PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 22, 20 October 1917, Page 8

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Fine weather apparently still continues in Flanders, and it is unlikely that it will continue much longer without witnessing a resumption of the Allied attack. The general conditions obtaining on tho battlef ront, by this time familiar, and the prospects opened, are sum.med up to-day in messages from America, including a communique issued by tho American Secretary for War. It is, of course, obvious that the Allies have driven a menacing wedge into the enemy's line in. ■Flanders, and that . the German ■Western-line as a whole, in view-of the extent to which it been weakened and the superior * force and fighting powei of the Allies, is threatened.. There is no particular reason to suppose, however, that the situation .will develop very far beyond its present stage before winter, and there are grave reasons for doubting that the .Allies will attempt an extended advance during the winter. With good fortune the Germans may be dislodged in the very near future from the last fragments of high ground they hold in Flanders, but much depends on tho weather.

There is little news of events in Flanders at time of writing, hut it detailed description is given of the- formidable enemy position—Bellevuc which the New Zcalanders are immediately confronted. The description makes it possible to clearly appreciate the terrible ordeal through which our soldiers passed in the-recent battle. It says much for their : indomitable' ■■gallantry that after Such an experience they arc waiting, in the spirit described by a- correspondent, to renew the conflict. ■;■ ■■■■-■ :

■■ ■"Matters are. taking their expected cburs©>in the Gulf of Eiga. Tho •Germans now report that they have captured Ocsel Island and Mohn Island (between Oesel and tho coast of Esthonia) and the Russians admit the loss of a prc-Dreadnought battleship. Enemy warships' are now operating freely in the Gulf of Riga, and it is possible that the retreat' of some of tho Russian ships, .by way of tho northern passages, has been blocked. The Germans state that they have silenced batteries on the mainland coast, and they are presumably intent on a landing. The possibility that the Russians may bo compelled to make an extended retreat in order to safeguard the northern 'flank of their line is now, therefore; in plain sight.

It ißvdiffi.culfc'to account for the of- the rumours which have been.Several times mentioned in the cablegrams that Loud Kitchener is still alive. Stories,gained currency in .London for a time about letters from prisoners in Germany who were survivors from the Hampshire., with the addition that the survivors included Lord Kitcheneh. Widely as the stories circulated, no one appeared who had seen the. letters. A possible explanation of the. origin of the rumours, supplied recently by a London correspondent, may ho quoted for what it is worth. The- explanation, as the correspondent gives it, is: "Early in the war a party of the Hampshire Ecgiment ■were missing, . and, nothing was heard of them until the middle of last year, when word came through from'a. German camp of some of the Hampshire men there as prisoners. Efforts were made—the King is said to have acted in the matter—and ultimately the identity and particulars of the men were ascertained. T do not know what the Was why all-communication had been cut oft'in this instance. The news, however, of the discovery of the Hampshire-Regiment became known about tbo same time as the revival of the stories of there boing survivors in Germany from the cruiser Hampshire. It is probable that it was the story of the Hampshiro soldiers getting about that was the seed of the Kitchener myth in the- fertile soil of popular imagination and legend." . j