ARMY OF THE ORIENT.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 14245, 13 March 1917, Page 8

ARMY OF THE ORIENT.

CUTTING OF RAILROAD TO BERLIN WQULD tfE^HERALD OF THH END.

(By Gordon Gordon-Smith.)

Headquarters of the First Division, Second .Serbian. Army, Serbian Frontier, January 27. — I suppose many people abroad wonder at the apparently slow progress made by the army of the Orient under tlie orders &f General Sarrail. They measure off the distance on the map between Salonika and .Sofia and cannot understand why they are not already in the Bulgarian capital. They reckon, out the number of hundreds ;of thousands of men under General Sarrall's command and fail to see why they should not make short work of King Ferdinand's army. ' j : I do not know the exact strength of the army of the Orient, and would not state it if I did. What is, and remain^, a profound mystery to everyone of the Salonika front is thrtt the. Allies should not pump unlimited numbers of -troops to- tlie east* Tiiat it is far and away the most important of all the fronts, 'in view of the immense results it may attain, seems to he patent to the meanest intelligence.* The- most damaging Uoy tor in the preseh't war is the comparative isolation of Russia;, the difficulty she has ire sending her surplus troops to ahy but the western front, and the long detours that must be made to- supply her with munitions. .:.....- i A DIRECT ROUTE CUT. ' As long as direct: railroad communication betWieeh Constantinople and Berlin exists,- Turkey will hold the fieJd, and the Dardanelles will r&maih closed. Thus* tlie mail* route' between "Europe and Russia 'is -cut. ■•-• Russia cannot obtain the supplies of /munitiohb she' desires, and the Allied Powers -ore deprived of the immense resources in food, which for two years must have been piling up iin. Southern Russia, unable to find ah out«let. ■ .. • ,- ■:■'.-..:■•■■ .- • «. The cutting of the • Berlin-Constanti;-nople railroad is the beginning of the end of the war. Two months after 'it tnkes place Turkey is "down and out,* and Bulgaria is eliminated from the list pi' belligerents. ' j<Seranany will bo dejprived of the immense resources in food and men she at present draws from Serbia, Bulgaria, and Asia LMinor. Once Turkey and -Bulgaria, are put^ o\it of action, and Serbia is redeemed, the whale of the force now on the Salonika front, .in Asia Minor,- itv Mesopotamia, and Egypt would be available for the invasion .pf Hungary. *• ■;■■;■ The ' Pusta, • the .immense plain lying between Belgrade^ and Budapest, the granary of the Central Powers, is diffi-, cult to -defend. Tv contains no fort* l esses of ahy importance, and the fall of the second capital of the Austrian Em-; piro /would he -a certainty., This would, mean, the downfallof Austria, an<L. would reduce Germany -tov the position of- a besieged fortress. All this** is the logical' and- inevitable- « cohsequenoes, of <th« ; cut-' ting of ,-the Berlin-Constantinople rail- , road. . .-■•.., .REMAINS MYSTERY. Tts importance is so self-evident, thalji the" grudging fkshfori in 'which the a#my of the Orient has.lx^ reinf&rced remains a dark and fearful imystery r to' everyone on the spot. Pebple at hom^pi'ohably work out the number of thousand men of whom General Sarrail disposes, consult their authorities as:. to the ai*med strength of Bulgaria.' ahd are puzzled that the army of the Orient- does not make more progress. This is because they fail to grasp the enormpufe diffi-