THE BALKAN POSITION.

Wanganui Herald, Volume L, Issue 14743, 23 October 1915, Page 4

THE BALKAN POSITION.

GERMAN DIPLOMACY DEFEATED. The writer of war notes in the N.Z. Times says: The Allies have junctiom-d with ill# Servian tioo|w in the east, whim were holding up the Bulgarian attack: they have secured the railway communications, and they are advancing in mo divisions. One of these is moving p, 100 support of the Servian armies in i.m north, while the other eu-operat.* iv.im the other Servian troops in a movement for crushing the Bulgarian army in NorthEast Servia. The dreaded blow has fallen in the Balkans, and after a tow days we see the unexpected. The Austro-Oeman and Bulgarian armies were to have crushed tho Servian- armies between them. But the former, after desperate attempts to advance. hflVO‘ been . pressed back near the Danube, and the latter after heavy fighting to (1) break in on: the Servian rear, and (2) interpose between tho Allied army ;of Salonika and tho Serbian forces, is busily fortifying. Sofia. In other words, the invaders of Servia. aro now acting pn the defensive. The tables are turned. Tho nest move will be—and we believe immediately—the addition of Greece to tho Entente side, bringing the defence. < f the Balkan road to Constantinople up to overwhelming strength. The Allies have intimated plainly that they will permit no other course; the King knows that they have power to < ako him off his tlirone; the faction behind liim understands that tho Greek army is the Greek people; both have tho opportunity to save face by accepting the offer of Cyprus, which the Orpelw.have coveted from time immemorial, tho .possession of which must greatly strengthen their position in tho Mediterranean and, with other islands that aro open, give them command of the whole coast of Asia Minor as completely as they possessed it in tho days of Alexander’s EmpireThese 'developments unmask the Germanic plan of this Balkan campaign. The idea was, it is now apparent, to sweep through Servia with on army of . overwhelming dimensions, hammering and 'slaShihg' its way through to Turkey. It was to give, by the advance of a much less, but still formidable force, the signal for tho movement of the Bulgarian and Greek forces, and very probably the Roumanian army also, which would, after tho destruction ’of the Servian armies, have made an overwhelming combined expedition’ for operating in Turkey. This, bringing munitions with'it, would have galvanised the Turkish armies into life, and there would have been a couple of million bayonets for tho great Oriental designs of the Kaifeer. The German diplomacy informed, there can be no doubt, Berlin that the grotind was prepared sufficiently to make sure that thy movement of the Balkan armies would follow the preconcerted sight!. But the diplomacy of the Allies—which the scuttlers of London persist in pronouncing a failure—penetrated the design. The pressure of,that diplomacy torofd Bulgaria to throw off the mask before Greece was ready—for Greece it is now quite certain was in the plot—and lifefore, tho Greek preparations were complete; a further move of the Allied diplomacy secured an entry for the force* of tliaffentehte ot Salonika, forces the gatherof which had been skilfully hidden from the wonderful diplomacy; and still more wonderful secret service of the Prussian megalomaniac. „ i IWljQh 'the efffcct wid be on Rouqmuia is hot difficult to guess. The Germanic strength in Servia ( not being overwhelming, is not likely to appeal to her. The growing armies of the Allies, the addition of the Greek troops to‘their forces, and the retirement of the Bulgarian army to defend the capital and prevent or make revolution, as the case may be, must, on the other hand,bo very impressive. At the same time, tho steady advance of the Russian armies on the Galician border, must lie even more impressive to the Roumanian imagination. And to-dav the report m that the Austrians have been- compelled by the Russian advance to evacuate Crernbwitz. the capital of Bukqwina, hard by the Roumanian border.' On the whole, the Balkans do uot today seem a healthy place for the policy Of "scuttle” beloved, by. the-Morleya and the Milners and the other busyhodiea. who want to tinker the British Empire out of existence. * ■