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Timaru Herald, Volume CIII, Issue 15743, 30 August 1915, Page 6

Reuters correspondent gives a further account of the receut offensives at the Dardanelles. The Turks claim t.hat the ground won was of small importance, as every advantage of position still remains with them. The statement of a participant in the great attack, that lie never saw so many white-haired men before, shows tliail the Turks must he hard put to it for reinforcements, and the outlook is promising- in other ways. A few days ago it was reported that the" British lines in France had been extended, which, if true, would be the strongest indication of large new forces in the field. To-day a message from the Russian Foreign Minister contains the statement that Russia has " implicit faith in tie ultimate issue of the impending campaign in the west." The Allies have been only waiting, we can hope, till they had such forces and munitions ready as would give a new offensive every prospect of complete success. Yery soon there should be real news from the western front, if the bombardments chronicled to-day are not it's prelude.

The Russians news requires that we should put the best faith we have in the suggested policy of " protracted mobility." The Germans are increasing' their efforts in the Riga district and against Vilna. They have been held so far, but if Yilna is pressed it will not be defended. Evacuation, we are told, will be again the policy. Brest Litovsk was evacuated, after the forts had been destroyed and most valuable materials removed. The Russians are now falling back at almost all points, fighting rearguard actions as they go- They have had to yield some ground even on the Zlota Lip.a, east of Lemberg, where a new offensive has been opened by the Austrians. The hold which they have on Galicia is not large, but the loss of it would not be encouraging to Roumania, which might be expected to come in soon on the Allies' side. The South Wales miners have chosen the worst time for a new strike.

Germany lias civen some sort of promise that she will modify her methods of submarine piracy, in deference to American protests. How submarines can be used to capture merchantmen in a leg'al way, without danger to their crews, is not explained. Nothing could be worth less than a German promise, in any case but President "Wilson may accept + .his one if the alternative is war with Germany. He is not likely to accent it if the condition is attached that America shall bring- pressure to bear on Great Hri tain to make her alter her blockade. The German Foreign Office tried before to brine pressure to bear on the British Government, t-broiiffli America, and was told in answer fhat it was outside the Germans' Drovince to dismiss the relations of America with a third power.

The British blockade hurts, it is very clear, and the German blockade, so called, which has no lesral standing l of any kind, does not hurt annrecinblv. Germany may be willing 1 to seem reason-

able now because she wants peace if she can get Tood terms, and criminality does not make friends of would-be peace-makers. vShe may fear the result on Balkan negotiations of a rupture with America, or nossibly she has learned to recognise that her submarine game is not worth th© candle. According to an American journal the British havo been catching- submarines in traps, modelled on a common type of fish trap, with dimensions increased to suit the size of the new species of "shark." They have been destroyed in other ways, and a German naval critic has admitted that their game is constantly more difficult to play. :

The British blockade on ths otiher hand has been most effective- In March 1914, Germany obtained cotton from America to the value of £900,000. In March' 1915, according to the American, export figures, she did not p-efc one ounce: the amount which went to Holland was reduced from £500.000 to £12,000 worth; and. according to the American "World's Work," if all American copper sent to other countries in Europe were transhipped to Germany, it would only represent about one fourth of" Germany's normal supply. That blockade will not be relaxed for any German protests.