Progress of the War.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16162, 16 March 1918, Page 8

Progress of the War.

Minor operations continue to be tho rfrder of tho day on the "West front, and no great effort is recorded on the part of cither srde. The Flanders front is still the centre of this local activity, and both British and Belgian communiques record successes for the Allied arms. The French communiques rccord only normal artillery bombardments, and thero is apparently a lull as far as infantry operations are concerned. In Palestine a slight advancement of tho British line eastward of tho JerusalemXablus road is reported, and further details aro given of tho progress of the Indian and English troops in tho coastal sector, as recorded in yesterday's cables. The Russian outlook shows no improvement, and it is apparent that the Germans are continuing their invasion, and openly disregarding the terms of the peacc treaty. Tho occupation of Odessa, reported yesterday, is confirmed by the news to-day, and it is stated that tho Turks have recaptured Erzerum, the former Russian base for operations in Anatolia. It seems fairly clear now that the Russians 1 are abandoning their hard-earned gains ' ■in the Caucasus, and one by one 3ho Grand 3>uke Nicholas's conquests in tho early part of 1916 aro falling back into the hands of tho Turks. What effect this will have on the British forces in Mesopotamia remains to be seen, but it will materially affect the situation, and probably delay General Marshall's advance northwards against the principal objective of both the Palestine and Mesopotamia armies, the main Turkish basfi at Aleppo.

Germany has proved amenable to a threat of reprisals. The two British aviators who were sentenced to a long term of penal servitude for dropping copies of "hostile proclamations'' in German territory, have boon released from prison and sent to an internment ramp, in view of a warning In- the British Government that unless this was done within a month, reprisals —presumably in the form of similar treatment for captured German aviators —v.onld be undertaken. "Whether the change from a German prison to n prison camp will greatly benefit the British prisoners may be doubted, but it. appears that they were lucky in not being shot at once, for Germany announcod. through the Swiss authorities, about the middlo of January, that any airmen dropping propaganda matter would bo treated as spies. In spite, however, of this threat, it is doubtful whether any of tho notable utterances of the war rcceivod such publicity and circulation as did the historic- message to Congress, in which, early in January, President "Wilson sot forth the aims and objects for which America entered the war. It is quite possible that this was the "hostile proclamation'" which tho British airmen had been disseminating in Germany, for 11 million copies of the message were printed in German for the purpose of being dropped over the enemy lines. The address was translated into Russian, and arrangements were made to have copios placarded in every city, town, and village, in Russia, and printed in every Russian newspaper. It was also translated into all the languages of Austria, Hungary, and the Balkan States, and circulated throughout the whole Near East in every possible way. Indeed, us i;lie Washington correspondent of "Tho Times" said, an unprecedented effort was made to ensure tho speoch reaching every human being in the world who could read. It must have been somo provision of the use to which the President's Message was to be put that led the Germans to isstio tho threat referred to above. The same fear of tho truth reaching the peoplo appoars to have actuated the Turks. Ono Aaron Aaronsolm —who from his namo should bo a German Jew—has something to say on this subject in his book, "With the Turks in Palestine," the material for which he acquired during a period of compulsory servico with the Turkish forces. Speaking of tho visits paid by British airmen to Beersheba, ho says:— "True to the policy of avoiding all unnecessary harm to the nativos, these British aviators never dropped bombs on tho town, but, what was more dangerous from the Turkish point of view, they would unload packages of pamphlets, printed in Arabic, informing the natives that they were being deceived ; that the Allies wore thoir only true friends; that the Germans were merely .making uso of them to further their own schemes, etc. Those cleverlyworded little tracts catno showering down out of tho sky, and at first they were eagerly picked up. The Turkish commanders, however, soon announced that anyone found carrying them would pay the death, penalty. After that, whon tho little bundles dropped near them, the natives would run as if from high-explosivo bombs." The anxiety both of the German and Turkish authorities to keep their troops free from the contaminating influence of a plain, true statement oi the caso suggests, as one writer remarks, that this form of propaganda is not so ineffectual as many have believed.