Riga, but tho Russians do not regard it seriously. Tho advance-guards are busy in Northern Poland, and tho Russians claim tho advantage in tho operations. In Galicia they aro also more than holding their own, and it is satisfactory to know that they have had success in their resistance to tho Austrian flanking attack.

Wo aro glad to 6ee that a generous response is being made to our request for subscriptions on behalf of tho Serbians. Thero can he no question as to the urgency of their need. An appeal which was signed by Lord Curzon, the Bishops of London and Oxford, Mr Lloyd George, and others, issued last Christmas, emphasised the yeoman service rendered Dy Serbia to the Allies, and declared that tho lossee suffered by this little people of hardly more than 4,000,000 souls h fl d been terrible indeed in proportion to the number of the population. Tho ratio was far beyond that suffered by the other Allies, even including tho Belgians. - : ] .

As we have already indicated, the condition of the eick Und wounded in Serbia has been particularly appalling. The appeal issued *by the English Committee showed that tho war had fflr outrun the resources of Serbia itself. To cope with anything like the amount of cases there was neither the staff nor tho appliances. The material even for bandages was wanting. Accommodation was so deficient that a' Fronch nurse working in Valievo wrote that she saw ivounded who had been crowded out of any kind of shelter lying out in the streets in the rain on some straw and eacking. There were no surgeons to attend to them. A hospital unit cuder Lady Paget, with the co-opera-tion of tho St. John Ambulance, was sent out, and the following telegram was recoived from Lady Paget : —"Conditions defy description.- To save lives it . is -, essential to send more medical,.,,and surgical appliances. Everything has given out. "Wounded Serbians arid Austrians are pouring in day and night. Impossible to cope with situation unless we receivo immediate help." Professor Kuno Meyer is once again in the public C3'e, thi s time through severing his association with the harvard University, owing to a prize being awarded to a poem denouncing Germany. Although Professor Meyer ate the bread of England for many years, and accepted many honours from English universities, he has a perfect right, we think, to retain his German sympathies. It is not becauso ho i s now anti-British that his name has become infamous. His crime is that which is set forth in the following resolution adopted by the Council and Senate of the University of Liverpool: ''We desire to place on record our strong condemnation of tho action of Dr. Kuno Meyer, lately a Professor of the University, and indebted to- our country for hospitality and honour during a period of thirty years, in acting as an agent of sedition and in imputing treason to loyal Irish soldiers now jirisoners in Germany." Dr. Meyer had the effrontery to write to the English Press protesting that it was absurd to charge him, a German, with disloyalty to England. As "Tho Times" pointed out, he was not accused of disloyalty, but of attempting to bo the cause of disloyalty in others —"a crime which, by our standards of honour, he 03- accepting British hos-

pitality -while preparing to seduce British subjects from their allegiance."

The details of the voting i n tho City Council election in Wellington show that the Social-Democrats "fared rather badly. The Labour-Socialist candidate who polled best was Mr H. E. Holland, and be came nineteenth on the list. Mr J. Glover was four places lower down etill, and Mr "W. T. Young, who was president of the' Red Federation during the strike, filled the 24th place. Commenting upon these figures, tho Wellington "Post" observes: —'Tn Christchurch the Social-Democrat nominees fared better, but there the circumstances are different from those of Wellington. Here Moderate Labour witnessed the muddle of some Social Democrats in tho strike of 1913, and the 'Evolutionaries' have a feeling that association with the 'Revolutionaries' means disaster." Tho Wellington public saw with its own eyes what "Social-Democracy" really means. Tho people oi' Christchurch were spared the experience of Wellington during the big strike; otherwise they would have as decided a dislike and distrust of the Social-Democrats as Wellington has.

Whenever a Wardist or a SocialDemocrat meets with a rebuff at an election, ho blames everything but him. self and his party. His favourite excuse is that he was beaten by "motorcars."' Mr Fletcher, the Wardist M.P.. who was badly defeated in the Wellington Mayoral contest, took his defeat rather ill, and he declared that "the sooner the use of motor-cars at elections was stopped tho better it would be not only for local but for Parliamentary elections." It was promptly pointed out to Mr Fletcher that all tho Wellington booths were at such convenient points that it was very easy for anybody to vote without the aid of a motor-car. Everyone knows, of course, that' on tho whole the use of motor-cars gives no advantage to one party more than another. The only result of motor transport is that moro people vote than would othonviso do so.