GALLIPOLI.

Evening Star, Issue 16086, 11 April 1916, Page 6

GALLIPOLI.

WHY WE LEFT, AND THE CGNSECIUENCES. FIGHTING AT YEKDUr,. HOLLAND'S POSITION. [By Cnmcus.] The report of General Monro giving his reasons for his decision in favor of evacuating Gallipoli has been published. Jt contains very 'little that was not already known. 'The General remarks that the po"sition possessed every .possible military defect, being without depth, completely covered by tho enemy's lire, and with insecure communications dependent on the weather. The Turks had supplemented tho natural advantages of their position by all dio devices of the engineer, while our troops were sutfering from the strain of continuous exposure to .shell tire, from which it was impossible to withdraw them, they were enervated by an epidemic of summer diseases, and gravelv under-offi-cered owing to tho losses in the earlier oattloy. Finally, he concluded that an advance from that position was impossible, and that the enemy were, able to hold Gallipoli with a smaller force, and prosecute o]K!rations in Egypt and Mesopotamia; so tno evacuation was decided upon. It will be noticed that General Monro's reasons for Hie evacuation are-almost cx- | clusiveiy tad-ical and local. Tho brief rej icrence to the strategical eil'ects of evaruaj tion is extremely vague and incomplete : liio truth of all that is said about the local | and tactical conditions is unquestionable, | but it may bo remarked (hat the winter j conditions in Flanders are lar harder for I tho troops engaged. In that region the , winter lasts nearly six months, tho weather I is intensely cold and raw, and'tho trenches are. generally thigh deep in freezing mud and slush. On Gallipoii tho winter conditions last no more than 10 weeks, and the bad weather only comes in short spells. 'lhe one really ..iroat hardship which the troops_ tln-ro endured as compared with those iii Flanders was that the insufficient depth of the position rendered it impossible to withdraw them from tho field of tiro. But that difficulty could have been overcome by sending'them in detachments to tho islands. The success of the evacuation was, of course, duo even moro to the supineness nf the- Turks than to the masterly organisation of tiie operation. Had the'v delivered a. determined attack at a well-chosen moment nothing could have prevented very tortour, losses on our part. General .Monro mentions that it was considered worse than useless to follow the text-book procedure of covering the retirement by a feint attack, as this would certainly have aroused tho suspicions of the Turks. This is unquestionably sound.- Yet is is worthy of remark that though the evacuation of'Anzac and Suvla Bay should havo given the lurks, full warning cl what was likely to occur a'. Capo Belles, and though; tho'latter place was not evacuated until nearly three weeks iak-r. no effective steps were taken by the Turk.- to interfere with the operation, it appears, by the wav, that we were within an ace of a. terrible disaster during the. evacuation of Cayo Holies. The battleship Bunco George, with 2,000 men on board, was torpedoed at midnight on January 8, but by some extraoidinarv freak ol foriutie the torpedo did not explode. POOR STRATEGY. It is in dealing with the strategical problem that General Monro in weakest, He states that tho Turks were able to hold Gallipoli with an inferior force and prosecute operations in Egypt and Mesopotamia, lh;s is an example of tho common error of stating what is strictly true, but what is by no means the whole'truth. It is true that it was possible for tho Turks to hold Gallipoii v.:._h inferior forces if tliev were willing U» take the risk; but the wise strategist will look into tho imaginations of las opponents. So long as our forces held their ground the Turks were apprehensive of the landing of powerful reinforcements and tho renewal of (he attack. While ' that was so they dare not weaken their ! forces there in order to send troops to distant Mesopotamia and Egypt, But when J we abandoned Gallipoli we released fully 200,000 Turkish t-v.ops to operate against us elsewhere. The. vital blunder, however, was not so much in abandoning Gallipoli as in abandoning the objective for which the operations had been maintained—that of detaining the bulk of the Tunksh army. If it was really necessary thnt the troops should bo reorganised and refitted in Egypt, ihey should at any rate have been confined to passive, defence a day longer than was absolutely necessary. They should have taken the offensive against tho Turks again at the first opportunity, cither in tho Balkans, Smyrna, or elsewhere. But tho months are rolling by, and this has not yet been done. As a result we are trembling on tho verge of disaster in Mesopotamia, the, Russians are practically held up by Turkish reinforcements from' Gallipoli. Had the Turks been Germans, General Townshend's force would have been overwhelmed by this, we should probably havo been driven out of Mesopotamia, and Persia would have been overrun by the enemy. Moreover, the Russians would not have taken Erzcrum, and instead of pressing the Turks would have been hard prcss-'d by them. Such is tho effect of short-sighted strategy. ANOTHER ATTACK. Another violent struggle has developed at Verdun on the west bank of the Meuse. The battle extends from tho Avocourt redoubt on the loft to tho Mettso on the right. On Saturday night the French had evacuated the Bethincourt salient in order to straighten their line, Bethincourt lies well to the north of Cumieres and Ilaucottrt, behind which the French line runs, so _ its retention caused a dangerous ealiont, the evacuation of which has much strengthened the French position. Tho line now runs from Cumieres, on the Mouse, behind Bethincourt and Haucourt along the slopes of Hill 304 to the Avocourt redoubt. A series of vigorous attacks against tha new line, especially court Morthomme and Cumieres, wore repulsed; whilo simultaneous attacks on tho French positions between Avocourt. Wood and Forges Brook met with a liko fate. On tho east bank of the Meuse the French havo captured lines of trenches to tho south and south-west of Douaumont village. Sir Douglas Haig reports that we still retain a considerable portion of tho ground captured at St. Eloi on March 27, including threo out of four mine craters. A later cable mentions that during the attack on Morthomme the Germans managed to penetrate the French advance trenches on Hill 295 for a length of 500 metres. EAGLES OF THE ATR. "\Ylmt has come- Mr PembertonBilling, M.P. ? But a few days ago he could say nothing too hard against tho j British air service and the British Go- | vemm-jut. Yesterday, however, ho was I reported as eaying that wo havo tho finest j aeroplane in the world, and may hope to ! recover tho supremacy of the air in six ! months; whilo no-day'ho declares that tho I Zeppelins havo laid tha foundations of i Britain's air supremacy, presumably by j stimulating tho production of tho above- I mentioned aorial masterpiece. It should cer- ' tainly be something really good which has ! converted so pronounced a pessimist into a bright and cheerful optimkt. Sir Douglas Haig reports that a Fokker aeroplane camo down in our lines on Saturday, so we should bo able, to jnck np a, few hints from that model, lesterday wo had a ! description of the tactics of Immehnann, i the " eagle of Lille," in .mounting to a i height of about 13,000 ft and swooping down on his intended victim in one tremendous dive. To this may bo added that when his swoop brings Mm within range of his opponent he works his machine gun in euch a way as to form a cono of bullets passing" by tho hostile craft on all sides. Tliis is accomplished i by rotating the muzzle of tho machine

gen. Whichever way the victim swerves to avoid tho rush he will thus run into a stream of bullets. GREEK RUMORS. There is a report from Athens that Germany has warned Greece that the Bulgarians and Germans have decided on an early offensive in Macedonia. The news is unofficial, and apparently no more reliable than tho many similar reports that we have had before; According to Mr Calvert, writing from Salonika, the Bulgarians have occupied Schcvo and several other Greek border villages, expelling the Greek priests and schoolmasters and installing Bulgarians, In the meantime General Sarrail is said to be irritated by the increasingly bitter and aggressive tone of tho Government Press. " Having got themselves into a mess by their bungling weakness, the Government, and their supporters axe, of course, blaming everyone but themselves and becoming increasingly furious the deeper into the mire their folly drags them. The Liberal papers, on the other hand, are bitterly angry, bocause they can see that the' Government are heading straight for humiliation and disaster. But the Allies are masters of the situation in any case. Owing to the emptiness of the coffers, M. Dragoumis, the Finance Minister, has resigned, in spite of the entreaties of his colleagues that lie should stay on ; so things must be in a very bad way financially. Greece finds her present policy as costly as war, although there is nothing to "bo gained by it. Perhaps she will soon be compelled to apply to the Allies for another loan. SUSPICIOUS. Count Rcver.tlow has bean warning Holland that Britain desires a station off the Scheldt and that Holland will forfeit her independence if she fails to visualise the scheme. The article is said to have caused much amusement in Holland. It is not, however, a laughing matter. Both in Parliament find in the Press the Germans persist in discussing an alleged British scheme for a landing in Holland. These newspaper campaigns in Germany are usually officiallv inspired, and there can be no doubt .that the German Government are extremely anxious as to Holland's future attitude. They doubtless foresee tha't whatever her attitude is now it mayalter very considerably wb?n the German's are driven back, and the.v may bo seeking excuses to r.nticipatei matters.