PROGRESS OF THE WAR

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9568, 26 January 1917, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Mr Bonar Law replies to President Wilson, with stinging force. The reply was necessary, for the Wilson speech has been accepted in two countries as essentially pro-German. In the United States and in Sweden that view is taken by members of all political parties. Whether this opinion goes so far as' to assume that the President is prepared to intervene at the critical moment as dictator of a peace without victory, depriving the Entente victor of the fruits of victory, is another question. Into that question it is not necessary to enter. The point is that a large section of _ the world’s opinion regards the Wilson speech as pro-German. The point is strengthened- by the fact, which we may assume with safety, that the Entente peoples all take the same view as the Americans and the Swedes. The necessity has therefore been established for a reply to the President. Mr Bonar Law has proved equal to the occasion. Stepping to the front, promptly seizing the occasion, he has replied effectively, with epigrammatic force, which leaves nothing to he desired. Mr Bonar Law, whatever may be thought of the value of h;s reply, : has justified his position as a member of the Nationalist British Government, the chief business of which is to uphold the cause it defends against allcomers.

He begins by informing the President that the difference between the belligerents—so strangely described by the President as immaterial —is the old d.fference between right and wrong. He proceeds to tell him that the'Herman crimes ha has denounced—without practical action, but with mere words—are" small in comparison with the initial crime of deliberately and treacherously plunging the world_ into tks tremendous war, the final stroke being the violation of solemn treaties. He ends by informing the President that the permanent peace which he is content merely to long for, the Allies are fighting for with enormous expenditure of blood and treasure, to the o-reat danger of all their dearest and best interests. And he informs him that the Allies intend to secure this Vieace without any intervention he may be contemplating. He has practically told the President : “Our quarrel is just; it is our quarrel; you have proved yourself unworthy to even consider it; interfere at your peril.”

This reminds us or a recent cartoon of Eaemaeker, in which President and Kaiser axe the figures. The Presi-

dent is pulling the trigger of a shower bath the Kaiser is ovenvnelmed by tho discharge of cold water, which stiners as tho Imperial grimace proclaims loudly. This cartoon was meant as a compliment to the Frcsident on his Lusitania _ Note, and some letterpress accompanying roundly declares that this is the invariable effect of the President’s answers to the German appeals. The cartoonist _ was 'iiiite right so far as the effect of the President's words in reply to the Kaiser. Bonar Law has put tho President into the position of the Kaiser on tho cartoon, with his shower of the leading facts of tho war. It is as correct as the cartoonist’s canon•*ure and it does further, remindimr’the President that men who depend on words without deeds expose themselves to serious treatment. The shower bath inflicted on the President is most effective as an exposition of his position. . * •

It is, at the same time, a solemn warning to mind nis own business. For it = is quite clear that the President has not the power to make good the words ho has with such shallow judgment presumed to utter in the face of the world against strong Powers armed to secure the rights of a threatened world. The President’s alleged journalistic confidant has attempted to do what the President has forbidden all the World to do. He has attempted to interpret the President’s speech. But he has only made tho position_ of the President worse, by emphasising that ho will not have the peace which the Entente will dictate in the hour of victory. In the hour after his threatened interference what could the President do against the wrath of the F-ntento Powers? The answer is writ large in the volume of speeches the President lias made upon the unprepared state of the American nation. Those speeches corroborate every word of Homer Lee’s remarkable book “The valour of Ignorance.!’ In that book the late American gene ral plumbed the depths of that unproparednesa. And having done so statistically, ho proceeded to show in detail tho terrible blows that Japan can inflict on the United States, hi Washington, Oregon, and California; blows which must make Japan master of the whole American west _ coast countries. ’ No detail was wanting, of warships, of transports (all named, with statements of the trooper capacity of each), of the preliminary operations of capturing Manila and Mono lulu, and of the operations against -Oregon, San Francisco-, Los„ Angeles, and tho passes of the Rookies between East and West. Nothing is more certain in the’ event of this'senseless Presidential dictation now threatened, than that Japan would, as a member of the Entente, spring to the front and justify the predictions of the American general whose hook made so great a sensation. But of course it is idle to talk of those things for the President has spoken, and his next step will be as usual —oblivion. The only object in'following the matter su far is to' prdi/e "how random was the Presidential speech in circumstances which required the most careful calculation and the most skilful handling. We can dismiss it as hot air, promptly coloured bv the reply of a British ’ Cabinet Minister keeping watch over the Entente oaus> and the interests of the British Empire.

Getting back from hot air to facia, we 'note that the news from the Fast front 1 is somewhat mixed. That Bulgarian demonstration in the Dofarudja so pompously announced yesterday by (Sofia, is over; the Hussions: reporting that’they have destroyed the enemy, the others admitting that they have abandoned the ground. At the north end Of the Roumanian line Brusiloff, impeded for eome, time past by bad weather, has taken advantage of a fine spell to launch an assault which hae. wrested , important heights from tliQ caioray.' This fs in the 'i'rotus valley/' The Trotus is a tributary of the Sereth, passing to that river from the Moldavian Carpathians, not far from the mouth of the Ghymes Pass, the defile nest to the Oituz, to the north of the same. It seems to have been a very successful attack, for the report is of two enemy battalions destroyed, with substantial booty captured besides the 'mportant position. There lias been desultory fighting in the region between the Oituz valley and the Trotus valley, it was the northern sway of the'great battle for the position in front of the Sereth. We may coj j 'pcturc that Brusiloff has. settled the sway by seizing his first opportunity to deliver a blow, and the northern part of the line has been straighteneci. There was need, apparently, for tho mention of the locality shows that the northern end of the line had got further back than was admitted. That, however, may only mean that the battle has been very confused in that region. It is probable that the pressure of Brusiloff in this wooded elevated region, with his great striking power, has prevented the enemy from attempting more than the defensive in thes© regions. Now that Brusiloff has struck, and struck hard, we may expect to hear that the enemy’s left wing, which he has been trying to represent as established on the Sereth, is conforming to the retreat of the rest of his line, which bemusome days ago. But as the weather has only .lust cleared, we must wait further developments, in the pleasant knowledge that once more Brusiloff s nrmv is bearing on the uncomfortable situation in which the .German invasion of Roumania finds itself.

In the Riga the Germane claim to have driven the Russians back in the region of the Aa river (near Mitau), a considerable distance. Petrograd admits and puts the limit of the recovery at half a mile. We have to admit a setback to that extent of Dimitneff s promising offensive. The German strength is evidently- considerable and is taking advantage of the concentrating- power of its railway system. Is the dead of last winter there was, we remember, some severe fighting of similar character further south on th.s northern sectc/r. It wqs at Narosch, east of Vilna. when General Ewarts made his great assault on the broad tongue of land between this lake and the, great swamp to the south of it. That was the first occasion on which the Russians came out with then new irJunition equipment. The result was that.for the first time they overwhelmed the enemy’s great guns, and as a consequence captured the tongue of land btween the aforementioned obstacles. But not being fully reequipped and wanting the new guns elsewhere for another assault the Russian .commander sent the guns away Tlie enemy, discovering the fact, promptly attacked with his great guns, demolished the Russian defences and retook his lost ground with his infan try. Wo mention the circumstance as the cause of the Russian loss of half a mile of captured trenches loads to the belief that the case is a ’repetition of history. As the ascendancy of the Russian infantiw has been . well lished, it seems probable that this half mile of German recovery was effected

I by the help of the Urge gun concentration mentioned tlic other day in _ the reports of these northern operations. If that is the case, it, follows that the Russian equipment is not yet quite equal to the enemy’s. If so there will bo some delay in this Northern Russian adrance.

Marshal Haig reports considerable activity of a minor character on the Anqre and Arras fronts, and Paris icporas serious bombardment of the German positions at Verdun on both sides of the Meuse, with considerable aerial activity. Whether these, especially the Verdun bombardment, are signs of coming events, it is impossible to say. It is, at all events, clear that the Allies are net permitting the work of strengthen.ng the German positions to go on unchecked.

The naval battle off the Dutch coast is not as extensively dealt with in today’s messages as we had hoped. What nows there is seems to indicate that wc- hau more than destroyers engaged. But until official confirmation arrives—the reports apjiear to bo based on the admissions of enemy prisoners—-we must postpone judgment. For the present, however, the impressions of the prisoners that there were many ships on the attacking side, and that ten of the enemy went down are satisfactory. The enemy’s communique makes light u th*. wtiols aftait. but w* kuo* his method is to conceal the truth “for military reasons.” He did that after the Jutland fight, and he has been forced to add that the result of that fight was to show that any attempt to renew it would be “an act of heroic madness.” W T e fancy his destroyers will in future cultivate the methods of sane practice. Heroic madness is too expensive, a luxury for an inferior navy. The .main point of this action is that the enemy coming out was promptly seen,, attacked, and driven back with loss. For the rest we can afford to await patiently for official reports of details.

We have to-day the, very' satisfactory report that Mr Massey has expressed his firm determination to fight at the Conference for the retention of Samoa. That means, of course, that he will join with the. other oversea representatives in insisting cm the retention of the whole conquered colonial empire of Germany. The Dominion was waiting for this declaration, and. will back up its Prime Minister in every way possible. Australasia and South Africa do not want a renewal of the German menace which showed its teeth so sharply in recent days.