PROGRESS OF THE WAR THE BALKAN TANGLE

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 57, 9 March 1915, Page 7

PROGRESS OF THE WAR THE BALKAN TANGLE

GREECE HAS THE WAR FEVER. | NEW BATTLE IN POLAND. I At the present stage in the great conflict, there are many factors which might have a decisive influence oil the course of the war; and. the attitude of Greece is one of them. The cablegrams of the past few days, standing ,aloiie, would give the impression that the King of Greece stands out a lonely champion of peace, summoning an unpopular Cabinet to his side amid the indigl.ation of his subjects. The Cabinet has just resigned. With two dissentients, it decided in favour of intervention cm the side of the Allies; but the King, possibly holding lively recollections of the Germans' warm appreciation of hint after the Balkan wars, nnd perhaps influenced also by his Danish blood, stood firm for neutrality. He is, on the othefr hand, understood to be on very good personal re]aUo>n» "with the> Tsax of Russia. According to the of M. Vemzelos, if the Austro-German. forces descend upon the Balkans, Gveece has no guarantee of safety from > them ; but she has as far as Oie Allies are concerned. Moreover, she lias terri torial aspirations which are more likely to be fulfilled by partnership with the Allies than by any other course at present open, to her. THE VEIL LIFTED. The attitude of Greece towards the War has hitherto been veiled, though it has been presumed, fron^ her known antagonism to the Turkish interests, that hostility to the Allief was out of the question and that she could fairly be counted upon by them if necessary. But ,the political crisis of the past few days has shown that the war fever is high among the Greeks ; a-nd oven the determination of the King and his new Cabinet, when it is formed, may not be able to keep her armies out of the field of battle. Bulgaria, is an important and doubt* ful factor in the Balkan situation ; and there is reason to believe that it was danger from this quarter which, among other causes, delayed Rumania from, joining the Allies in accordance with the intention so clearly expressed at the beginning of the year. Rumania- could not feel sure that her action would not be followed at once by a Bulgarian attack. This would leave the Allies no better off ? and would have embroiled two more nations to no purpose. FIGHTING ON THE PILICA. A new battle _ is reported to have be* gun on the Pilica, transferring interest once more to central Poland. The Pilica, which falls into the Vistula .30 miles south of Warsaw, defines a line which goes south-east for about 60 miles to Tomasof, and then south al-, most to Cracow. When the great battle of the Bzura and Rawka ended a few weeks ago, the Russians held a line v which ran along those streams to Rawa, and continued southwards past Opocsno to the upper part of the Nida, along that river to the Vistula, and then en* tering Galicia turned south-east through Tamow to the Carpathians, which it now meets close to the Dukla Pass. This lihe crosses the Pilica almost in line between Rawa and Opoczno, a little east of a small town called Inov* lodz, or Inlodz. Whether the positiona now are the same aa then can* not be easily determined 5 but there has been no indication of its hay« ing moved much, etyhar in the cable hews or in the latest English files, except in Galicia. Here it has ad' vanced correspondingly with the Russian capture of the Dukla, Pass. The new battle on the Pilica, therefore, is probably north of Opoczno. In the meantime there is no indication whether the enemy have renewed the offensive here, or whether the Russians have de* cided upon an aggressive movement. The great battle of the Bzura seems to have ended in a rather peculiar way, in that the Russians did not— probably could not— achieve any great advance. It was simply the stoppihg of a colossal attack, not followed by a counter-attack On the same scale. THE NORTHERN BATTLEFIELD. The Ea«t Prussian campaign shows 110 notable development, but confirms the success of the Russians. They have acquired an important relief by driving the enemy away from Grodno to a distance of about fifteen miles, and the front between the Niemen and the Bdbr Rivers hae. heTe been straightened tip and carried away from a. position which might easily have been dangerous to the Russians. Elsewhere it seems to follow the Niemen, Bobr, and Narew Rivers from Grodno in the north to somewhere near Ostroleka, a.nd thence westward through Prasnysz and Mlawa. Mlawa is, as it has frequently been before, an important point, as it covers one of the main routes into East Prussia, a. route which just avoids the difficult area known as the Masurian Lake* district. It is pno of the points selected by the Russians for special pressure, and " their attacks have been crowned with suecoek." Something of the nature of the Ger* man attacks at Prasnysz may be realised from the description of a Russian officer. He tells how massed columns of troops charged against a shrapnel fire which "drenched" them. Nevertheless, they got fairly close to the guns, for tno writer says that the Russians used "caseshot." This is a term which hae lasted longer than the shot^ itself, which has long been out of service. It weed to be a. case full of bullets, so w«ak that it broke u» in the gun and was belched

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wt in a spray of missiles right from rhe moutji of the gun, and horribly effeciive against men close at hand. The ' nodern artilleryman, when he wants the sffeqt ol case, sets his fuse so that the shrapnel bursts directly it is fired ; and provides a reception which no advancing infantry can face without terrible losses.' 'AjS the officer said, the spectacle was sickening, and the sacrifice of men criminal. « ;in Galicia, the Austrians have struggled down the slopes of the Carpathians north-west of the Uszok Pass, and have thrown men against the Russians at the higher portion of the San River; but they' were repulsed. This movement is one, of the episodes in the battle which has long been raging in the Carpathians, arid is possibly an indication of an attempt to relieve Przemysl. I FRENCH PROGRESS. Trie forces in Alsace seem to have been more active lately, after a spell which followed the French capture of Sfceinbacb. and neighbouring points a couple of months ago ; _ The advances thfey made then were distinctly threatening to the Germans, who could not afford to leave the menace to the Rhine ,Valley without proper measures to guard againsb trouble. They promptly reinforced their troops, and since theu the French have generally retained their positions, supported as they are by the easily defensible positions < in the Vosges and the spurs and foothills' east of the mountains. ( Elsewhere in the west the chief item is the", insidious progress made by the French west of the Argonne, where, trench by trench and almost yard by yard, the enemy's ground is being filched from him by the men who are workirfg their way north to steal his railway.