THE CAMPAIGNS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVI, Issue 16842, 28 April 1915, Page 8

THE CAMPAIGNS.

.» The UK is not a great deal to add to what we have already written concerning the great struggle now in progress in Flanders. No estimate of the forces engaged has yet been telegraphH^Wiiafififia tt UHHii^|

features of the battle, but it needs no technical knowledge to realise the magnitude of the issues at stake. It seems to be taken for granted that the initiative in the attack rested with the Germans, that they had rapidly organised forces for another attempt to break through the Allied line, or to drive the Allies out of Belgium, and that the effect of the British attack on Hill 60 was only to precipitate the battle a few days in advance of schedule time. But it is not necessarily true that this is the whole story. An explanation at least as probable is the one we have previously suggested, that the anxiety of the Germans is rather to disturb a great Allied concentration that they knew to be in progress. We are not yet in possession of detailed information warranting very positive conclusions, but certainly the battle so far has the appearance rather of a partial offensive than of a deliberately planned opening to a large campaign. 'ITio scale is too extensive to xiermit of the idea that a mere local advance is sought by tho enemy, and the fighting is not yet sufficiently general to support the theory that the Germans are attempting to hammer back the whole Allied left wing, and consequently wo are driven to the conclusion, for the time being, that the German attack is rather an attempt to frustrate the Allied plan of campaign at the outset than tho initiation of their own plan of campaign. The battle may easily develop into a bigger struggle, because tho side that gains an advantage will bo eager to pursue it, but the broad features of the situation do not suggest that the conflict has been planned on large lines.

The position in the Carpathians is now doubtful, for while the communique from Vienna claims a substantial Austrian victory on the TJszok-Ko-ziowa front, the Russian report contents itself with the observation that a. severe struggle is still proceeding. We* need fuller information to wan ant tho formation of a definite view, and at present the battle seems to have reached rather a critical stage. Of more immediate interest to New Zealanders is the news from the Dardanelles. The Expeditionary Force has effected a landing in the Gulf of Saros, and troops are being pat ashore on the peninsula of Gallipoli, where they will operate against the Turkish field forces covering the forts on .the European side of the strait. There should be a simultaneous advance of Allied troops on the Asiatic side to make the position quite secure, hut we have uo knowledge of the magnitude of the French and British forces under Sir lan Hamilton's command,, and it is at present doubtful whether the larger campaign is practicable.