CURRENT WAR TOPICS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXX, Issue 50, 2 June 1916, Page 5

CURRENT WAR TOPICS.

The Verdun struggle is assuming a new phase. The Germans, finding their efforts to rush through at Mort Homme and Hill 304 a failure, have admitted the superiority of the French by adopting a new line of attack. It is reported to-day that they have renounced the attempt at Mort Homme and are seeking for a new opening in the Chattancourt district. This is still on the west side of the Meuse. but to the eastward of their recent assaults, the real centre of battle having been between Avocourt Wood and Mort Homme along a front of about three miles. Mort Homme and Hill 304 are separated by a deep and narrow valley of the Forges brook, but

the Germans know too much to at- % tempt to fight in such country. They have now given up the attempt to take ■ the Hill from the point of Cumieres Wood, and will operate in a more southerly direction. The relinquishment of their offensive in this quarter will he a severe blow to their prestige, especially when it is remembered that the Kaiser indulged in much vain-glori-ous boastings about their intentions.

It is well at this stage'to recall some of the principal movements in' this great battle. ' As long ago as the middle of March the Germans pushed down from Forges' through Crows' Wood to the base of Mort Homme and

on March 24 began their attacks. The enemy have been over two months i trying to gain the summit. The desperate nature of the French defence and the enormous losses sustained by both sides', but particularly by'the Germans, may only be imagined. The strategy that has led to the attacks upon Yerdun represents an attempt to turn, the eastern fortress barrier, which includes Yerdun, -Nancy, Toul, and Epinal. The attacks which were made from Avoqourt to Mort Homme were an attempt .to turn the, strong French positions on tl}e east side of the Meuse from Bouaumont to Fort Troyoh, which held up the Crown Prince's left flank in August. 1914. By the enemy's occupation of the "heights of the Woevre, east of the Mouse, and the heights of Meuse, west of Verdun, the line of barrier fortresses would be turned. Then, given sufficient reserve strength, the threat,of the Germans towards Central France

would be so great that the French would have to withdraw from French Lorraine and the Yosges. Such is the victory the German Staff is striving to obtain, in order to rehabilitate the reputation of the Crown Prince and to restore the diminishing fame of the invincibility of the German war machine.

Items appearing in to-day's cables show that the attempt to capture Verdun has been made with enormous forces both of men and shells. Q f late, as many as 300,000 shells of large calibre have been hurled against the trenches and fortified positions of the French every day. What fearful destruction these are capable of effecting! What must life be in the defenders' trenches and dug-outs! No surer sign of the determination of France io fight to the last drop of blood could be given to the world than these days and nights of horrors and modern war's alarms. Add to the shell-loosening, the numerous attacks by the million men whom Germany is stated to have brought to the Verdun front even since February 21, and further evidence will not bo wanting of the grim struggle for the sake of her own and Europe's freedom that is being put up by our French Allies.

The TYentino campaign continues to make unpleasant reading for the supporters of the Allies. The Italian Gen eral, Cadorna, admits violent attach at several points, most of which he was able to repulse, but at others the Ital ians were- forced to fall back, and two or three towns have been evacuated The Austrians in their latest communique claim to have captured no less than 30,000 men and 300 guns. What is evidently an attempt to relieve the pressure upon our'Allies, or the time is ripe for the Russians to take the offensive, is disclosed in a short message from a German source, in this case making it doubly reliable, to die effect that increased activity is notice able among the forces of the Russians in Yolhynia and Bessarabia. This i? where a renewed offensive in the Oj!ieian opeiatioiis agaiiiot the Austrian? may be looked for,

No part of "Italia irredenta" is so undeniably Italian as the Trentino. Iu blood, customs, tradition, and language its people are as Italian as any living in Northern Italy, and nowhere else outside Italy has the Italian spirit and loyalty to the cause of nationalism been so enthusiastically preserved. In the Istrian Peninsula,though the great centre, Trieste, is Italian in life and spirit, the surrounding territory is more or less mixed; but the Trentino is Italian through and through. It is, and in some respects even more so, Italy's Alsace-Lorraine. Dante, Avhose statue in the city of Trent was reported to have been defiled and blown up by the Austrians in the middle of last year, is the prophet as well as the poet if the Trentini. He embodies their national aspirations, and in statuette or picture he figures in most of their homes. The province has a large population and an unlimited water supply, and might be expected to develop under a freer Italian Government industries as valuable and prosperous as those in any part of Italy. But before the war the Trentini were living in the midst of • uncertainty and oppression, and this must be Very much more the case now. .... i