Progress of the War.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16218, 22 May 1918, Page 6

Progress of the War.

Another day has passed on the West front without any events suggesting that tho next phase of tho great offensive is about to bo launched. 1 The official communiques again record only local activities, tha most important of which was apparently tho French attack on a front of 4000 yards in the neighbourhood of Locre, all objectives being gained and 400 prisoners taken, no insignificant feat when the highly organised nature of tlio German defences is taken into consideration. The latest contribution to the information at our disposal regarding tho next phase of the offensivo is tho statement that Marshal von Mackensen is on the West front with a big army of manoeuvre, intended to bo thrown into any gap torn in the Allied lines by Hindenburg's "hammer-blows." Had a big German army of manoeuvre been available in tho early stages of tho offensive, when on several occasions there was a temporary gap in the Allied lines, the results might have been serious for the Allies, but now the position has entirely changed, and the creation of an Allied army of manoeuvre makes it problematical whether the Germans can force even a temporary gap in our lines. An increase irt tho enemy's activities in the Italian theatre has been apparent for some days past, and to-day an Italian official report records considerable local fighting on the whole front, enemy attacks being repulsed at various points. A British Admiralty report shows that the German efforts to clear the entrance to the ZeebruggeOstend canal, blocked by tho British naval raid nearly a month ago, hav.o so far been fruitless, and reconnaissances carried out by the aerial service indicate .that the majority of the sub-

marines and torpedo craft, based on tho Flanders coast, have been immobilised at Bruges. The remainder of the war cables are devoted mainly to the

situation in Russia, where affairs continue to go from bad to worse under the misrule of the Bolshevik regime.