PROGRESS OF THE WAR

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9694, 23 June 1917, Page 6

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Sir Douglas Haig breaks silence only to tell of some German raids at various l points and a bombardment of theirs on the Scarpo. We must conclude that preparations for the sequel to M casinos are not yet complete. While -waiting, it is refreshing to read that the enemy is making desperate attempts to wrest from onr airmen the mastery which they used against him with disastrous effect at Messines. Wo may also read yesterday’s report (Haig’s) of the British easy repulse of the enemy’s four coun-ter-attacks on the Souohoz position, in front of Dens, which is part of the British attack against that place from three sides, in the light of the general belief that the enemy’s moral is waning under the tremendous gun fire and the air work, which together deprive his men of all rest and intercept his food and munition supplies. This belief is common now to correspondents, both British and French, Who assert freely that the German fighting spirit on the West front is waning #

The news from the French front is distinctly good. A very heavy German attack on the French line of the Aisno plateau, which shows tho importance attached by tho enemy to vhe Ailetto position, where the French lino hinges for a heavy attack on his flank ih the St. Gobain massif, was repulsed, after a long fight. The enemy established himself at first at two points, claiming penetration of the French front as far as the reserves. But in the end he was driven out of all his captures, with the exception, apparently, of a small salient, which is clearly untenable. The importance of the enemy’s action is 'manifested by the fact that he used fresh divisions, brought from the Russian front. ' Tho fact accounts for his persistence, and shows that the ascendancy of oni Ally’s troops is still •wolf maintained. Further oast, in the Champagne (neighbourhood of Moronvillers) the result of the enemy’s attempts to recapture the position he lost a week ago resulted in a further French advance on a front of 600 yards. Tho French are playing their waiting game well. The fact that thev have dropped 12 tons ot bombs during the last fortnight on important points in the enemy’s rear is suggestive (1) of the air mastery ot our Ally, (2) of coming events at the right time. • • •

The assurance given by the Duma through the British Parliament that the war will he actively prosecuted is (hacked up to-day by a manifesto of the Union of "Women and Volunteers to the people to keep up the fight against the enemy whose enslaving tendencies are antagonistic to Russia’s revolutionary ideals. This is accompanied by an appeal to the Allies not to hastily condemn Russia for being absorbed in consolidating her new liberties. These difficulties have not been throughly grasped in the West, and, on the other hand, the great mass of the newly-awakened nation has not understood the character of the German aggression which brought about the war, which to them in the absence of that understanding is incomprehensible. It is evident now (whatever else in the Russian upheaval may bo mysterious) that on the one side the Russian people are beginning to understand the war, while, on the other, the West is beginning to understand the difficulties of the Russian position. We take it that the Russian armies will march this summer, and that the Entente Powers will easily keep up the fight until thev do.

The course of Russia is not. wo have to admit, on smooth lines, No sooner

docs daylight appear in the counsels of tho' leaders, Parliamentary and variedly Provisional, than a cloud comes across tho light- On this occasion the cloud is a railway strike at Moscow, sudden and unexpected, because tile grievances of the men are under consideration by a committee empowered to settle them, and of goodwill towards the men. The hand of Germany is, of course, in this, working through spies, and anarchists, and reactionaries. If the strike lasts there will be a paralysis of the military movement which, we may take it from the assurance of the Duma and the guarded statement of General Brusiloff in his letter to General Rohertson, was in full swing. Tho Government is not resorting to the old methods of Czardom, but is urging tho people, to keep their heads. It is difficult, considering all things, to see win- timely concessions will not save the situation. But wo must wait patiently for this cloud to roll by, as so many others have rolled by sinco tho Czar became Colonel Romanoff.

Mot the least notable feature in this Eastern situation is that the enemy is sending troops freely from the Russian fronts to the West and to the Italian frontiers. It proves that he is unable to hold his own in those quarters without considerable help, while the news from tho Western and Italian fronts shows that, having got help, he is finding resistance very uphill work. The transfers cannot go on indefinitely, for at any moment tho Russian armies may he in motion. It is becoming apparent that if they move the enemy is lost beyond redemption.

We have s eon how the case is with him on the West front. The news from Italy shows us that it is no better with him in that quarter. The. “Cologne Gazette’’ is quoted to-day as noting, with something like alarm, the magnitude of the Italian offensive in the Xrcntino. The details are filled in for us, of this undoubtedly great operation of General Cadorna, from Rome. The Italians, attacking the Austrian enemy’s position on the Asiago front, as wo saw yesterday and the day before, drove in the Austrian line substantially, carrying many positions. Then they carried the Ortigara Pass, gaining the bulwark of the Sugana valley, in which flows tho Brcnta. Then they attacked on an eight-mile front (after eight days of a snowstorm), moving against lofty peaks at the head of tho river. It is a direct aim at Trent. It has forced hack the Eastern half of tho Austrian line, the western resting on the Adige. If it succeeds it will cut off that western half and destroy or capture it, when nothing oan prevent them reaching and capturing Trent. It is a bold operation on a vast scale, well conceived, and it is being carried out with the extraordinary skill and courage and mastery of great wenpons in mountain warfare developed by the Italian armies. In tho history of the world, we believe that no such campaign as this has been seen, or thought possible. Until the light of publicity was thrown upon it by Lord Northciiffe and Sir A. Conan Doyle and tho well-arranged publications of the Italian staff, file world regarded tho Italian armies as losing time in ineffectual creeping. Now tho ’world regards their stupendous work with amazed admiration, firmly persuaded that the old Roman armies have again come to tho front of war.

Tho fact that the Italians can, with then- tremendous work on the Isonzo, maintain this vast offensive in tho Trentino, shows that they aro still full of vigour, with guns and men enough to strike heavily, keeping up the strongest pressure upon the enemy in spite of the tremendous difficulties of his scientific frontier go treacherously fixed in the bad days of tho Holy Alliance, and of the scientific treatment lie has bestowed upon them, and tho great armies magnificently equipped and trained, with which he has manned them. In view of tho dead certain predictions of Hindeniburg’s marvellous offensive in this quarter, it is positively amusing to read of this tremendous Italian onslaught.

The plan of the Italian general is now revealed as something far beyond the grasp of tho men who have been writing about it, and, of course, of tho German staff, which seems to have regarded it as a negligible quantity. But though wo know its nature as a great strategic conception, its objective has not been suggested by anyone. Wo only know that it is striking here and there with comprehensive effect. First it hurled back the Austrian assault from tho Trentino, then it surprised Gorizia, then it sprang almost to the gates of Trieste, now it is at the head of the Brenta, with a vast Austrian army before it in’ great difficulty. These brilliant feats are the sequel to the splendid story of mountain fighting on which the light of day suddenly shone with revealing light rather more than a year ago. We may surmise that this blow at Trent was in careful preparation by Oadorna while his eastern forces were hacking their way towards Trieste. Any surmise, of course, must in the ease of a great commander of subtlety and resource and war mastery be modest. At any rate, it i s apparent that the reported Italian fear of the groat reinforcements from tho East fronts was moonshine mistaken for fact- by a dreamy correspondent suddenly awakened. The Italians are not behaving as if the fear of numbers wero impeding the carrying put of great conceptions of war.

Food control, aerial preparation on a vast scale, the absolute stoppage of the possibility of supplies of any kind going to Germany in neutral ships, the training of Polish levies, the preparation of a great army, and the prodigal supply of money and munitions to the Allies, together with the completion of the vast industrial organisation of the United States—these form the staple of the American news budget to-day.

At the other side of the world, in Greece, we see the dawning of Constitutional Government, free from any taint of the absolutism practised by Constantine. If Venizeios prevails, such a regime will be established before long, with every possibility of getting the Greek Army fighting with full strength for the advance of Greece free and independent by the side of Sarrail’s army. On the whole the week-end shows the war in a satisfactory light. The Central Powers make no headway in the field, unable to take advantage of the Russian disorder, and the Balkan difficulty is clearing. The only unsatisfactory spot is the submarine piracy. That, however, is unsatisfactory without being deadly-