PROGRESS OF THE WAR

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIX, Issue 8857, 7 October 1914, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Progress of the Allied left, against the German right seems to have been checked. The usnal reference from Paris to the endurance of the “violent battle” in that quarter ends with the lately unusual information that "we have given ground.” The sway of the great battle has not yet ended. The German right gives and takes, and the Allies give and take, and both have given up claiming decisive victories. This time the pendulum of war swings between Arras and Poronne, with Cambrai and Valenciennes in the German rear as points in the line of retreat to be safeguarded. It begins to look as if the, “echeloned” forces of' the enemy, were giving a doggedly good account of themselves. The French President and his entourage have not yet, it is evident, been afforded the ■ long-desired spectacle of the rout of Von Kluck’s army. The officer, who, after ’the terrible hammering of the Marne battle, and the vigorous, deadly pursuit to which ho was subjected, losing men and material on the scale of a first-class rout, managed to straddle the road with great guns, and gaining time for the whole of the German armies to get steadied, is not the man to give up heart in the very onerous position he holds. He has to save his friends by making good against heavy odds; He has not succeeded in frustrating the enveloping movement, hut he has managed to check it somewhat, keeping his troops in order and fit for fighting- ; •| • •

It is a great struggle. It is, moreover, a struggle in which time is on the side of the Allies. Thera stands peering into the fight, on the other side of the water, one who plans daringly, prepares secretly, and strikes swiftly and hard. That is the habit of Lord Kitchener. He acquired it during his long struggle with the Mahdi. Now he is in a better case for the exercise of that habit. He has a vast array of men at his back, and these he is training at the • rate with which his iron methods have familiarised 'the world. .The time is getting near for a. great’batch to be turned out for a great battle with the best troops .to bo anywhere found. He reviewed the oilier day 100,000 men at Aldershot. When he plans to place them in the firing lino they will bo striking at that obstinate German right before any one knows they have left their camps. ,

What of the signs? Are there any of the making of such a stroke of war? But it we are to expect signs from Kitchener we ere likely to wait till Doomsday. There is one sign, however. It is the only sign this master of resource ever gives. It was plain before the array of Marshal French set out for the front. It was .the sign of silence. Nothing was allowed to transpire. There was no news for any newspaper. The public even suppressed its omnivorous curiosity, and the journalistic instinct of the press was swallowed up in the great wave of patriotism that swept over the land. When the time allotted by the master mind had passed, the Brit’sh troops were seen marching through the streets -of Boulogne. ■ .

Once more wo have the sign of silence. There is no news for any newspaper- Our Prime Minister has given ns the reason. There are, he told the House of Representatives the other day, great movements afoot. It is certain that something is going to happen. Between the army from India which arrived the other day at Marseilles, and the array which is probably ready for embarkation, waiting for the order to “'fall in” and march with destination unknown, there will he a powerful new force for General Von Kluck to reckon with. If he does not quickly break up the Allied left, he will be in serious trouble. Everything depends on his breaking that left utterly, but the left is unbreakable by anything he has under his command, or is likely to get. Ho is doing his very utmost. So much is certain. It is equally certain that the enemy is too strong for him. He has admitted it, and he is-making a brave fight, which deserves the applause of the whole world looking on at the desperate struggle.

But these Germans will pot give way. They want to persuade the world that all is well with them- Therefore, they calmly undertake the gigantic task of besieging the great fortress of Antwerp. Where can they look for assistance? They have to hold their lino across the whole breadth of • France. They have a labour of Hercules to defend their own Empire and the Empire of Austria from the invasion of the vast Muscovite armies. The character of the struggle in that quarter is emphasised .by the appearance of the Czar

of AH the Russias at the headquarters of his armies of attack. Yet tho Germans are actually attempting to invade Russia, adding to tho vast u eight ot the tremendous task imposed on their great fighting machine. At this moment they calmly sit down before Antwerp, they demand immediate surrender in due form, they bombard with the heaviest siege guns. Their attitude to the great, strongly-held, vali-antly-defended fort is the calm attitude of a master of war who is undisturbed by any other task whatever. The world was prepared to watch the behaviour of this gigantic fighting champion in war. But all preparation has failed. The world finds the actual behaviour of the giant amazing. Wo may condemn his methods. Wo may detest him for the wanton wickedness with which he has brought slaughter and spoliation—to use Mr Asquith’s phrase—on the great bulk of the world. Bui wo are forced to admiro his strength, his skill; his courage, and his resourceful determination. We are going to beat him to the ground. Nevertheless, but we cannot refuse him the admiration inspired by his good qualities.

Here a thought comes uppermost, a disquieting thought. This giant has apparently drawn on most of his land force. But ho still has a powerful fleet, practically untouched. That fleet has lately been giving very unmistakable signs of preparation. It is possible that its gun equipment has just been materially strengthenedlt is tolerably certain that his public opinion will demand why that fleet is not used to make the expected Kitchener stroke impossible. Plainly, if the fleet gets out and fights, the stroke will be impossible. Whether the fleet wins or loses the inevitable fight, enough ships may get loose to harry the British coasts, and forbid the transport by water of largo armies, with all their arms and impediments.

The time has oome for the fleet to he brought to bear on the German side. The man-in-the-street has got into a bad fashion of viewing the German fleet. He thinks that because it has submitted to “bottling” that It is both incapable of fighting and unwilling But the fleet is big, well-balanced, containing firstclass capital ships equal to anything that floats. ■ It is as well' trained as equipped, and every officer and man on. board is anxious to come out into the open sea and strike a blow for his Kaiser and his Fatherland. This may be news to the man-in-the-street. But it has long been the ABC of the naval men. In every wardroom and in every mess the talk for years has been of the certainty of having to deal with the German ships and their welltrained crews. Every officer and man of ours is anxious for that,great fight, and all of them know that the German personnel is just as anxious for it as they are. The British sailors wont into the North Sea on that famous July day of parting with no illusions on. the subject. They expected no mere promenades of the seaThey looked forward to no blockade as the form and substance of their service. They sailed in the full certainty of meeting the Germans on the water, and with the grim determination of fighting them after the manlier of the service to which they are proud to belong. ;

We repeat that the time for the German fleet to come out of harbour has come. There has been no reason for that since they lost the first move, by which - neglect they gaVe up the commerce for the defence of which the ships were built. But now the army of Germany is in sore straits, and the army is looking to the fleet to help it. Under the circumstances tho objective of the fleet would be plain. It wonjd be to make the transport of troops in great armadas impossible and the sea communications on which the British armies in France depend difficult . That would be, if even it only attained a slight measure of success, a priceless service. Moreover, there is always the fighting chance of victory, the chance which belongs to every force that sets out to meet the enemy in war.

What sort of plans could the German fleet arrange for thus bringing itself into the field of active war ? Onoe the hope was raised in Britain by a speech of the First Lord of the Admiralty, which now appears to have been indiscreet, that Admiral Jellicoo would presently “dig out” tho German fleet. But the time has come for them to come out. They are wanted, as we have said. How will they set aeout it? A suggestion has been made that they might divide their fleet into two portions, one containing the best ships and one the inferior classes, send out the second of these, and while they drew off the bulk of the blockading British fleet, get the first out into the Atlantic, for unlimited cruising.

■•» • ' The plan, it has been pointed out by a naval writer, would be feasible. The second-class ships, pre-Dreadnoughts, and SO forth, would steer for the channel, threatening the communications. The blockading squadron would bo forced to follow to protect those comimiinications. It would thus be decoyed away, and it would destroy the decoy fleet, perhaps utterly, as the Kussian fleet was destroyed at Tsu-shima by the superior ships of Admiral Togo But the inferior -Russian stupe on that occasion put up a fight which lasted for some hours. The Germans decoy would bo able to do at least as much, probably the fight it would nut up would be a good deal longer. It would be destroyed, but during the time devoted to its destruction the superior squadron would steam out, and uiuess overwhelming force were kept to deal with it, would have a fine chance of getting out into the Atlantic, Mid. perhaps seizing some port m the West Indies for a base, would become a “ fleet in being ” with a vengeance. It is all very sketchy, and we may presume that Admiral Jellicoo would bo very wide-awake from the very first sign of the combined operation. He would probably sea that the German was prepared to Bftcrifio© the first squadron for the advantage of getting out, and as he has the greatest naval force in all the world to cal up there would be a tremendous fight before any German attained the freedom of the sea.

But it is useless to discuss suppose tiona of this kind. The time has come for the German fleet to taka a hand in the campaign. Its activity has become an imperative necessity for the German armies in Franc©. These, if they have to hold their ground in France and pursue their tremendous task of besieging Antwerp, must be relieved of the growing pressure from Britain. Even if the armies are driven baci* into

Germany, the German fleet must be out to harass the coasts from which help and maintenance must go to sustain th» invasion of Germany. This imperative necessity is the tiring to realise. The method of bringing the German fleet to terms is not for tho British observer to consider. It is for the German commander to devise, and for the British admiral to deal with as so devised. The point is that tho battle for the possession of the sea has become a very formidable and very near probability. There will, we have no doubt, he great glory for the British arms. But there will also be great sacrifices, and possibly mud) prolonging of the war.

From Ostend there is an exceedingly sensational item. It is the destruction of a trading steamer, on a course close to the Channel by a mine. Bound from London to the small port of Zeebrung, which is twelve miles from Ostend, about half-way to the mouth of the Scheldt, the vessel was wrecked. This argues activity on the part of German mine-layers in waters suggestively close to one possible track of a transport fleet carrying troops to Belgium from England. Where there was one mine there may ho many. It is possible, course, that this one drifted down from the North Sea. But we cannot forget that the KoeUigin Luiso was caught laying mines at tho mouth of the Thames. There will be some. vigorous work by trawlers before any expedition is allowed to sail for any Belgian, port. •l• ' •

To-day’s news from East Prussia clears up all doubts of the Russian vie-/ tory of Augustov. The Russians have invaded East Prussia, marching on Allenstoin, a city lying in the centre of that province, about sixty miles south of Koenigsberg. .They are described as moving from the east and the south. The former move is clearly the Russian pursuit of the beaten German army, and the other probably the march of a force detached from Warsaw to help the pursuit to crush the enemy. The'German loss is stated at 70,000 men. The figure may be an exaggeration, hut it shows that very large armies must have been engaged.