THE SALONIKA FRONT.

Otago Witness, Issue 3278, 10 January 1917, Page 15

THE SALONIKA FRONT.

A Salonika British official report states: We successfully raided the villago of Kcupri. The navy bombarded positions at Semultoei, on Lake Ovikia. There is bad weather in Macedonia, whero there is lively mutual artillery work. The British successfully operated against Kupri, near the Sercs-Demirhissar railway. The British fleet bombarded Akarvika and Semuntoltos, south of Lake Orfano. The Admiralty reports that naval aeroplanes wrecked a span of the Kuleli Burgas railway bridge over the Maritza River. The Daily Mail urges the partial or complete withdrawal of the .Salonika expedition, which is a burden equalling Gallipoli, playing the enemy's game, weakening the Allies, and achieving no good, while troops, warships, and shipping are needed elsewhere. The malarious climate is prejudicial to tho health of the troops. "German reports," it continues, "suggest that 200,000 Bulgarians are holding up 450,000 allied troops. Tho allied army might well have turned tho scale in tho west in 1916. Germany's vulnerable point on the great Balkan railway is nowhere within our reach, and between Salonika and that railway there stretches an expanse of roadless mountains which no modern army is able to traverse. The Germans have railways; wo lack them. The Germans also have secure communication with no fear of submarines. The allied armies would bo delighted if the Salonika mistake were undone."