A War Note.

Manawatu Times, Volume XL, Issue 13523, 6 October 1916, Page 5

A War Note.

At this moment the most interesting question is: To what extent can the European ring-pressure of the several Entente Powers be exerted before the arrival of winter? says a writer in the Wellington "Post," and adds: A decsion it too much to hope for, but there is still time for a momentous advances in France, in Austria-Hungary, in Bulgaria, and perhaps at Salonika and on the Isonzo. The safest policy is to regard the balance of 1916 as a period for getting in radical spadework preparatory to the culminating victory in 1917; for, as Colonel Eepington justly observes in an article cabled to-day, "the Somnie offensive is child's play compared with what is coming when Britain and Eussia attain their full strength." What punshment Eussia and Britain may inflict this year on Asiatic Turkey depends entirely on how much energy they can 8] tare from their ring-pres-sure task on the battlelields of Europe, which is now but little affected by the Turkish isues. Even without the use of the Dardanelles, nuinitionment of Eussia, on a scale big enough to thrust at the heart of the Central Alliance, is being gradually accomplished. As to the Tigris and the Suez Canal, at the present stage the holding of the Turk is all that is absolutely essential from the Entente point of view, and that is made easier by the Turkish "crusades" into nonTurkish Europe. What is most needed in the Balkan-Turkish sphere is the elimination of Bulgaria. 'Meanwhile, the Turkish plums will be ripening for the benefit of the winner.