THE WAR.

Southland Times, Issue 17657, 15 February 1916, Page 4

THE WAR.

The general military position at the present time is not unsatisfactory to the Allies. For the time being at auyrate, the enemy seems to have reached a dead end. Nowhere is he making progress. The offensive in the west has been brought quickly to a standstill. The enemy can make no impression there. He has lost heavily in men, and whatever advantage he may have gained temporarily the French have recovered all lost ground by vigorous counter-attacks. On the Eastern front the initiative is decidedly with the Russians, who are pounding away at Czernowitz. The brevity of the messages from the Eastern and Westeran fronts is somewhat remarkable, considering the severity of the fighting which is taking place. The news has been restricted to short, bald bulletins which are informative only in the light of previous experience. But for our knowledge of numerous previous attacks and counter-attacks of the sort we should be quite deceived by these brief announcements. For some reason or other no attack lias yet been made on Salonika. The delay is due possibly to differences of opinion between the Gormans and the Bulgarians and the Turks, possibly to apprehension as to Romnania’s next move. Whatever the reason may lie, the enemy's thrust has lost momentum. The expedition against Egypt was evidently not ready in time to lake advantage of the favourable season this year, and it now looks as if it has been abandoned. The Turkish commander and the Germans do not see quite eye to eye in this matter. Even in Mesopotamia, where the enemy seemed to have General Townshend’s forces in a very tight corner, the enemy is unable to achieve any decided success. Since the winter set in with full severity, the Italian front lias faded quite out of the picture, and hostilities there are very nearly at a standstill. The general position illustrates the Allies’ strategical idea, it is the idea of a spiders web. Jt gives to every rush of the victim, but in variably recovers when his energy is spent. The victim exhausts himself in his fight with the net, which yields everywhere but

never breaks. The Germans are iff the Allies’ web, and when their strength is spent they will be held fast at the Allies’ mercy.