PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3156, 7 August 1917, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

There has been a wclcomo improvement in the weather 011 the Western front, and the general situation now promises interesting developments. The French aro at present applying steady pressure on the German lines north-west of Bixschooto. In the meantime tho enemy is still counter-attacking with great persistence in vain endeavours to regain some of his lost positions. Thoir latest effort has been an attempt to re-establish their positions at Hollebeko, south-east -of Ypres, and this has been sharply repulsed. All these attacks, tho correspondents say, involve the enemy in severe losses, while ours, comparatively speaking, are trifling. The general situation at tho moment is said "to bo obscurc, which probably means that Haiq's next move is well concealcd. Tho advent of the rain interrupted the offensive just at the moment when the real nature of the stroko that followed tho tremendous bombardment was ahout to devolop, and the situation since then has been "in tho air," so to speak. * * * ■ , «

Though matters in Russia arc still far from satisfactory, a j distinct advance has been made towards improvement at tho head of affairs. M. Kerensky's resignation apjjears to have brought matters to a head politically, and he has once more emerged from the contest a triumphant figure. The most cheering feature of this side of the situation Is tho recognition which it discloses of power and authority of M. Kerensky. Without his leadership the moderates aro helpless, and ho alono appears able to dominate tho situat&sn where the extremists aro concerned. On the military sido there is nothing of any epccial note to record. Tho Austro-Gerrnan advance still threatens added disaster, but bad as Russia's plight is, the Central.Powers have their own difficulties. Tho further they advance into Russia tho heavier the strain they, are putting on their own resources in men and material, which they can ill afford'to waste at the present time without oertainty of a great and definite advantage. It will servo littlo purpose to force tho Russian forces Back another score or so of miles to find at the end of their drive the Russian foroes reunited and ready and . able to check their advance. Unless the Russian forces can be completely broken and rendered useless for a long period, or unless Germany can penetrate sufficiently far into Russian territcty to capture supplies of foodstuffs, tho Central Powers may find their venture an exhausting and unprofitable enterprise. Tho occupation of so many more miles of Russian territory will benefit them little beyond tho relief it brings to Austria in freeing her from pressure in the East; and this might ha\'9 been accomplished without attempting as much as has been done.

An interesting disclosure is made I to-day of tho efforts made, by tho Kaiser at the outbreak of the war to convert President Wilson to tho German point of' view. It is worth noting in the oircuinstanccs what President Wilson had to say on the subject in his Flag Day speech last June: Tho war, ho said, was begun by the military masters of Germany, who have proved themselves to bo also tho njaster's of Austria-Hungary. Theso men never regarded nations as peoples of men, women, and children of like Wood and framo as themselves, for whom Governments existed and in whom Governments had tlieir life. They regarded them merely as serviceable organisations, which they could, either by force or intrigue, bend or corrupt to their own purpose. They regarded the smaller States particularly, and those peoples who could bo overwhelmed by force, as their natural fools and instruments of domination. Their purpose had long been avowed. The statesmen of other nations, to whom that purpose was incredible, paid litilo attention and regarded what tho German professors expounded if their class-rooms and tho

German writers set forth to the world as the goal of Gorman policy as rather the dream of minds detached from practical affairs, and the preposterous private conceptions of Germany's destiny than the actual plans of responsible rulers. But the rulers of Germany knew all tho while what concrete plans, what well-advanced intrigue lay at tho back of .what professors and writers were oiiying and were glad to go forward unmolested, filling the thrones of the Balkan States with German princes, putting German officers at tho service of Turkey, developing plans of sedition and rebellion in India and Egypt, tnd setting their fires in Persia. Tho demands made by Austria upon Serbia were a inert single step in the plan which compared Europe and Asia, from Berlin to BagHad. They hoped that those demands might not arouse Europe', but tlicy meant to press them, whether they aid or not. For they thought' themselves Mady for the final issue of arms. Their plan was to throw a belt of German military power and political control across tho very centre of Europe and beyond the Mediterranean into tho heart of Asia, and Austria-Hungary was to be as much their tool and pawn as Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey, or tho ponderous States of the East. Austria-Hungary, lhdeed, was to become a part of the Central German Empire, absorbed and dominated by the same forces raul influences tliat originally cemented the German States thcmselvos. Tho dream had its heart at Berlin. It could have had its Tieart nowhere else. Tho President of the United States plainly now has no doubts as to where the blame lies for the war nor tho reasons which prompted it.