Nelson Evening Mail THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1918. THE BALKANS AND THE WESTERN FRONT.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LII, Issue 250, 17 October 1918, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1918. THE BALKANS AND THE WESTERN FRONT.

WHETHER Turkey agrees to the British, demand of unconditional surrender or not, the end for her can now, it would seem, bo no more than postponed. Virtually .three-eights of the -organised military forces of Turkey r.ave been destroyed in the PalestineSyria campaign. Only five armies now •xemain intact, and they 'have to hold; the British in Mesopotamia, to maintain Turkish authority in the Trans-; Caucasian region, and to protect Con-, etahtinople,. for an Allied military occupation of Bulgaria would open the war for an invasion, of European Tur-j t ey, striking directly at) the capital, and : ; turning the defences of .the Dardanelles. Sooner or later, by military action alone, she will surely be deprived of all' her southern territories from, say, Alexandretta, on the Mediterranean "coast, right across to Mosul, on the, Tigris. This would give the Allies control of hoth the Bagdad and IHedjaz railways from' .the Taurus Mountains southward, .together with all the routes leading to Egypt, "Arabia, Mesopotamia, and Persia. .These rail•vcaye and routes, says-. Mr E. F. Allan in one of his; interesting articles, were the objectives of German policy. They are now lost to Germany as surely as is command of the trunk line of communications between the Danube at Belgrade and .the Bosphorus. The convention with. Bulgaria is purely military, -and the political arrangements ;to which she will /be party will; probably hot be fully, determined x-ntil the conclusion of the general war, «>ut the, effects! of her military surrenj der promise to be so far-reaching that i i'j. is quite possible the Austrians arid Germans nfay make a desperate effort to prevent -by force the- Allied armies from, availing themselves' to", the full of the advantages it 6ffei*s. They may hurry all the troops they can muster into Bulgaria, but it is hard to see vhence any armies large- enough "to Told the Allies in check or restore German influence in the country can be drawn. The Roumanian s may be trusted to take action at onco if the army! oi occupation in their land is materi-' ally weakened, and the Italians will be cnly too ready to move forward if the Austrian armies opposing them are depleted. Germany herself ha s her. handls full in the West, and will need all the man power she can. scrape together for : her defensive campaign there even if die make a considerable retreat to shorten her line in France and- Belgium. Indeed the surest safeguard of the gains which the Allies l have just won- in the Balkans arid, in Asiatic Turkey is the present strategical position oil: tho Western front. Tfliat has been improving steadily day by day. The enenty losses have been terrific, as the enormous tale of prisoners and guns taken proves beyond a doubt. Everywhere*' .the German wave of invasion is receding, and, considering the nature of'the'country, arid the elaborate system of del enco organised by the enemy during the. past four years, the i:bb may reasonably be described as rapid. Tho northern flank of tjlie whole German position in, Flanders is now seriously threatened, in fact .tho whole front from, the sea. to "Verdun is . vnstable, and great events may be imminent—events that may alter greatly the whole character of the war in the West. It would, however, be most unwise to conclude therefrom that the Germans are already -beaten, or ready to submit to the stringent .terms •which; th'e Allies .must, enforce if' the future peace of the world is to be secured.

' On Saturday afternoon members and intendin members of the 7T«I?on Forestry Society -will inspect the plantations of English trees on -Mr Marsden's property at Stoke. ' There are Bom'* T/ery fine specimens and the visit | should "provo both interesting and in-