PROGRESS OF THE WAR

New Zealand Times, Volume XLI, Issue 9257, 26 January 1916, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

The war has become wordy, except in the Caucasus,- where the Russians are making a Turkish drive, and have got as far as Erzeroum; in the West, where some suggestive work has been done; and in’ Montenegro, where the guerrilla warfare of the Montenegrin army has set the Austrian teeth rather on edge; a good share of fighting ot the minor sort in the story, truly enough. But the bulk of the attention goes to the talkers to-day, not to the fighters. ! * * • The first‘of these latter to gain the ear is Mr Sydney "Low. Like so many champions of the time—it seems to breed them-like mushrooms—he rushes, forward in a lull of the fighting with a nostrum which will for ever and ever, ’amen, etc., etc. He begins by praising the nation for being at last awake, to the great need for effort, combination, enthusiasm. The which isgood inasmuch as Mr Low is a publicist of some experience, who has been long feeling pulses in the pages of magazines. His nostrum is to weed out the old officers of the. Army and advance the young ones who have seen the new service from Mons and Le Cateau to the present time- It is well to talk about these things, and stimulating to point out that weeding has been going on rigorously and vigorously in. the French and Russian armies. But it would be well to v have specific instances. Just as the instances of the weeding can bo quoted on: the one side, so ought the instances of the lack of it to be quoted on the other.

For example, it is well known that the advancement before the battle of the Marne of some of the officers who helped materially to win that great fight was the work of General Jottre. Fock, Sarrail, Manoury, D’TJrbal, and Castlenau were all appointed by Joffre to the commands in which they gave such fine account of themselves on the great prolonged far-flung battle of the Marne. The mention of these names has given convincing force to the weeding argument in' France. Why not mention tho young men who have seen Mons, Le Cateau, and the rest, and have been left to languish while elderly officers have been promoted over their heads, and given the opportunity to waste those thousands of lives? An ounce of specific statement would be worth a ton of generalities in the best magazine manner.

Moreover, as to th© men who vent through Mods, Le Cateau, and the rest —is Sir Sydney Low prepared to tell the' British Empire, for whose consolation his lucubrations are cabled everywhere, how many 'of them are alive now? We wer© under the impression that there was a very large mortality. In some quarters, indeed, it is the custom to speak of the first expeditionary force as having disappeared. One correspondent—for “The Times”—went so far as to declare during the great retreat that the British Amy had been absolutely wiped out. But that turned out to he one of those curious things which is done by the very best people on slight provocation, to be followed hy unavailing lifelong remorse. Things are not quite so bad as that. But without question there are not a great

many young officers left of the expeditionary army that gave such magnificent account of itself in those great days of 1914. How can we estimate the number that are’passed over in the promotions of tho day? How can we be sure -that any are passed over? Human nature suggests that it is highly probable. But when a man is giving advice for the salvation of a great Empire, he ought to move beyond the indefinite and the vague, and the general- Perhaps we ought to be grateful to all these prophets who come forward with' saving and soothing advice. But the truth is that after eighteen months cue is getting a little tired of them. The magazines are packed with them, of course. But is it necessary to ransack the magazines to make up the cable service?

Very different is the talk of Mr Lloyd George. In speaking to the third reading of the Compulsion Bill—which "was, we may remark in passing, adopted by the same big majority as that of the second reading—ho was speaking as a statesman entrusted with great duties, giving an' account of his stewardship. He told the world of something accomplished, something done, not of something to be discussed in. newspapers,* on« platforms, and the floor of Parliament House, The. speech appears to have been in some respects a counterblast to x the speech by which the Prime .Minister the other day startled the House, in its announcement of the paucity of munitions. At all events, no one could suspect eudh paucity from Mr Lloyd George’s speech. He does not, so far as the summary before us shows, refer to the output of munitions specifically, but there is certainly no hint that the munitions are 4 deficient.

The speech is optimistic and breezy in the extreme, and takes the best line for the consolation of men’s minds in the affliction of war that has yet been thought of. He doee not apologise for the compulsion put upon the industry of the nation. Still less does he offer any excuse, or palliation, by reference to disagreeable duty, u(Jiich is the safe refuge of weak minds in such positions as Mr Lloyd George finds himself in today. Not a bit of it I He boldly declares that the best thing has been done for the nation, the very best, war or no way, Tho industry of the nation, disorganised, lumbering, confused, wasteful, has been collared by the strong hand, its vices have been shaken off, and its good qualities have been organised—with this result, that the nation is become better equipped, better organised—better disciplined. Thus improved, it will emerge from the war irresistible in the fields of industry.- While the timid and the shortsighted hesitated over terms, and boggled over . shibboleths, this strong man has done things which will / bring in their train lasting benefits, without any damage whatever to the privileges of Labour. Hard won as they were, they'had to he suspended for the sake of riie nation. When things return to normal, the benefit to Labour as to other interests will be enormous. This is better than the whimpering now general about the awful deadlock that must follow peace, and more true as well as more manly. The sketch we have of our narrow escape from a German victory is, for all its simplicity of matter-of-fact language, absolutely thrilling. It was Sea Power which saved us and gave us time to arm and train and get our house into fighting order. Mr Lloyd George might have added the genius of Joffre at the battle of the Marne, but ho one oan put that out of his mind when discussing the first days of the war. The Sea Power of Britain was, however, an indispensable factor. If the German fleet could have raided the French coast in those fateful days of the march on Paris it is very probable that the battle of the Marne would not have been won, because the retreat would have been cut from the sea. Anyhow it was a near escape. But for the ships about which the politicians had so many stupid battles, and over which so many foolish tears were shed by the economists at any price, England would have been invaded in less than three months, and London would not have stood longer than Belgrade. How many Louvains would there have been besides? The very thought makes one shudder. Mr Lloyd George’s speech covers the whole ground, and makes us understand th© position as only the thinking man can understand it. • • • His description is pot alone by any means. At the other end of the world Mr Rosser, so prominent on the Labour side in Australia, 1 gives a similar conclusion, which, though arrived at by different mental process, sounds’ like a veritable echo. Triflers and hypocrites Mr Rosser calls all who refuse to recognise the position and come to the help of th© Empire at this most critical time. Mr Rosser can so little understand any opposition to the great cause of patriotism that he has himself enlisted. In this ho has thousands of supporters, many of whom were against soldiering in any shape or form. Mr Lloyd George speaks to all these with double force in his description of the vast benefit due to industry from the organisation, equipment and discipline, that have come to it because of the war. The new machinery alone’ impressed into the service he regards as invaluable. • • • What could he preach but victory after such a stirring speech, so logical as well as picturesquely convincing?* He preached it with all his force, of course- It may be a long way off, this victory. Indeed, from the look of things it seems a long way off —but you never know in war. Wo certainly have the striking power now and any day wo may get in a blow which will resound through the ages. But for practical purposes we must be prepared for delay. For such delay there could not be a better preparation than the fiery, convincing, warming speech of the Minister for Munitions, who means shares his chief’s view of the inadequacy of the munition cutout. ; • • » The news from the West front rather corroborates Mr Lloyd George on this point. It shows that the Germans had prepared a serious attack at Nieuwport, in Flanders, with preliminary bombardment and infantrjf charge, of the sort with' which our men in that part of the country were made very familiar rather more than a year ago. But when the gun* had done their part the infantry found themselves unable to leave the trenches. .Our guns had them pinned. They simply had to give it up. “Our glorious

army” found the word impossible quite easy to understand and swallow. The shock to their feelings makes up for the 200 yards of the Nedville trenches retained hy the Germans according to yesterday’s story, in a district in which they have not made an inch of advance sines they were stopped by General Manoury and his gallant French soldiers in October of 1914. These few yards, no doubt, will be recovered in due course. The Flanders incident proves that wo have abundance of ammunition for reducing serious assaults on the Western trenches to nothing. Perhaps Mr Asquith meant to convey the idea that there are not enough munitions to sustain an assault on a great scale, with combined movements, prolonged for many days. In other words for a decisive, blow. • • • But Mr Lloyd George’s “We are going to win,” and his praise of the superiority attained now in organisation, equipment, and discipline—above all we should place discipline—sound a very hopeful note in this regard. If' we have not enough munitions for » thrust in continuation of several movements at different points to bo kept up for weeks—in other words a deadly withering pursuit of beaten troops—the Minister for Munitions evidently thinks we very soon will have. • ■ • This sort of thing makes one look forward once more to the spring. We were disappointed last year, partly because the munitions were not sufficient and partly—and chiefly we fear —because the arrangements for the two great assaults delivered were defective This year the munitions are not going to he deficient, for while the spring draws near better and more machinery is whirring under the hands of disciplined willing men, who are to be strengthened by process of dilution. * • • On this point, and the point of service in the field. Mr ' Lloyd George spoke ‘ cheerily as one having no doubts. He is familiar with all the portentous protests, prophecies, predictions. Nevertheless he knows his men, and he is sure, there will be no serious opposition to the great effort for smashing the enemy. The greatest Navy m the world, a very numerous Army, the best equipped in the world, a united nation, and disciplined goodwill in the best, largest, and most powerful arsenals on the face of the earth—these, together with a financial strength unrivalled in the history of th© world, make the combinations on which the Minister for Munitions bases bis glowing predictions of victory. It is good enough. • • * The talk of a regular blockade is growing. Until to-day there seems to be a consensus of thoughtful minds in the United States that this is the best course for both Britain and America. There is the pro-German element, of course. But that is always there. It cannot do worse than it has been doing, even if we enforce the blockade to the strictest. _ Why, then, should our people consider vtr We want to end the war quickly, and with it the power of these people to explode factories and promote strikes.

We are now assured by some of the correspondents that when the last man left the Holies beaches there was not an ounce of fight left in the Turks. These correspondents must really take more care of their statements. They are taking the right road to make us believe that instead of evacuating Gallipoli, we ought to have sailed in and smashed these Turks who had no fight left in them. If that was the condition of the enemy, the evacuation was a disgrace. We must refuse to believe such statements without some decent sort of corroboration. The testimony which speaks of the condition of an enemy, completely invisible during the operation under discussion, and very active before it—if the- same testimony is to' be accepted —is not enough. It looks very like simple foolishness.

The Balkans* but for the guerrilla fighting in Montenegro, are silent today, with the exception of one episode —the seizure of a large quantity of petrol by the orders of General Sarrail. That officer, at all events, is maintaining his activities. In the Caucasus the Russians have chased the enemy as far as Erzerourn, taking large booty. We may hope for more. Not that more is wanted for stopping the Turkish and German advance on India which is now regular!'' talked of, because that is mostly hot air. The expedition at Kut-el-Amara looks well. The rivers have risen, and the movement of troops is scopueu, but General Townshend has plenty of supplies, and is not hard pressed, and the Russians ace within ton days of him and Colonel Aylmer; in fact is not pressed at all. In Egypt the turbulent Senussi have mad another lesson, and that is all from that from. The Bessarabian and Riga fronts contribute nothing to-day.

There is a revival of the old stories of oppression and tyranny in Constantinople, and this time there is a variation in the shape of the reported arrival of 60,000 German troops. The report is rdally not probable, for if 60,000 men had got to Constantinople wearing German uniform, somebody would have seen them on the road and reported them.- The reason assigned is the German conquest of Turkey. Now are 50,000 men enough? To say nothing of the policy of conquering a friend.

At a meeting of the Karori Borough Council last evening, some discussion took place over correspondence between the council and the tramways traffic manager in regard to a complaint that a conductor ha'd issued Wrong class tickets on- a recent Sunday. Accompanying the traffic manager’s letter was a copy of the instructions which had been issued tx> the conductors recently. After these had been read, the Mayor remarked that he thought councillors would sympathise with any man who made 1 mistake in carrying out such complicated instructions. Councillors were of the same opinion, and it was resolved tlxat -the letter be “received.” The fears of certain launch-owners and others.that the removal of a portion of the sand-bar at the Lake Rotorua end of the Ohau Channel would lead to a reduction in the level of the lake appear to have been ill-founded (says the Auckland “Star”). The au thorities had intended to loosen the compacted sand on tie top of the bar, as they iave done annually for several years, so that the launches might scour out a way for themselves in making the passage. The work of clearing the sand was carried out to a greater depth than had been intended, and had this been continued a lowering of thq laic might have resulted, bnf the operations were stopped in time to avert what was, feared.