THE WAR

Evening Post, Volume XCV, Issue 43, 19 February 1918, Page 6

THE WAR

The West front maintains an,appearance of liveliness in contrast to the quietude which reigned during, the greater part of the winter, but as yet, excepting for an occasional '.'flutter" on the middle of the French front, there is nothing inconsistent with a general policy of reconnoitring by both sides to discover what is the nature of the opposing forces. One notable exception was the "raid," so called, made by the French in the Champagne near Tahure. This ■was big ■ enough to have justified the name of a definite attack, but it was actually of purely local. significance and was an effort, apparently successful, to readjust the front a,t a point where .the enemy held an undesirable salient. Tins kink in the front was made by an ■enemy attack at the beginning of last year, and was partly rectified by French attacks after it had remained in existence for a couple of months. An interesting point about this effort was the co-operation of American batteries with the French,. Their presence does not prove that American troops are definitely located in the Champagne. ■ Very likely what happened was that, the French having decided upon the operation, an admirable opportunity was afforded the American artillerists for putting into practice the theory they have been studying aince they arrived in France, and acquiring in tho only possible way a form of experience which will be of the utmost value on their own sector.

Aerial activity continues to be great on the West front, and the periodical reports of the British commander usually contain figures showing that' the enemy loses considerably more of his flying machines than the British do. Germany habitually rerarts aerial losses with a big balance against the Allies, but there is no reason for believing that the enemy figures are correct, even admitting that the British and .French flying men clo more of their work over the enemy's special batteries than the Germans do over those of the Allies. Of all the fighting units the airmen seem to have less rest in the winter than any others, because every day that is reasonably clear and not very stormy is a working day for them, and they can do good work with cameras or bombs or machine-guns. Limited though the work of any one aeroplane may be, the constant activity of the large number employed," and the great number of bomb-dropping expeditions against 'delicate points on the enemy's rear organisations during the non-fighting period, must amount to a formidable total, and inflict a great deal of most nerve-weary-ing work upon the German troops.

A new estimate places Germany's totaleffective force at 4,800,000 men, who are left after deducting [row the original total niftii-powei 1 4,226,000 pcrituinenfc tae», including 2,600,000 dgad, 'Jt'hefls

figures are supplied by a Paris correspondent to the New York World, and are, he says, the result of exhaustive enquiries. The French military authori ties are reputed to be very accurate in their estimates of the enemy's strength, and these figures, if they are correct, imply a lower total than has been accepted recently in other quarters. They do not, however, alter, appreciably the general position in regard to a. GeTman offensive in the West. If all but a small proportion of these effectives are available in the West, the enemy might by a heroic effort _ and risking .disaster in the event of failure deliver a penetrating blow. Comparatively small differences in the estimated German strength do not alter that fact. What may, however, affect the German plans seriously is a new task in the East, such as would follow if Germany should seriously undertake the threatened renewed offensive against Russia,_ or an, occupation or an attempt to administer the disordered regions now lying east of the imaginary Eastern front of battle.

The American Federation of Labour has, not for the first time, unreservedly pledged American labour to speed up war work and support the Government. The policy of the Federation, as ex-_ pressed by its president, Mr. Samuel Gompers, has not wavered, but it appears that the rank and file has not been studiously obedient to the principles laid down by the superior organisation. . The law of supply and demand in America as elsewhere nas given way, according to some critics of the situation, to the selfish desire to make hay while the. sun shines, and in this default both Capital and Labour have shared., The New York Times, in? a recent review of the nation's war work, explained that, in order to gain speed, money was willingly sacrificed, and in the case of the army cantonments, for instance, contracts were let oil the basis of "cost plus ten per cent._ profit." The weakness of this system is that the longer the work took the bigger the cost and the profit, and "labourers in these cantonments were deliberately encouraged by their bosses to drag out their several tasks as long as they could. . . . And the labourers, who were receiving bigger pay by ths day than they had ever received before,, took the hint and needlessly prolonged their jobs to increase their own total of wages and to add to the profits and wages of everybody above them in the construction camp." It was failure to have all the cantonments completed by that time which left the new drafted army short at Christmas by some 2uO.C 0 men of the number due in camp two months before. And even when the men were in camp, they were left in some cases in discomfort, and the nagging of the unions forbade their doing with their own hands the various odd jobs requirad about their new homes, because the work in question was part of the contract.

The writer of the articles goes on: "We have not really faced the la-bouT situation. Samuel Gompers is for the war heart'and soul, and ha-s pledged! himself to the President. The President ha 3 expressed his faith in Mr. Gompers, but in the meantime we have had 3000 strikes in the United States since we entered the war, and the number of working days in essential wa-r industries that have been lost in these strikes runs up into the .millions. Mr. Gompers can control the mass meeting and convention patriotism of Labour. and can get willing and .enthusiastic resolutions to support the Government out of 1 labour delegates; but as head of the American Federation of Labour, he has no direct and effective control ,'over local unions and no power to make the labour delegates stick to their convention resolutions when they get back to their several jobs. And, of course, there is the great mass of labour entirely outside the labour organisations, over which the labour section of the. Advisory Committee of the Council of Defence has, no influence whatever."