THE CAMPAIGNS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17096, 19 February 1916, Page 8

THE CAMPAIGNS.

According to a Paris journal, whose article is said to have been " inspired.?, there will slioitl.v he in Paris a enff? fereuce of high military officers virtually to ascertain the resources of the Allies in men and munitions and to consider what movements in the way of loan or transfer are possible, and desirable. This report, of course, follows on the recent agreements among the Allies in the direction of unifying the control of the campaigns. Tt has taken many months ol patient effort and discussion to reach the present stage, and we need not expect that tue machinery of the new organisation will run with perfect smoothness all at once. Concerning the desirability and importance of the change in the direction of the campaigns there is no room for doubt. If, for instance, the Allied General Staff decided that two hundred thousand men were required in Albania, the simplest solution of the problem would be to request Italy to provide the troops. France and Britain would be directed to assist in the matter of transport. Italy, however, might require assistance on her own front, and consequently France might be directed to send a hundred thousand men temporarily to Italy by rail- The problem, of course, would not work out on quite such simple lines, but the point is that if the plans could be mapped by a central authority serious delays would be avoided. M'o were told Mine little time ago that Italy had agreed to lend two thousand munitions workers to France, the inference being that Italy was able to produce sufficient shells for her own needs and had surplus labour at her disposal. In the event of Italy being directed to fight a purely defensive campaign we might even see Italian divisions transferred to the front in France, even though theoretically Italy and Germany are not at war. The immediate task before the conference, however, is to compile a. sort of Allied international register. Plainly if these preliminary duties are only now being undertaken there can be no prospect of new concerted plans coming into operation in the near future, and we shall hare some little time to wait for events which the popular expectation has been placing in the spring. Of course, the broad facts of the position confirm this view, but then what appear to be broad facts are liable to prove deceptive. There is' apparently little movement on the various fronts. The German offensive in the west has subsided for the time, though French critics are still anticipating the opening of a bigger offensive by the enemy. From Russia we still have no news of importance. There is a story, which may he significant. that Rumanian aviators carried out an extensive reconnaissance on the Bulgarian side of the Danube and found large bodies of troops in process of concentration. and the messages hint that Bulgaria may take a grave view of the incident. As to that we may well reserve judgment until the facts of the case are a little clearer.