NOTES ON THE WAR CABLES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17217, 21 January 1918, Page 5

NOTES ON THE WAR CABLES.

By Shrapnel

TIIE WEST FRONT CONDITIONS.

Tiio recent thaw on the west front has been followed by a blizzard which has swept across northern Europe, arid -which is said to have boon particularly severe over tho greater part of Germany. As a consequents there- is an almost total absence of front lino activities, with tho exception of German raids eastward o£ Epchy, north of St. Quciifcin. As Ktir Douglas Haig says "tho Germans raided our trenches," the enemy mid must have, been successful. In spite of the short period of daylight, British aeroplanes are keeping up their long-distance raids into Lorraine and tho German Rhino districts. Reports of the Karlsruhe, raki, which havo reached Switzerland, indicate that British and French, officers were killed during tho bombing of tho town, but that the iircs created by tho bombs were put out by tho German firo service. It has been known for eoine time that tho German military authorities havo transferred British and French prisoners to the towns of Western Germany, but the. story of tho killing of the prisoners by the raiders' bombs may bo discounted, as it conies from Germany through Switzerland, and will have been inspired by he Germans in the hope that it will deter the Allies from making further raids. The continuance of the air raids in Lorraine, in tho neighbourhood of Metz, stows that tho Allies are watching tho main trunk lines of communication and are attempting to hinder the transference of troops and stores to tho west front by tho way of Luxemburg and Lorraine. Raiding in those districts conveys tho idea that tho Allies have some inkling of the intentions of the Germans, and confirms tho impression that tho Germans intend to launch heavy attacks along the Mouse and in the Champagne.

Mr Charles Grasfcy, correspondent of tho Now York Times, who has been visiting Switzerland and Holland, expressed the opinion that tho more stringent blockade inaugurated since America entered the war has produced such straitened conditions in Germany that it has become a political and military necessity that a desperate species of warfare on tho Franco-British and Italian fronts should bo instituted, and that tho military leaders of tho Allies are expectant and ready for any of the " frightful" and varied attempts which the Germans may make. He also says that tho Germans will utilise all their submarines and send cruisers to American waters. That Germany intends to intensify her submarine campaign in order to attack tho route between the United , States and Franco may be certainly expected, but that she will send out any cruisers is doubtful. Sho may attempt to get some strongly armed auxiliary cruiser through the blockade but she will not risk losing any units of her High Seas Fleet. Germany has made an open secret of the submarine efforts she contemplates by extending tho barred zone to tho Azores and the islands off tho north-west of Africa. The increased sinkings of French vessels over 1600 tons and the decrease in the British sinkings last week may bo taken as an indication that the Germans havo already put into operation their scheme for obstructing traffic between America and France. In connection with this extension -and intensifying of strbmarino warfare in the midAtlantic it will bo necessary for British agents in Spain to keep a close watch upon the less important harbours on tho Atlantic side of Spain, and also for the Allied cruisers to watch the Moroccan and East African coasts for bases of submarine supplies.

It is unfortunate that the weather conditions arc against active operations by the British and French on the west front, because the lengthened lull is givii.g the Germans timo to withhold men-'from the front and send them to the munition works, to produce extra supplies for tho coming great struggle. If the Germans do launch an offensive on the 'west front, they will be playing tho Allies' game, which has been for the past 18 months to ontico tho Germany to come out and be killed. It will bij a proof of the dire straits in Germany if tho enemy General Staff undertakes the risk of a fresh offensive by means of which they hope to defeat tho Allies. Tho Gerir.ans have not one chance in a hundred of succeeding. All they can hope to do is by desperate sacrifices to hide their weaknesses and convince tho people- of tho Allied countries that they are uselessly holding out against Germany. That is now their main design. THE UKRAINIANS. Ukraina has declared herself a republic, and tho declaration is a challenge to the Bolshevik control of the All Russia destiny. Bolshevism seized control in tho workshops and forts and the Russian Baltic Fleet, and now the chief centres of the movement are Petrograd and Moscow. As it is chiefly a workmen and soldaers' agitation, it has adherents in Odessa and Sebastopol amongst the Muscovite workers, soldiers, and sailors. The Ukrainians are known as Littlo Russians, and tho Muscovites, or northerners, as the Great Russians, who were pan-Slavists before tho revolution. There has always been a considerable amount of enmity between the White Russians and the Great Russians, who axo tho real Slavs—that is, old Germanio tribes that have worked eastward from tho Baltic and intermixed with the older races of Finnish and Lap origin in Northern Russia.

It ia only within the last" two centuries that the Slavs have extended their dominion'over Ukraina and Southern Russia generally. The Ukrainians and Cossacks threw in their lot with Russia because of tho cruelty and oppression of the Poles, but they soon discovered that they had escaped Scylla to fall into Charybdis. They are closely allied to the people of Galicia and Bukowina, who are Ruthenians and have a language, folklore, andi culture quite distinct from that of Slavdom. Sympathetically they prefer the Austrians to the Great Russians, who have in the past done their best to obliterate every source of Ukrainian language and culture.

The so-called Cossacks are Ukrainians who became the outlaws and nomads of the Don and the Steppe country when the Poles ruthlessly ravaged their towns and plains in the south-west of Russia. The hardships of the Cossacks and their enhanced fighting qualities gained them rceognit.ion and concessions from the Czars. They were allowed to hold their lands on condition that every Cossack kept a horse and arms of his own ready to assist the Muscovites when called upon. Their loyalty to their agreement and tho conditions permitted! to them, along , with their expert horsemanship and scouting qualities made them indispensable as a part of the Muscovite armies. Whenever trouble aro.«c in any part of tho realm of tho Czars the Cossacks were the first to be called upon to restore order, and often they had to quell disorders amongst tho Muscovites themselves; as a consequence there was no love lost between Groat Russians and tho Cossacks. Within the last fifty or sixty years tho enmity of race feeling began to die down, especially on the Cossack side, but the feeling of a difference still existed. Amongst the Muscovites there has always been an impression that associated the Cossacks with the Russian police, and tho ill-feeling remained greater amongst tho Muscovite workers than among the Cossacks.

Being related by blood to the Ukrainians, and lx>ing upholders of law, order, and the ownership of land, they will undoubtedly throw their weight on the side of the new Republic of Ukraina if the Ukrainians and Bolsheviks come to blows; but they will not tolerate any German or Austrian influence or interference with their independence. Therefore, though the Ukrainians have certain sympathies with Austria, they will, in their struggles against the Bolsheviks, require the assistance of the Don, Ural, and Kuban Cossacks.

If tho Allies would push on with the conquest of Turkey nnd open the Dardanelles, they would bo able to establish a strong union of the Ukrainians and Rumanians, establish tho Ukrainian Republic on a strong basis, and enable Rumania to renew the struggle iigainst Austria. In such a struggle they would be. joined by tho Whito Russians of Polesia and the marsh country of the utrprr waters of the Dniester and Dnieper. They would also have the assistance of the ('nucosian.s on both sides of the Caucasus Mountain?. All the Caucasians want is money and arms. If they got those necessaries they would fight the Turks and help the Ukrainians and Cossacks.