THE WAR

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 128, 30 May 1917, Page 6

THE WAR

The. extraordinary success of the Ita Kan offensive becomes daily more apparent. It only began on 13th May, and in the first ten days it is estimated that 80,000 casualties were suffered by the Austrians, while about 25,000 prisoners have been captured. Correspondents report that the Italian losses have been, comparatively small. But the full picture cannot be grasped yet, because in warfare located in exceedingly difficult terrain the events in any one sector are not typical of the rest. We are told, for instance, that the low Italian losses were due to the.superiority in artillery; while another writer points out that, at least in certain regions, the ground affords such cover that the guns cannot injure the Austrians, and the work has mainly to be done by the Italian infantry. A ■position of special interest just now is ■the stronghold of Heiimada, a massive rocky hill about four miles east of Monfalcone, with its south-western extremity only a mile from the Adriatic coast at Daiino. The hill is narrow and lies in a north-easterly direction; and its crest is laced with trenches cut into the rock and heavily protected by barbed wire. This hill stands as the "last barrier" to the Italian advance on Trieste, and it is now closely invested by the Italians and has been tremendously shelled from sea. and land by the Italian and British heavy artillery. Once more it is reported that ■preparations are being made for the evacuation of Trieste by civilians and the close defence of the city; 'but it is too early to assume that the Italians are on the 1 verge of taking it. The removal of the Hermada obstacle will open up only a narrow strip of coastal plain, fully and effectively commanded, from the edge of the Carso plateau, which extends beyond Trieste, and the Toad, even with the support of covering fire from the sea, is not an inviting route for an army.

Meantime, it is reported that the flow of Germans and Austrians from the Russian front to the French and Italian danger zones has been checked by suspicious occurrences among the Russian forces. The enemy is said to think that an offensive may be in preparation, and it is even located as in the Carpathians and Galicia. The report, which comes through Switzerland, may be true; but it is probably ' a political trick and nothing more. An army which is busy drawing up such amazing documents as the " decree regarding the fundamental rights of the men in the fighting services " is obviously not in » proper condition to' undertake a great offensive. This is still more the case with an army like the Russian; and it will be little short of a miracle if even the influence of Kerensky can surprise the troops into a. renewal of warlike fervour. The German news seems to be intended chiefly to startle Hungary into a reasonable frame of mind, by raising a bogey of " The Russians are coming!" It is necessary, to give this bogey effect, to. make the Hungarian frontier look as strong as possible, even at the cost of certain losses on the Italian; the impossibility of meeting adequately the demands of both fronts is shown by the results of the Laibach Conference^ at which Yon Falkenhayn and Yon Ludendorf are said to have urged Austria, to abandon Trieste and take up a more defensible line. Germany's control in both Austria and Hungary has been very severely shaken lately; and if it becomes apparent that in military operations her advice is being discarded, the fact will encourage hopes of a bad breakdown in the Dual Monarchy.

The announcement that tho United States would shortly send a. force of 100,000 men to France seems to have been premature. Later explanatory messages show that the hundred thousand will be about the total of Americans, combatant and non-combatant, engaged in the Allied services at the front when the first, expeditionary force, under General Perching, arrives. There are already about 40,000 Americans in the Allied armies; and General Pershing, according to a Washington report, is to take across 30,000 men. The Washington figures mention also ten thousand engineers, ten thousand doctors, and ten thousand others, chiefly nurses, but these numbers look very like guess work. It was recently reported that Pershing's force will include 2600' marines. The real strength of the first American contingent must remain in doubt for the present. It is an interesting point that the officer in charge of the force, General Pershing, was commander of the Southern Department of the United States Army. He was in control of the American punitive expedition which undertook the fiercely-debated campaign in Mexico, in the vain effort to capture Villa. It, is perhaps a. sign of American confidenoe in tho Mcxicaii situation that thi& commander can bs *p«edj but it

goes without saying that the need for guarding the southern border against possible Mexican attacks has to be kept in view by the Government. As long as Mexico is a potential actiVe enemy, the whole frontier has to be guarded in some strength; and the task, adequately covered, requires a very large army. The American-Mexican frontier is 1500 miles long—about as long as the West and East fronts in Europe combined. It must be assumed, therefore, that the number of trained units from the existing American army available for overseas use is severely limited, and the expeditionary army, even from the beginning, must depend upon new levies.

The Japanese advocacy of .an army for Europe (dealt with in another column) has an additional interest in view of the recent German attempt—clumsy and perhaps not Wholly serious—to induce Japan to break witli the Allies and join Germany and Mexico in an attack on the United States. Japan, of course, promptly repudiated the idea. In the circumstances,. it is worth while to recall Germany's vituperation of Japan when, with British co-operation, she captured Tsingtao, and ended Germany's menacing foothold in the Far East. Said the Berlin Lokalanzeiger :" . . That the most beautiful, the (cleanest, and the most progressive town in the Far East had sprung in a couple of years from the soil was calculated to awake the jealousy of the slit-eyed island people of the East. ... Never shall we forget the bold deed of violence of the yellow robbers or of England that set them on to do it. We know that we cannot yet settle with Japan for years to come. Perhaps she will rejoice ov/r her cowardly robbery. Here our mills can grind but slowly. Even if the years pass, however, we shall certainly not often speak of it, but as certainly always think of it. And if eventually the time of reckoning arrives, then as unanimously as what is now a cry of pain will a great shout of rejoicing ring through Germany, 'Woe to Nippon.' " It may be confidently expected that if Japanese troops go to Europe, Germany will quickly raise the cry that once more the Allies are degrading for ever the prestige and "mana" of the white races. Germany loses no opportunity to depict, often in loathsome fashion, this alleged crime against civilisation, and argues quite ingeniously that the use of coloured troops in European warfare, and their instruction in the use of the most effective weapons, spells future disaster for the white race. ' But no one can doubt that the German outcry is due entirely to the fact that the Allied Powers have coloured troops at call for the purpose, while the Germans have none. As for the Japanese, the German press has made a special point of the iniquity of bringing them into the war between white men. But in reality only German diplomacy had failed. On 2nd August, 1914, the Berlin Lokalanzeiger in a special edition announced that Japan had declared war on Russia, and an enthusiastic demonstration outside the Japanese Embassy in Berlin followed.