“MISTAKES OF THE ALLIES”

New Zealand Times, Volume XL, Issue 9173, 13 October 1915, Page 7

“MISTAKES OF THE ALLIES”

The High Commissioner reports:— LONDON, October 12, 1.10 a.m. Serbian official.—“ Our troops are vigorously resisting the onslaught of the Auistro-Germans, whose, heavy artillery caused formidable and sanguinary combats. The losses were enormous on both sides. “Near Deanikapu Bulgarian hands dynamited a railway bridge on the Balonika-Uskub line.” By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright, , (Received October 12, 11.30 p.m.) NISH, October 32. A communique says:—“We repulsed four attacks on the ZabregieObrenovatz sector, with grear enemy losses. 1 During the Belgrade fighting we sank an enemy gunboat and badly, damaged another which was beached near Somlin. All attacks on our positions on the Drina, before Badovmizi, were repulsed with heavy losses.” (Received October 12, 9 p.m.) NISH, October 12. _ There were considerable forces operating at Obrenovatz, where an entire regiment was annihilated with the bayonet after the Serbian artillery had destroyed a bridge of boats, The main enemy forces were engaged at Belgrade. The inhabitants were taken by surprise and hurriedly fled. The enemy’s artillery swept the roads leading out of the city, and many civilians, mostly women and 'children, perished. Refugees speak of a “hell of fire” and the terrible sufferings of the inhabitants. - i . • . The Serbian commander states that the ground where the German's landed at Ram was so covered with corpses that he could not advance without : marching over them. . - ' Stubborn fighting continued on Saturday in the suburbs south of Belgrade. (Received October 12, 3.30 p.m.) LONDON. October 12. Bucharest telegrams state that the Germans have brought to Serbia many of their heaviest guns, including 12-inch and they used asphyxiating : gases at Shabatz. ' ’ It is reported-that the Grand Duke'Nicholas of Russia is going to Nish to take supreme command of the Balkans. Reports from Sofia -reveal an extraordinary state of affairs in Bulgaria. Ring Ferdinand. has assumed supreme control, and the Ministers are mere puppets, who are unaware of the next move. The Bulgarian policy is merely to carry but Czar Ferdinand’s daily orders: , (Received October 12, 1() p.m.) i ROME, October 12. The “Corriere Della. Sera” (states that large masses of Austro-German and Bulgarian troops are close to the Roumanian frontier, with heavy guns which dominate the railway towards Bucharest. (Received October 12, 3.30 p.m.) LONDON, October 12. A Berlin communiqfie states:— battles have developed in the Drina region. The crossing of the Danube has been completed between Shabatz and Gradiate. The Austro-Germans captured the heights between Zarkovo and Mirijevo, south of Belgrade. They stormed the Anatera position near Ram. Altogether,' the Germans took 1556 prisoners and captured seventeen guns.” (Received October 12, 10 p.m..) - MILAN, October 12. Refugees state that eighty Bulgarians were shot on the Black Sea coast for refusing to enlist against Russia. - • (Received October 12, 10 p.m.) . PARIS, October 12. The newspapers comment on the undesirableness of weakening the western'defensive to dispatch troops to the Balkans. . They say that the Quadruple Entente must co-ordinate their action. The question is what Italy, England and Russia are prepared to do. . M. Maurice'Barres, in the “Echo de Paris,” declares that the Allied armies need a permanent high war council. The burdens of the Balkans ought to be distributed, after an examination of all the forces. M. Barres quotes Bornhardi’s article on the mistakes of tfie Allies, wherein he says that the Quadruple Entente committed the strategic, mistake of not co-ordinating their forces. The “Figaro” states that the Allies’ interests in Serbia,’though considerable for all, are' more considerable for some, notably Russia and England- “ Times” and Sydney “Sun” Services. (Received October 12, 5.5 p.m.) 1 _ LONDON, October 12. “The Times,” in a leading article, states: —“The Government meets Parliament under circumstances parallel with those of June. Then, as now, there was a popular awakening. There is a discovery, based on hard, indisputable facts, that there is something seriously amiss with the conduct, of the war: L , , “There is no diversion of opinion to-day about our failure to impress-the Balkan peoples. ' “From the first moment of the war, when the Germanic Empires stood alone against us, right down to last week’s landslide, one miscalculation seems to have followed another, almost with mathematical certainty. “The senes began with the pathetic belief that Austria-Hungary would prove a lukewarm foe, which prevented a clear-cut Balkan policy. ' “Next came the slow, half-hearted breach with Turkey— a country bought with German gold.- . ~ . , ' , : ... “Bulgaria, who was willing six months ago to throw in her lot with the Allies, has been now allowed to follow suit. “Next comes the neutrality of Greece, whose whole interests are bound up with the Allied cause. \ . ... ... “Roumania is passively isolated, and no longer in touch with the aggressive Russian armies. ’ _ ■ , “Germany is breaking the blockade with a vengeance. • The adverse balance in the war, and in the whole Imperial position, is sufficiently serious to need' strong and prompt redress.” .. , The paper asks:—“Was there any true co-ordination between diplomacy and military knowledge?” and proceeds; ,r We shall never know all about the, disastrous blunder of the earlier stages of the Dardanelles campaign but it is notorious that every department worked independently. , , ■ “The Admiralty and the War Office reckoned upon foreign help which did not come. The Navy, tired df waiting for the Army, began operations on its own account, and the Army arrived too late, only to find the- chances of a surprise attack turned into the long ‘and costly struggle of elaborate trench warfare. _ . • , ~ ... “Never in the history of warfare,, was sheer incompetence fraught with such tragic’ results. Everything, unfortunately, points to the totaL want of cohesion and grip in directing the great resources in men, money, prestige, and public spirit which the nation is determined to pour out to the uttermost till we 3,1*0 victorious* , “It is not a question merely of the Foreign Office or the War Office, but of the supreme direction of these and other offices. • , . . . “A determined and united people is not in, a mood to tolerate indecision « and mismanagement.' ’ , ATTACK BEGUN BY BULGARIANS; (Received October 13, 1.25 a.m.) LONDON, October 32. The correspondent of “The Times” in Athens states that the Bulgarians, at noon yesterday, began an attack on Serbia at Ganboghary, towards Kniazehvatz, thirty miles north-east of Nish.