THE COLONIST. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 2, 1915. THE SPIRIT OF THE SERBS.

Colonist, Volume LVII, Issue 13783, 2 June 1915, Page 4

THE COLONIST. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 2, 1915. THE SPIRIT OF THE SERBS.

There have been no further tidings a« yet of the strong Serbian army equipped with formidable, artillery which a Vienna message last week reported to be on the march to the frontier. A considerable time has elapsed, indeed , r since any news of warlike movements has been received from the stricken Balkan kingdom, from which the only recent intelligence has related to the appalling anguish and misery cf its inhabitants. The initiation of a new offensive, however, is quite consistent with the past record and indomitable spirt of the Serbs, whom no oppression and disaster have yet deprived of the power to strike, and if an army can be mustered another Serbian effort1 to embarrass the Austrian s at the present juncture is higjhly probable. What Belgium has done and suffered is known to all the world, but what Serbia has suffered and accomplished is much less clearly understood. Examination proves the great value of the services rendered to the Allies by the Serbians. Not only have they successfully defended, their own territory, but they have prevented the Austrian contact with Bulgaria and Turkey j evidently th© pre-arranged plan; they have prevented the passage of munitions of war and troops to Turkey ; and 3 finally, they have forced Austria to devote a very large proportion of her forces to the task of dealing with her small neighbour. Extraordinary figures are available, writes Mr. W. A. Stead in the London "Daily Express,'' to prove that the Austrian concentration against Serbia absorbed ~ a large proportion of her best troops. In the first invasion between 600,000 and 700,000 men- took part, including picked army corps from Croatia, the Tyrol, Bosnia and Hungary. In the second invasion at least 300,000 men were engaged. The first invasion cost Austria 175,000 men, and the secend 125,000 men and enormous stores. Thus Serbia has already inflicted losses on the enemy equivalent to the whole strength of the Serbian army at the beginning of the war, and she is yet by no means at the end of her military resources. Serbia has won two great pitched battles with decisive results, and twice she has hurled back the invaders;. but to the British people, who have no direct contact with the war with Austria, the effect appears to be remote. It suffices, however, to grasp the fact that the defeat of Austria has weakened the German power of offensive, and must in the future weaken her power of defence, to make us realise that, while we are fighting Germany, the defeat of Austria by Serbia must have an enormous influence on the end of the two empires, the Austrian and the Turkish. Probably no country was less well equipped at the beginning of the war, and it is also probable that no country is so entirely and so intensely national. In .Serbia, says Mr. Stead, one feels the whole atmosphere to be charged with an electric instinct making for heroism and universal sacrifice. In this country everyone is at war. There is no one who is not directly affected. It is a stupendous revelation of the power of a unanimous people, and an object lesson in the history of nations: It forces on one the conviction that many great nations, rich, arrogant and self-suffic-ient, have much to learn from such small States, formerly ignored and despised. What the Serbian army has done has been done alone. No allied forces have come to her aid as in

Belgium