PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3193, 18 September 1917, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

As a whole the news from Russia to-day points to'an improving situation, though this must, of course, bo read with the;fact in mind that there is almost unlimited scope for improvement. Detail news from the fighting area north of lliga lends colour to tho view expressed by a Russian military expert that lack of force and difficulties of travel make an enemy march on Petrograd improbable. Apparently tlie only Russian armed forces now arrayed against tho Provisional Government aro General Kaledin's divisions in the Don district, and the statement issued , by the Council of the Don Cossacks indicates that they are unlikely to take the field against tho Government or to permit General Kaledin to do so. The suppression of Maxim Gorky's newspaper suggests that in its moasuros of reorganisation tho Government is taking action against' anti-war extremists as well as against the supporters of General Korniloff. In tho aggregate, the news suggests that tho Provisional Government may have some grounds for its belief that it will be able to speedily re-establish order mi tho Republic—now formally proclaimed—and to regenerate tho fighting capacity of the armies. Ono of the latest messages received states that M. Kerensky has_ offered to resign in order to facilitate a political settlement, but whether there is any serious question of accepting the offer has yet to appear. * # # * The immediate cause of the Ministerial crisis which has arisen in Italy is not disclosed at time of writing, but unless new factors have entered very recently it is probably duo to the action of "interventionist" groups outside Parliament which have lately.been vigorously attacking some aspects of the Government's war administration. Reviewing the situation in July, a Times correspondent at Romo stated that a 'congress then assembled in tho capital included representatives of "interventionist" organisations all over the countfy and of various Irredentist committees. Speakers «t the congress urged that tho existing situation demanded a revival cf the activities which wrung consont to Italy's entry into the war. Severe criticism was directed against tho policy of the Ministry t>f tho 1 n lerior. The correspondent mentions two resolutions of special interest passed by the congress. _ One expressed dissatisfaction with the present Cabinet and demanded tho creation of a small War Cabinet, and various reforms, including taxation which.. would strike at all war profits and all unproductive capital and better pensions and allowances to soldiers and their dependants. The other resolution demanded a clear statement of war aims which would exclude a return to or creation of 'the national and international situation which led to tho present war. The point was emphasised that tho one aim of the congress was to ensure victory in the war. * * # * Some people in Italy, it is stated, would like to see a small War Cabinet as in England. Others think that a, better method would be tho establishment of a, Committee of Deputies, on tho lines of the French Parliamentary Committees—a committee which would have control over the "four fundamental divisions of war policy: military) foreign, homo and economic." Precisely on what lines tho situation has developed is at the moment a matter of conjecture, but while there is no doubt' that acute political dissension obtains in Italy, indications are that the agitation against the Government aims in the main at the reform of administration and the more effective prosecution of tTie war. Such political changes as have occurred in Italy since she entered the war have uniformly taken this direction, and there is no reason at present to suppose that tho latest crisis marks a departure- from the rule. * * * * News from the fighting front meantime bears witness to tlie fact that the Italian armies are maintaining a tremendous pressure on the shaken Austrian line east of thu Isonzo. An unofficial report quotes prisoners taken on Monte San Gabrielle as stating that the Austrians must shortly abandon tSeir remaining positions on the mountain, where- their dug-outs and trenches are graveyards. The importance of the capture, when it is accomplished, ( will depend to some extent upon the enemy's preparations in rear, but the extreme desperation with which : he is defending Monte San Gabrielle : suggests that he has little confident i in his subsidiary positions, and tends to impart decisive importance to the struggle for possession of that ; stronghold. \