ALLIES'JBURDEN

Evening Post, Volume XC, Issue 89, 13 October 1915, Page 7

ALLIES' JBURDEN

CO-ORDINATION OF ACTION NECESSARY RUSSIA AND ENGLAND CHIEFLY CONCERNED. PARIS, 12th October. The newspapers comment on v -the undesirableness of weakening the westerndefensive to despatch troops to the Balkans, i They say that the Quadruple Entente must co-ordinate their action. The question is what Italy, England, and Russia are prepared to do. M. Maurice Barres, in the Echo de Paris, declares that the Allied armies need a permanent high war council. The burdens of the Balkans ought to be distributed, after an examination of all the forces. M. Barres quotes an article by General yon Bernhardi on the mistakes of the Allies, in which he says, that the Quauruple Entente committed the strategic mistake of not co-ordinating their forces. The Figaro states that the Allies' interests in Servia, though considerable for all, are more considerable for some, notably Russia and England. Le Temps says that France and England have already assumed the whole burden in the Dardanelles, and must in the Balkans receive liberal help from Russia and Italy. THE BRITISH POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT TO BE MADE TO-MORROW. (Received October 13, 12.30 p.m.) LONDON, 12th October. The Premier (Mr. Asquith) has announced that the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Sir Edward Grey) will make a statement regarding the Balkan situation on Thursday. A HEAVY INDICTMENT THE TIMES ON BRITISH MUDDLING. MISCALCULATIONS IN THE SUPREME DIRECTION. (TIMES AND SYDNEY SUN SERVICES.) LONDON, 12th October. The Times, in a leading article, states : — "The Government meets Parliament under circumstances parallel with those of June. Then, as now, there is a popular awakening, and a discovery, based on hard, indisputable facts, that there is something seriously amiss with the conduct of the war. "There is no division of opinion today about our failure to impress the Balkan peoples. From the first moment of the war, when the Germanic Empires stood alone against us, right down to last week's landslide, one miscalculation seems to have followed another with almost mathematical certainty The series began with the pathetic belief that Austria-Hungary would prove a lukewarm Joe, which prevented a clearcut Balkan policy. Next came the slow, half-hearted breach with Turkey — a country bought with German gold. Bulgaria, who was willing six months ago to throw in her lob with the Allies, has been now allowed to follow Turkey's example. Next comes the neutrality of Greece, whose whole interests are bound up with the Allied cause. Rumania is passively isolated, and is no longer in touch with the aggressive Russian armies. "Germany is breaking the blockade with a vengeance. The adverse balance in the war, and in the whole Imperial position, is sufficiently seiious to need strong and prompt redress. "Was there any true co-ordination between diplomacy and military knowledge? We shall never know all about the disastrous blunder of the earlier stages of the Dardanelles campaign, but it is notorious that every department worked independently. The Admiralty and the War Office reckoned upon foreign help which did not come. The Navy, tired of waiting for the Army, began operations on its own account, and the Army arrived too la-fee, only to find the chances of a surprise attack turned into the long and costly struggle of elaborate trench warfare. "Never, in the history of warfare, was sheer incompetence fraught with such tragic results. Everything, unfortunately, points to the total want of cohesion and grip in directing the great resources in men, money, prestige, and public spirit which the nation is determined to pour out to the uttermost till we are victorious. It is not a question merely of the Foreign Office or the War Office, but of the supreme direction of these and other offices. A determined and united people is not in a mood to tolerate indecision and mismanagement." ARMENIAN MASSACRES RESUMED SINCE BULGARIA'S ENTRY INTO THE WAR. SULTAN'S PROMISE TO THE POPE. (Received October 13, 8.23 a.m.) NEW YORK, 12th October, A Reuter message from Washington says that the State Department learns that the Armenian massacres have been resumed with vigour since Bulgaria's entrance into the war. (Received October 13, 9 a.m.) LONDON, 12th October. Replying to a question regarding Armenia, Sir Edward Grey, in the House of Commons referred' to the Marquis of Crewe's statement. He said there could be only a feeling of indignation at the outrage. [The Earl of Gromer, in the House of Lords, on the 6th instant, asked whether the Government had official information that German Consular officials were privy to the massacre of Armenians. He add ed that one of the objects of the war was that Armenia should no longer constitute a Turkish shambles. Turkey I had made government By massacre part of its political system. The Marquis of Crewe, in reply, 6aid that the Government had received information that the population of one district had been abso lutely exterminated. It had no official confirmation of the report that German Consuls had encouraged the horrors, but he was bound to state, knowing what had happened elsewhere, that there could not be said to be any antecedent improbability that such was the case. Lord \ Bryce said that, from figures lie had received, it was quite possible that 800,000 had been destroyed since May. j The only chance to save the remnant was by neutrals exerting their influence upon Germany.] (Received October 13, 9 a.m.) ROME, 12th October. The Correspondenza states that after the Holy See's repeated diplomatic protests regarding the Armenian massacres, the Pope wrote personally to the Sultan, who promised to stop the massacres. AMERICAN REPRESENTATIONS UNHEEDED. I (Received October 13, 10 a.m.) WASHINGTON, 12th October. American representatives to Turkey against the Armenian massacres have not been heeded. It is believed the United i State* will jjot t*k» feij&g« astiott, ,