NOTES ON THE CABLES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16946, 7 March 1917, Page 5

NOTES ON THE CABLES.

By Shrapnel,

THE SOMME FRONT. Beyond small engagements, suggestive of a pair of boxers sparring for openings, nothing exciting is reported in the cables today. Tho two advances on the Sommo that wcro reported yesterday havo been made with a viow to outflanking strong German positions west and south of Bapaume. .Between Raucomb and Bouchavcsnes tho British thrust has been made with a view to turning tho strongly organised German s>osition in tho wood south of Saillisel. That wood, known as Bois do St. Pierre Yaast, extends south from Saillisol to tho east of Raucourt, and is about a mile long in that direction and averages about lialf-a-mile in width. It is situated on lu'gh ground between the Pcronne-Bapaumo road and tho Tortille, a tributary of tho Sonuno flowing south through Moislain, and joining the Sonime about a mile and a-half west ol L'cronno.

Between the Tortillo and tho British positions on tho slightly higher ground between Saillisel and Bouchavcsncs there are two woods—St. Pierre Vaast and Vaux. The latter wood affords good concealment for the German artillery of the heavier kind, and the other wood for machine guns and small quickfirers. To advance against St. Pierre Vaast Wood frontally in face of innumerable easily concealed machine-gun emplacements would be exceedingly costly, and tho plan of tho British General Staff is to outflank the position both north and south, and at the samo time to drench the wood with shrapnel and high explosive shells. Tho German • position thero is probably one of the strongest I between Peronno and Bapaume, and the whole German line from the north of Gueudeoourt to Moislains, a distanco with its irregularities covering a little over eight miles, appears to bo very stubbornly held by the enemy. The reason is clear. Any marked advance by the British eastward of the eightmile lino contains three elements of danger to tho German front on the BapaumePeronno sector. It would increase tho development of tho double-turning movement against Bapaurne and Peronne very dangerously in each case, and would be a step towards cutting the lateral trunk railway that circles round the country behind the German lines and out of the reach of the British guns. That railway, which is fed by radial lines from Lille and Cambrai, links Peronno with Bapaume, and is of great strategical importance to the German positions between it and the British. If the weather were clearer, jt would be found that the British airmen would be giving great attention to bombing that railway and its junctions with other lines. As tho weather improves both aerial and terrestrial conditions, it will bo found that heavy fighting will tuko place along the sector described. Every step forward east of the line from Le Transloy to Moislains threatens not only Baipaume and Peronne, but the whole German position in Franco west of tho Lille-Cambrai-Verdun lino. The advance oast of Gommeoourt has advantages more distinctly its own, but also bears upon the German position at Bapaume co-ordinately with tho recent advances on both banks of the Ancre. Tho German positions to the north of Gommeeourt, although now becoming uncomfortably salient, aro not yet dangerously so. They are upon high ground and very strongly protected with long prepared redoubts and strong entanglements. Since, however, tho salient between Bapaume and Arras has become so greatly narrowed, as soon as the heavy metal of tho British is in position along tho Ancre a cross fire from three directions—north, west, and south—should make the German quarters very uncomfortable and very dangerous to hold long. British operations there are being carried out to make safer the approaches to the north of Bapaume. When the AlbertBapaume double line along tho Ancre valloy is repaired—a work which will be going on as rapidly as time will permit—the British system of supply west of Bapaume will be vastly improved.

OTHER WESTERN SECTORS. ' On the other parts of tho west front raids are general, and, whenever the weather permits, airmen are scouting and bombing behind tho German lines. All this work is connected with tho projected advance, the time for which is rapidly approaching. The increased activity in .both forms of recohnaisance is duo to tho improvement in the weather and to the, fact that tho Allies have now nearly everything in train for attacldng with all their forces. It is, however, to be remembered that it is probable that there will bo no sudden development at a given moment. More than likely tho plan is to increaso the pressure very steadily all along the line with tho view of straining the wholo front by a steady increase in the intensity of tho pressuro to reduco the German reserve strength until the line shows a tendency to waver. When that condition is observed, there will bo a heavy concentration upon points of strategical valuo and a break made that will, it is hoped, shatter the whole system of German defence on the west. From the activity on both sides near Verdun, it seems that tho Germans are very apprehensive about the conditions on that sector. They will have to watch carefully more than ono sector in the north and on the eastern side of France—probably more than they will have the strength to defend.

POLITICIANS ON SALONIKA. In the British Parliament there has been a debate on the Salonika expedition, and judging by the parts of the discussion cabled from London, there seems still to be a lack of co-ordination in the ranks of the Allies, and what is worse, the lack of an individual brain with an insight into tho principles of far-reaching strategical movements on distant fronts in such a°war as tho one that grips tho wholo of Europe in its clutches. Brigadier-general H. Page Croft seems to have a very short view, and a politician named S. W. W, R. Pringie seems to think that a dogmatic "expression of opinion is all thai is necessary to prove that the expedition is worse than useless. If such men's opinions axe allowed to have weight there will bo another' and worse position than we have seen at Gallipoli and Mesopotamia. Is it possible that those men who glibly 'air their opinions in, debate do not know that General JSarrail is holding immobilised almost tho whole Bulgarian army, two divisions of Turks, and perhaps more when Constantinople is' considered', several divisions of Austrians, and nearly half a division of Germans? If Hindenburg saw the Allies being withdrawn from Salonika, ho would metaphori.eally go insane with joy, and so would the German General Staff. Nothing would please Hindenburg better than to have the whole Bulgarian army to throw against the Russian left flank, and for tho German Staff to have tho free control of the iEgean Sea for submarine bases. There would soon be a very disastrous change in the operations against the Kusso-Rumanians and against the British and Russians in the Miduls East.