PROGRESS OF THE WAR

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 9869, 15 January 1918, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

A Roman correspondent is responsible for tho story that the Vatican has suggested* to the Kaiser of Vienna that he should endeavour to induce the Kaiser of Berlin to consider the terms of President Wilson’s Message—which, by the way, has been declared by a Roman newspaper to he of much tho same tenure as the suggestion recently made by the Vatican. Is it likely f The aims of the Kaiser of Berlin,# as set forth with indisputable proof elsewhere in this issue, are for tho annexation of the occupied districts, for the confiscation of all property therein, and the enslavement of the populations that remain. This aim is endorsed by the whole German people, from top to bottom, and has the active support of the Kaiser of Vienna. The Vatican, is usually too well informed not to be aware.of these facts. The story that the Vatican has osted the Vienna potentate who has his hand in the jar to get the Berlin potentate to take his hand out is, w© suspect, a wild rumour. If it is true, it requires no brilliancy of imagination to forecast the specious fraudulent answer that will be made.

Tho revelation of the various German petitions to the Chancellor and the various State Governments of Germany for the annexation .of Belgium and Flanders in punishment of the Gorman crime of Burglarious entry is a thing that must carry far. Apply the demand to the colonial question. At the base of that question lies the repeated German declaration of the vital need for not only the restoration of the lost colonies, but the addition of large areas. The reason is that the internal balance of the German Empire requires more colonics (1) to find labour for the tropical colonies in which the local labour has beon nearly destroyed by German tyranny; (2) to find places in the Temperate Zone fit to carry the surplus Germanic population. -Cow, imagine a Germanic victory such as Wilhelm, Hmdonburg ond 00. contemplate. The result would be the annexation to Germany’s colonial empire of Australia and Now Zealand. And in these countries the whole of the property, industrial and landed, would be handed over to Gormans ; all the British inhabitants would be deprived of every pennyworth of their property, and of political rights, and their employment would be limited to temporary unskilled jobs, at a rate of wages which mav be imagined from the political powerlessness of the people concerned. Confiscation and slavery—'that is the combination that a victorious Germany intends for Now .Zealand and Australia. That is why New Zealand is doing her fair share of fighting with all her might.

Australia has not realised, and has proved untrue to herself, her freedom, her democracy, and her property. It is for her leaders to take hold of her people and make them realise the moaning of defeat, and to swing them back into the fight they ought to have been ashamed to leave. ’ '

Tho “Vorwaerts” reports that 2000 electors of a certain district are agitating that a reply shall be sent to the Vatican proposal, with a definite assurance against open and secret annexations. It is a drop of water trying to influence tho ocean to run uphill. Tito “Vorwaerts” adds that a similar movement is being organised throughout Germany. That sounds well, but what chance has the movement of uprooting the widespread desire for annexations, confiscations, and tho enslavement of annexed peoples? The "Vorwaerts” itself practically declares that tho chance is small, with its cryptic declaration that tho President’s Message, which docs not inspire confidence, may become a basis for peace negotiations if the Allies support it. The Allies, as a matter of fact, have supported it very definitely, and if the Message does not inspire confidence in Germany it can only bo because it demands just what the 2000 electors demand, and what the alleged movement is Being organised to demand, by abandonment of annexation both open and secret. It looks as if the “Vorwaerts” has accepted a command to destroy the movement with a shuffle.' Still, there may bo something in the movement.

That, of course, depends on the conditions in Germany. If these are really beyond endurance, the majority of the people who beat tho big drum of annexation when tho warriors were goose-stepping to victory may discover that the fearful losses sustained by the said warriors have burst that big annexation drum. In that case the movement may grow into a national demand for renouncing., annexation instead of spilling all the lighting blood that remains in the national body without getting anything but dire defeat. It may also encounter on' the road all the forces of Pan-Germanism madly determined to crush all opposition. That is the spirit of the Kaiser, wKo said when ho had dropped the old pilot, and had ordered “Full steam ahead,” in order to add to the trust committed to His hands, said vehemently, “Those who work to hinder me in this task I will crush.” It is the same Kaiser, and with him stands tlie Pan-Germanism which those words flattered and increased. Will the movement heard . all these people in their arsenal with a demand to renounce annexation open and secret? With a demand not to add to that trust ? It is an interesting speculation, and if the movement—checked with the shuffle of the “Vorwaerts”—grows, it may reach tho world of practical politics, from wHioh it is af. present separated by a considerable distance.

It is reported that the Bolsheviks in Russia are getting more unstable, restless and rookless. The “Daily Chronicle” correspondent says they are preparing a coup d’etat by which the Constituent Assembly will bo suppressed by the Soviet after it has been forced to hand over all power to that body, which., expects the world, after the event, to regard it as the holder of representative, power. That sounds so preposterous that one suspects the “Daily Chronicle” man of having fallen victim to a. hoax. Another story is that tho Soviet Committee has empowered all local councils to recall all members of the Constituent Assembly who disobey popular demands. That also is a trifle too mad for belief. A more {serious report tells of tho wholesale massacre of all the officers of the Black Sea Fleet by the Bolshevik sailors, in revenge for the suppression of the mutiny in the last year of Czardom. If these three stories are to be read together, it follows that Bolshevism is merging into anarchy. Bub can they be read together ? The Sebastopol massacre report mav be true, for it is on the lines of what occurred at Kronstadt soon after the Revolution broke out, when there was a massacre of the officers of the Baltio Fleet. But the other two stories require time and confirmation.

The .Russian reports, however, are not of unmixed evil. There are good signs. Siberia and the Ukraine are sending forward provisions, and the new Ukrainian Republic is considering constitutional stability in a sane and practical way. At the same time the conference at Brest Litovsk is discussing territorial and commercial questions in committee. We can form no opinion until something explodes. The mixture of German annexationist demand and Russian defiant denunciation of it—which is the last thing that saw daylight at Brest Litovsk—is decidedly explosive.

The war fronts are not startling. Sir Douglas Haig reports the usual consistency of air raid bombing of the enemy’s lines and hinterland. The Italians on their side not© something like a heavy artillery offensive against the enemy on the Piave line, with very effective British co-operation. But there is nothing to guide or encourage conjecture as to possible developments.

The Western report confirms the growing theory that the flying men are last developing into a decisive arm of the service. To-day there is a significant note in the report that the air squadrons have been raking the enemy’s trenches with machine-gun fire. It reminds one of the fact that nothing delights the birdmen more. During last year those flyers who were on the duty" of protecting observers, reconnaissances, photographing flights and bombing raids against the enemy’s air forces, developed a great aptitude for swooping down on the enemy’s lines and letting fly at his men regardless of “Archie” and all his satellites, and the High Command was very well pleased with these spontaneous tactics. Some of these flyers now call themselves the cavalry of the air. and one of them in a recent very readable recent publication signed “Contact” —ventured on a most encouraging forecast. When, said he, the enemy’s line is broken, as broken it surely will be, the cavalry of the air will fall upon his retreating battalions and convert their retreat into a hopeless rout.

He had seen the effect of those sudden descents on the trenches; he had been in “stunts” in which airmen ca telling enemy troops in the open, had so raked them with fire from heaven as it were, that they broke and fled for shelter to neighbouring woods in most astonishing fashion. He had concluded that caught in retreat nothing could save retreading infantry from norinf destruction. This fervent prognostication, based on fact, of an airman doing daily duty for months, gives body to the writers of the time who descant on the immensity of the aerial

forces which tho opening spring will see harassing the enemy in every direc tion with the greatest skill, determination and ordered purpose.

Berlin reports that a great German force has burst upon Portiiguese East Africa in the most conquering way. it is the German side of the episode narrated in the last British report, telling of the final driving of the enemy’s East African remnants into Portuguese territory, where they will probably find the end of their career under pursuit of the converging forces which have expelled them from the last and best of the German colonies. This German report is intended to make the Teutonic mind believe that the brave German defence of the, colonies is making headway. But in all probability it only heralds the disappearance of the last vestige of German armed force on' the African continent. These last Teutons and German-trained Askaris salute the world in this Berlin dispatch with the old gladiatorial pathetic “Morituri.”

A neutral returned from Germany professes to give a description of the great assault on the West front which the Gorman High Command is said to be preparing. His story is interesting. Whether it is true remains to be seen. It is not, wo may say, likely that such details as given of the objectives can be correct, for these are things that no soldier ever declares beforehand* The neutral returned traveller probably gives the gossip current in Germany about this long-threatened assault, which is in Germany expected to end the war.