PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 126, 29 May 1915, Page 5

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

NO CHANGES IN EUROPE THE SUBMARINE CAMPAIGN. REMARKABLE FRENCH AIR KAID. As far as the European battlefields are concerned, to-day's messages call for little comment. In France matters are much as they have been for several days, with reports of steady though slow progress by the French south of La Bassee. In Russia little change is definitely shown. Reports still insist on the arrival of enemy reinforcements at the sector immediately east of Przemysl, and both Russian and Viennese messages show that here and also near Stryj very desperate situations develop All the enemy's attacks seem to have been successfully repulsed. There is a significant enemy report admitting that "weak divisions" in the region of Sicniawa were forced back to the left bank of the San. The whole point of the Sicniawa. position ie that v here the enemy had gained a. strong footing on the east side of the river, and it is not at all likely that the divisions were "weak," The German hurry to qualify a Russian report not yet received may indicate the recovery by the Russians of the right bank of the river An extraordinary report, credited to i the Vienna paper Nieue Freie Presee, 1 states that Turkish troops are before Przemysl. T6 bring a force of Turks to Galicia is of course as difficult as to take Germans or Austrian? to the Dar1 danelles ; but the matter needs more light before it is to be taken seriously. The famous "Russians in England" hoax was at least as remarkable. 1 On the Italian frontier,' nothing in the way of battles of magnitude have occurred, and it is reasonable to suspect that the enemy do not propose to act immediately on the offensive. As yet, however, it is perhaps somewhat early to judge the course of events. As far as the Dardanelles campaign is concerned, the public will have to content themselves with little news of ac- [ tual progress. The glowing stories of rapid advances, of towns occupied, and of the surrounding of the Turkß (mostly i from Greek sources) have all gone overboard, and the present position is that the Allies' troops are besieging the [ Turks' elaborate entrenchments, and finding their work far from /simple The dearth of news is, however, relieved by the receipt of a description of the magnificent daring of the troops, and especially of the Australians and New Zealanders. I Turkey is reported to have given no- [ tice that she is extending her activities to t.ho Canal. The threat is as empty as I earlier ones, unless it implies the use of submarines. Foiiunatelv the action of iiubmarines aeainst shipping in a limited I area can be more or less controlled, aB North S»a experience, has shown. BOMBS FOR THE CHLORINEMAKERS. ! Eighteen Fr*neh aeroplane* carried out a splendid air raid at Ludwijrphafen, a town close to Mannheim, on the Rhine, about MO miles from the nearest part of the French lines. At town are situated great chemical works, and the French clnim to have blown up and set fire to one of the mopt important explosive and chlorine factories in Germany. Naturally the effects of the raid are belittled in the German reports; but it evidently had serious results. On the Germans' own admission, a number of persons were killed and injurrd. T]ie Allies have consistently refrained frotn replying in kind to the German type of air mid, which attacks not defended towns or places of military importance, but seems to aim specially at the injuring nf /civilians ; and the French raid is a. capital example of the port of attack which is recognised by the French and British. The German report trirs to smother the issue by stating that the raid was directed at soda works ;. buf no comfort can be derived from thnt. Chlorine is manufactured on the 'commercial scale chiefly from hydrochloric acid, which in turn ie manufactured as a by-product in the making of soda. A soda works is, in fact, exactly the place* where in Germany one would expect to fiud chlorine being made. ♦ Italian airmen appear to have succeeded in doing considerable damage to the Austrian railway communications neai Trieste. , . DISASTERS AFLOAT. Bad news of the sea has come in aheavy budget these two days The loss of the battleships Triumph and Majestic, sunk by German submarine torpedoes in the attack on Gallipoli, provided the chief sensation yesterday,' but the destruction of the' Prinoess Irene in Shoerness Harbour was a disaster of great magnitude. To-day comes the news that the Argyllshire, a liner of 10.400 tons, hae been torpedoed off Land's End. This fine steamer is understood to have been on service as a troopship, but there is yet no information as to what duty she was engaged in at the time. The vessel reached port. The submarine attacks seem to have been renewed in the North Sea to a considerable extent, for the Canadian Steamer Morwenna has been sunk outside Milford Haven. Neutral vessels htvve been held up in the North Sea, and at least one Danish vessel was sunk. New York reported ten days ago that the Germans had, according to a statement current in 1 Washington, decider! to suspend submarine tactics till a reply had been sent to . the American Note This Note, which Was the result of the sinking of the Lusitania, demanded the complete cessation of attacks on merchantmen. But far from giving up the campaign, the frermants have apparently resumed it as fully as possible; and among the latest victims was the American steamer Nebraska. In reference to this matter, American newspapers reserve judgment ac to whether the Nebraska was sunk by ii torpedo or a mine, but state that if she was torpedoed, the Germans' action was little less than an act of war The further remark that. "American restraint means American indifference" is another indication of restivenees under the pacificist policy of 'the United States Government. j Meanwhile, Germany has recently been granted a further week in which to reply to the United States Note. THE SHEERNESS ACCIDENT"""" The disastrous loss of the Princess Irene was, on the present evidence, in no way due to the enemy. Sho was blown up accidentally in Sheerness Harbour — the port which saw the gitnilarlyaccidental and disastrous destruction of the battleship Bulwark. The Princess Irene was a new steamer of 6000 tons, fitted as a minelayer ; and the terrible nature of the explosion of her fearful cargo can onlj be imagined. There was only one survivor ; the terrible total of dead has not yet been reported.