THE CAMPAIGNS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVI, Issue 16807, 17 March 1915, Page 6

THE CAMPAIGNS.

Although Lord Kitchener’s comments •on the general situation were not concerned with details, there are ono or two points that will bear emphasis. His statement that the position at the Dardanelles was “ well in hand.” for instance, is the first official hint‘wo hare had concerning the progress of the operations against Turkey. There is a temptation to speculate as to wliat the Minister meant by tlio assuranoo, and we may take it that ho would not have committed himself to so positive an opinion if the military and naval anuiorities did not regard tho successful issue of tho operations as certain. We have good reason to believe that the pause in the naval work is more apparent than, real, and that the progress that has been made so far is only the preparation for more extensive operations- The transport of a considerable body of troops from one end of the Mediterranean to the otlior is not to he accomplished in a day, and the comparatively small task of transfer- . ring an army corps from Egypt, say, to Smyrna, would occupy a week, even if the authorities had all the transports they could d'esire. The transport of 22,000 troops from Italy to Tripoli in 1911 took ten days, and no fewer than sixty transports were employed, and even theii considerable detachments had been landed five or six days in advance to make the necessary preparations. Naturally the landing of subsequent divisions was more rapid, but the Italian experience may give us a guide as to the magnitude of the task involved in organising an invasion. How many men will be employed in Asia Minor' one can only guess, but if there aro indications of serious Turkish resistance -it will bo necessary to land a covering forco of perhaps three army corps, and the ultimate campaign may involve three hundred or four hundred thousand men. The defection of Greece may have occasioned a change of plan, of course, and comments on the matter are necessarily only tentative. The War Minister said, too, that considerable reinforcements had been landed in France since his last speech in the House of Lords, including the m-st complete division of Territorials. We have no means of arriving at an accurate estimate of the number of British troops now in France, but some of the' military writers in London who seemed to have gained a general'knowledge of the broad plan explained some months ago what they thought it possible for Britain to accomplish in the way of sending troops to France. There is no need to go into the details of these old estimates, but according to the most modest of thorn the British force at the front should be at least threequarters of a million by the end of March. At present the British troops appear to be holding a. front of between twenty-five -and thirty miles on the Ypres-La Bassee sector. With a. concentration of ten thousand men to the mile that would employ no more than 300,000 troops, .and if anything like 750,000 British troops aro in France we can only assume that a very largo proportion of the armies is held in reserve. Obviously it is futile to speculate.on such a question. We have positive evidence, however, that important offensive movements are now iu progress along tho whole front from tho Oise to the sea, the later communiques indicating activity on the part of the Allies at points regarding which there had been little news for many weeks. The slight loss of ground by the British south of ipres may be disregarded for the time being, the position being, we imagine, that this was a failure to hold ground recently occupied rather than a direct German success. An important gain is credited to tho Allies north-east of Arras, and in the Albert region, also, there has been substantial progress. Activity is reported from the -»isne valley, from Champagne and' from tho Argonno, and the progress mado by the French at Vauquois has been improved. On tho Russian side tho reports claim that our Allies are holding their own well in the northern districts, biu they appear to have been checked in the Carpathians. Experience has taught us to accept Austrian offioial communiques with caution, but there is doubtless some basis for the great success which they record for their arms in the region of the Cszok Pass.