THE MURMAN RAILWAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16921, 6 August 1918, Page 4

THE MURMAN RAILWAY.

, I.N* view of the official statement that . a German and Finnish offensive against the Murman railway is pro- £ bable, it may be presumed that adeI quate measures have been taken- to t strengthen the Allied forces, which _ are now in occupation of the Arctic j ports of Russia. Very considerable importance, nr.val and military, as well as political, attaches to the re- , cent landings. The first took place ; at the port known as Murman, Kola, t or Alexandrovsk, which enjoys the j. advantage, although situated on an j arm of the Arctic Ocean, of being free from :ce all the year round, (. The port is of recent construction ; and is connected with Petrograd by 3 a railway which was completed about the time of the Russian col- . lapse, and, therefore, never served . its purpose of providing a conveni- . ent route for the munitionment of the Russian armies. This railway I runs parallel with, and close to, the j frontier of Finland, and when the Germans obtained a mastery over Finland they organised an exsedi- . tion against the railway and port. e A small British force has apparently 3 been on the Murman coast since the j middle of April. It has now been j joined by Americans, and has . moved as far south as Kem, on the . White Sea, the most important j town on the line. The German (. : threat against the port and railway I I .s thus definitely arrested, and com--1 . munication between the Allies and > ' sympathetic elements in Northern -! Russia is maintained. This is the » most important result of the laml- " ing, and it is reasonable to expect ; tint Murman will become the _ 1 allying point of an anti-German 3 ah,! anti-Bolshevik movement, simif | lar to that which has reclaimed J 1 Eastern Siberia for the Allies. The ' co-operation of Americans shows s that" political initiative is not dead s in Washington and London, the • regard of the mass of Russians for the I nited States being greater '■ than for any other ally. A secon- | dary. but still important, result of 1 the occupation is that Germany is deprived of a submarine base which 1 might have proved of great value to 1 cr. Murman has the considerable 5 merit from the German point of 5 view that it would have afforded a 1 base for submarines outside the 1 North Sea, a point of departure fioin which submarines could have s 1 reached the Atlantic without " traversing any confined water and 6 without approaching any of the - ' British minefields. These are con- ", stantlv increasing in extent and > . making it more difficult for craft using German or Belgian ports to 1 : reach the open ocean. The allied ? landing is in this re-p"ct a useful • measure, which has mow been ex--1 . tended to include .ii change!, off ' J Inch German submarines have re- ' | ceutly been reported.