THE H.B. TRIBUNE. TUESDAY. FEB. 13th., 1917. THE FAR EAST OF THE WESTERN FRONT

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume VI, Issue 354, 13 February 1917, Page 4

THE H.B. TRIBUNE. TUESDAY. FEB. 13th., 1917. THE FAR EAST OF THE WESTERN FRONT

In view of the notable access of activity which has recently marked the easternmost section of the French lines in the western theatre, special interest attaches to a communication from its special correspondent with the French Armies which appeared in the London “Times” on New Year’s Day. He had been paying extended visit to this region, and remarks on the fact that for a long time past the references in the official" communiques to the Vosges and Alsace had been few and far between. But, he says, “nothing doing” must not be taken too literally, either with regard to this or to manv another section of the Allied front. In truth, constant activity is to be seen on the crests and steep pine-clad flanks of the mountains from La Chapellotte to Hartmannsweillerkopf : in the valleys between them through which the mountain streams tun the first stage of their courses to the Rhine; and in the flat strip of reoccupied country on the plain further to the south in Upper Alsace, Under the command of generals who are not given to “letting the snow melt under their feet,” the wiry, active, and, for the most part, lightly built chasseurs Alpins are always on the go,, and always on the alert for something to do. "Neither can" idleness be attributed to the engineers, the sappers, the miners, or the territorials, who first made the difficult steep mountains accessible by constructing a series of excellent roads, “not as straight as those of the Romans or of General Wade, for that is impossible, but fully as practical.” The mountain-tops have been turned into camps and fastnesses, and the war has been carried into the enemy’s country by means of cunningly contrived observatories and trenches and mine galleries hewn out of the solid rock. From these the chasseurs sally forth on every tempting occasion that offers, exactly as do their comradeis on the Somme or the Meuse, “partly to drive the enemy a little■ further back, but principally—for the present—to feel how the pulse of his ‘moral’ is beating from the state of mind of the prisoners that they always bring home with them.” For these raids the chasseurs wait “as cheerfully and as confidently as if they were about to take part in a football match and sure to vyin it.” And yet of all this concentrated, if somewhat restrained, activity the official reports have until quite, recently told us virtually nothing. “And,” says the correspondent, “they are right. The time when the troops in the Vosges will do work that the communiques must needs record, that will make the world glow with admiration, is not here yet.” The present work is almost wholly defensive in its character, the main purpose being to assure no further progress on the part of the Hun invaders. But there are unmistakeable evidences of full preparedness for operations of guite another kind, and the impression received of these fine forces on the far French right is that they are, for the time being, acting on the defensive not because they roust, but because they choose. “They are within twenty miles of the Rhine, with their faces towards it, waiting for the moment when they will descend on the flank and rear of the retreating German Army as it falls back on the Rhine and Strassburg.” The correspondent is carefull to explain that he is not repeating what he has been told, but oifly the convictions gathered from his own personal observations. On . this subject he concludes by saying that “if the Germans commit the mad folly —of which they are, in their present state of mind, quite capable—of trying in a fit of desperation to find another way into France through Switzerland, so much the worse for them.” He then proceeds to speak of the attitude of the people of the small portion of Alsace in French occupation—the only portion of German . European territory held by the Allies. Here he says that the French, who have treated the civil population with every consideration so as to disturb as little as possible its daily life, arc as firmly fixed in popular affection as in their own entrenchments. “And here is an important point. Every one in Alsace is certain that the" day of delivery is coming. It is conceivable, of course, that they may be mistaken. But they judge from the German temper And they know the German temper and the present condition of Germany better than any people in the world. They have no illusions as to why the Germans are talking about peace.”

Sir Douglas Haig is not relaxing his pressure upon Germany’s defensive line on the Somme, ana to-day brings advice of another "nibble” into it. On this occasion the trenches taken are on the extreme left wing of the Somme operations, in the neighbourhood of Serre, northward of the recently* captured Beaucourt and Baillescourt. It is also something less than a mile and a half south-west of Puisieux-au-Mont, a more important village, which, with Miraumont a couple of miles south-east from it, is one. of the Allies’ more immediate objectives cu route to Baupaume. The enemy

v. as also further forced further back near Sailly-Saliisel, where the British gained an important position a lew days back. Raids of inure or importance have taken place at several other points on the British Bunt. The French report minor ini idem-, in tin- Argonne and on the Meuse, and “moderate general artillerying” -the last a horrible. dysphoiiie word. the. iuvent ion <4 the thrifty caldenian. but likely henceforth to disfigure our language perni,uienth. The war-eagle', continue busy at niaui points along and behind the German lines. I roui Russia s main front the only fresh news refers to another German attack i.ear Kiselin. in the A’olliyma- which suffered the s-mie fate as that which prt-i eded it at 1 lie same place about a we.-k ago and an enemy crossing <>i' the ice-bound Dniester, which was quickly driven back. A paper correspondent emphasizes the significance of Russia’s, achievements w-nuii'd of Riga, and Austria sends words of the capture of some advanced Italian trendies eastward of Gorizia. but omits to tell us. as (.toes the Italian despatch, that they were practically all recoveied. In the Black Sea and BosI horns the Russian Naw has paralysed the Turkish mercantile marine, badly reducing Constantinople's supplies. President Wilson, like Lord Ndson - hut with quite another ob-ject-—keeps (he telescope to his blind, or. at any rate, closed, eye in bis search for the “overt .act” that is to bring him into action. Germany holding him at the parley while she goes on sinking shins of all nations at her own sweet w ill. It is. however, suggested that there are signs of her submarine activities slackening, hut probably it is as yet too soon to conclude that this is anything but a casual lull.