FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1916. BRAVO, RUSSIA!

Free Lance, Volume XV, Issue 817, 25 February 1916, Page 8

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1916. BRAVO, RUSSIA!

The Turkish Debacle at Erzerum. ONE fact stands out most prominently in connection with the Turkish debacle at Erzerum. This is that a grave, a very grave, blunder was made when the Grand. Duke Nicholas was transferred, with such mysterious suddenness from his command on the Polish-Galician front to the Caucasus. More than one of those amusing creatures, the so-called military experts, declared, it may be remembered, that Nicholas was "no strategist" and. that he was allotted the command in the Caucasus because he had. failed on Russia's western frontier. But the salient feature of his success in Armenia has been the clever strategy displayed by the Grand Duke, who seems to have completely hoodwinked, not only the Turkish commanders, but their German co-operators, as to the real scope and. object of his brilliantly audacious operations. * * * * "No strategist" indeed! Why it is precisely as a strategist that he has been most successful. He may not have given the Turk a "knock-out" blow. The Turk has a nasty way with him when he gets his "second wind," as Skobeleff and other Russian generals found out for themselves in the RussoTurkish war of 1878. But Nicholas is apparently bent upon preventing the Turk from getting that "second wind." He is following him up and smiting him hip and thigh, capturing guns, destroying whole columns, and even threatening a future swoop upon the sacred city of the Padishah itself. No wonder we read of discontent and riots at Constantinople, of the mana of the Allies having been so greatly increased throughout the Balkans, of the muchdebated attack upon Egypt being, like the turkey on the boardinghouse menu, permanently "ofE." * * * # Undue optimism would be foolish, and it is good to see that there has been no wild flag-waving, no "Maficking" in the capitals of the Allies. It's a far cry to Constantinople, as it is to Tipperary, and the Turk, with his back against the Avail, may cry out the Islamic synonym of "Ake, ake," and "fight on, fight on" as desperately as he did behind the earthworks of Plevna or the Shipka Pass But it is clear he has received a staggering blow. If Russia can follow up that blow, not only will Turkey be driven out of the struggle, but the German hopes of a vast Asiatic dominion will be shattered into atoms, not only for the present but for ever. Russia's victory will not only fail to relieve the tension in Egypt, but it will affect the position at Salonika, for, encouraged by the success at Erzerum, Roumania should be heartened into taking the decisive plunge. ■» •» *■ « The "Fox of the Balkans" must be feeling pretty sick just now, for the Bulgars must recognise that the day of their punishment is coming nearer and nearer, and be more than ever disgusted with the ambitious adventurer who played into the Kaiser's hands, and made their country an enemy of the one Power, Russia —the natural protector of the Balkan Slavs —to which it owes its independence. The mills of God grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly small, and the last state of

the treacherous Bulgars will be as that of the man of the Scriptural story, worse than, the first. The capture of Erzerum marks, we must all profoundly trust, the beginning of a new era of succes for the- Allies and of discouragement and defeat for our implacable and treacherous foes.