PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3057, 19 April 1917, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Bad weather seems■ to have interrupted the French offensive on the Aisne front, and at the moment of writing the position reachccl is in some respects obscure. It is not in doubt, however, that' highly imports ant results have already been achieved. The enemy first line has been captured from Craonno westward along the plateau of the same name—that is to say, directly on the flank of the line which the Allies arc. assaulting . from Artois _to the Aisne—and on an extensive front east and south of Craonno, towards Reims, the French have at a number of points mastered the enemy second line. Precisely to what extent the situation has been altered by .these successes is not disclosed, however, at the time of writing. The Germans put forward a version of their own and declare that the French have been defeated with heavy losses in an attempt to break through on the Aisne and have not renewed' the attempt. This story may safely be dismissed, A French semi-official message gets nearer to fflie heart .of the matter in stating that altogether the Allies placed hoh de combat a. hundred. thousand Germans in eight days. There is no evidence that the French concentrated upon a sudden effort to break through the enemy line. -What is clearly established is that they have set themselves to heavily engage* the enemy' on a very wide front. Their main objective has yet to be disclosed, and 'German reports, in spite of bluffing talk about the defeat of an attempt to break through, betray both uncertainty and. anxiety on this point.

. A message just received shows that the French have extended their offensive into the Eastern Champagne, and have broken into tho enemy line between Prunay, seven miles southeast of Reims, and Auberive, about ten miles further east. The enemy's first line was captured over -the whole length of this sector and his second line over a distance of seven miles. Auberive, which appears to have been the eastern extremity of the attacking front,, is at tho wesfc ern end of the front on which the French dovelqpec! their Champagne offensive in 1915. Having captured 'Auberive the French are at this point a little more than two miles distant from the Bazancourt-Somme Py ailway which they ■ have still Ycpre closely approached further east. The' railway is an extremely important link between the German eastern and western armies. j

The scale magnitude upon which the French have planned their part 011 the joint Allied offensive is now beginning to appear. 1 Apart from the area between . the British southern flank (at St. Quenfcin'y and the Aisne. which ha_s witnessed some, heavy fighting-during the last day or two,> the French are powerfully assaulting the enemy front over a distance of more than fifty miles, along tho Aisne, past Reims and into the Eastern Champagne. That the attack has been developed in such formidable) fashjon over so wide a front disposes completely of the German assertion that tho French have been defeated in an ,attempt to' Ijrcak through on the Aisiie. The penetration of the enemy's line may lie the ultimate object, but meantime his defences arc boing shattered and his troops defeated, on a far wider front than would be selected for attack if penetration of the line wore the immediate object aimed at. Manifestly, t!» French are pifeing

their fighting power and th/ir ability to ■ rapidly shift and concentrate men and guns against that of the enemy, confident that the result will turn heavily to his disadvantage. Thus far tbey have prospered well. As reports stand, apart from a tremendous slaughter of ■ tho enemy which their artillery superiority has presumably enabled them to effect at relatively smaller cost to themselves, they have taken on the Aisne and in the Champagne 13,500 prisoners. The enemy's claim that he captured over two thousand French prisoners is not specifically contradicted at time of writing, but French reports indicate that enemy counter-attacks were in general heavily defeated. In view of this and the general success which is attending the offensive the enemy's claim to have capture,d so many pris-,, oners needs confirmation.

Reports dealing with the British front show comparatively little movement, the ruling state of affairs being largely determined by bad weather. Some progress has been made north of St. Quentin and south of the Eapaurnd^Camljrai road, and.the attacking lines are closing in upon Lens, from which place .the Germans have not yet been ejected. In one of his reports. Sin Douglas Haig, in commending the useful work of the British aviators, mentions that the German airmen, as a rule, avoided combat. This indicates that the enemy is weakening in his attempt to contest the supremacy of the air—possibly that he has abandoned the attempt".

According to a Swiss newspaper the German Government is preparing to promote a sham revolution, with a pretended introduction of democratic reforms, in tho hope of tricking and. deluding •Entente, nations. Whither this is so or not there is a manifest air of humbug and stage-management about the socalled general strike in Berlin with which reports deal to-day. Tho strike appears to have been in fact a demonstration organised by the Government for its own. purpy.es. As reports go it was organised with all the thoroughness for which Germany is famed. The affair was in fact too elaborately organised and too orderly to be convincing. When the flames of popular revolt really burst out in Berlin, if they ever do, the proceedings will bo very much less orderly than they were on this occasion. The motive inspiring tho German Government to promote such a demonstration would .of course bo the hope of exciting industrial disorders in tho countries which aro now in a fair- way to bring Germany to defeat. That hope, there is every reason to believe, will fall very flat.- A representative expression of the sentiments o'f Allied democracy has just been given at Petrograd, where British, French, and Russian Labour delegates are assembled in conference. Their determination to fight for the destruction of the oppressor of tho world will hardly be shaken by the spectacle of a sham strike in Berlin.

The enomy submarine which made an abortive attack upon, the United States destroyer Smith may' have consorts, but it is unlikely that Germany will attempt to maintain any very large flotilla in American coastal waters. So far as the prosecution of her campaign against merchant shipping is concerned, she can make more effective use of her U boats in areas nearer, home. The voyage of U53 showed that there is no difficulty in sending a submarine to the American coast and maintaining it there for a week or two, bus such extended cruising is likely to give a poor return of ships, destroyed. _ Germany, however, has an obvious incentive to send a certain number of submarines across the Atlantic. The el'aft So employed may destroy fewer ships than they would 'in cruising grounds ' less distant from their depots, but on the other hand they will occupy an important section of tho American Fleet—the destroyers and other mobile craft which, but for the possibility of submarine raiding in the coastal area, would be sent across the Atlantic to co-operato with the Allies'in European waters. The United States has a force of about,fifty effective destroyers on the Atlantic seaboard, besides other naval cruising craft, and it is a matter of great importance to Germany that these vessels should be detained on home ' service. This end is likely, for the time at least, to be achieved. The United States is not exposed to any serious danger from submarines, but it is necessary to as far as possible safeguard shipping .and protect ports from bombardment. In addition, steps will have to be taken to prevent the submarines obtaining supplies from depots either on the American coast or on the coast of' Mexico. Elaborate defensive measures have been taken by the American naval authorities. The principal ports have been protected with chains 'and nets and 'a large number of niotor-boats, some of them specially constructed as submarine chasers, have been pressed into' service for duties of coast patrol. Met by such an array of force, any submarines that visit American waters are unlikely to accomplish anything of moment, but to keep such a force in p-lay is in itself an achievement by which Germany will naturally, set considerable store.