OCR Text |
Show I ; PROGRESS OF THE WAR. I Although seven weeks have passed ' . since the Teutonic armies began the in- t ! vasion of Serbia and the allied armies j began their landing at Salouiki, the ai- 4 lies have not yet been able to assume c ; a definite and sustained offensive. They i have been forced to defend a few miles c of territory in southeastern Serbia jj against a great army of Bulgarians, and I ; thus have been prevented froin joining I hands with the Serbians except in the e . extreme southwestern corner of Serbia, c 1 that is to say, in the region of Monastir. i Early in the week the Serbians who I ' were defending Babuua pass with only jj a few thousand men, were compelled to retire because their left flank had been turned. The Serbians were not in suf- E fieient force to meet the new attacks, y and although they had held the pass ' stubbornly against all frontal attacks ... v. - they could not maintain their positions : when their rear was threatened by Bul- c garian forces which seized Krushevo, -s near the western boundary of Serbia. E ; The Serbs fell back to Prilep and then a ' abandoned that towu, retiring to the out- t skirts of Monastir. The situation at ; Monastir is in doubt. A few days ago1 j i it was reported that the English were 0 sending heavy reinf'orcenients to VIon- 1 : astir to aid the Serbians. Then came the report that Monastir had been taken. : This was denied, and one of the latest dispatches is to the effect that the Ser- C bians have been able to advance to a s ; point four and a half miles north oi r Monastir. In any event, the Serbians who fought in and around Babuna pass havo been pressed close to the Greek I" , border, and unless the allies can give pow-prful assistance will be driven across the line into Greece. J " To the east of Monastir and beyond y a dividing range of mountains the alLes A hold an extended line, and have had J several fierce battles with the 'Bulgars. The attacks have nearly all come from ;' the Bulgarian side, and all have been i ' repulsed, according to dispatches from j j Salouiki. On the other hand, the French . I have been able to occupy several Bul- : '. parian positions, but nothing of great I . vnlue has been accomplished by the al- 1 1 lies in their efforts to rescue the Ser- . bians. I' J In the north things have been going I t badly for the Serbians and Montene- j grins. The plan of campaign adopted t by the Teutons and Bulgarians has been i! flawless up to da'e. The delay in earry- j ing it to a conclusion has been due to jf - the desperate lighting qualities of the i Serbs and Montenegrins,, The Bulgarians drove a great wedge t betweeu the Serbians operating in the south aud those operating in the north. ; 1 Then the Bulgars opened out the wedge, I. ! so to speak, and pressed one side to the i' north and the other to the south. This t southern wvlge has now penetrated tu ; Monastir. The purpose in moving the - . other side of the wedge to the north was i to catch the northcru Serbian armies in 1 - a vice. While the Bulgars pressed, up L ' from the south the Teutons pressed down from the north. 1 1 To meet this menace the Serbians con- f. centrated a strong force at Katchanik v to meet the Bulgars, and have been able v i to maintain themselves in this region, : sometimes being forced back and at other times driving the foe back. From v the north the Teutonic drive has con- J v tuiued without serious check, except in I v. the region of the Montenegrin border. P So stubborn was the resistance of the "Montenegrins and the Serbs that ! . they have been able to 'reserve a way i out in case of ultimate defeat. It is v true that the line of retreat is a bad : ' one. hut if it can be employed to A save the Slav armies from extinction it . - will give them an opportunity to fight iiooiher day. The line of retreat is into I southern Montenegro and into Albania. By this route the Slavs can reach the Adriatic coast and depart on transports ) if they are unable to hold a line in Mori s frifgrn and Albania. When they have r'ahed a point near the coast t li oy can receive aid from their allies. The peril in Albania is that the Albanians will stab them in the back, but as the Serbians Ser-bians are much better armed than the ( marauders of Albania, the latter cannot ,f, seriously interfere with the retreat. f '' The Italians appear to have made ' ,o definite progress in their advance or. Gorizia. After nearly six months of f"diou-i operations they have ptiyhed their lines so far forward that now they are able not only to deluge the bridgehead bridge-head on the Isonzo river with their heaviest shell?, but they are now dropping drop-ping shells into the city itself. Tht Austrian report states that in the last few days the Italians have sent cliwO shells into Gorizia, doing a vast amount of damage and killing many civilians. 'The Italian report indicates that the shells were directed against points of military importance, such as barracks tor soldiers. The fall of Gorizia, which the ltouytns have been expecting for several sev-eral months, seems to be within grasp at last. Once they have seized it the Italians will havo made it possible to gain control immediately of most of the territory they claim in this region, but it is reasonable to assume that the Aus-trians Aus-trians havo prepared new positions of immense strj'.igta not far to the east tf Gorizia. It is evident that the Italians aie increasing in-creasing their pressure at many points, and they are resorting to infantry attacks at-tacks more frequently aud in greater force. This has beon made possible by the slow, cautious but effective methods of advance whicn they have employed. They have cleared the way with the minimum of loss possible under such difficult dif-ficult circumstances. In France the fighting has been con fined largely to artillery contests aud mining operations, although there have been some infantry engagements cf a more or less'serions character. The principal prin-cipal event in France has been the meeting meet-ing of the joint war council. The English Eng-lish cabinet committee, to which haa been consigned ;the real couduc" of the war, crossed the channel and conferfd with the French council of war. Among those present on the Trench side was General J off re, the commander in chief in the field. It is hint3d that when the next council of war is held Bussiau deli-gates deli-gates will be present. The purpose of the meetings is to "o-ordinato all naval and military activities so as to attain the maximum of efficiency. On the eastern front the .Russians have won in the north and lost in the south. In the neigaborhooi of Higa they have pressed their advantage against Von Hiudeuburg and have rendered ren-dered nugatory his efforts to approach nearer to the coveted city. In the sotnh the Teutons have driven the Slavs across the river Styr. The Russians think they have discovered a contiuual thinning of the German line, and they assume tha the German general staff is forced to withdraw soldiers from Russia to protect pro-tect the western and Italian fronts and to fill in the gaps in Serbia. Meantime the Russians are training several million recruits who will be ready for active service next spring, when, it is hoped by the Russian general staff, there will be sufficient equipment and ammunition for a general advance to recover lost territory. In the vicinity of Rumania the Russians Rus-sians still strongly hold advanced posi-tion. posi-tion. They fear to permit the Teutons to gain any advantage in that direction lest the Rumanians be led to allign themselves with the Teutonic coalition. General Kitchener has visited all the bases in the near east and has called on King Constantine of Greece. lie has formed an opinion, no doubt, as to what should be done on the Gallipoli peninsula penin-sula and in Greece and Serbia, but his report probably will not get to the public for some weeks. . The battle of the diplomats continues to be interesting. While it has subsided to some extent in the Balkans, it shows unwonted activity in Asia Minor and Persia. We read that Djemel Pasha has started a revolution against Turkey among the Arabs, and if this be true it can be ascribed to the machinations of entente agents. Undoubtedly the allies would be willing to finance any formidable formid-able revolution freely. In Persia tht Russians have combined military operations opera-tions with diplomatic pressure in an effort ef-fort to stop the pro-German propaganda. An arm' of Muscovites has advanced to a point near Teheran and has duly impressed the Persian authorities. This suggests that the allies are learning the lesson of success from their diplomatic failures in the Balkans, where they relied re-lied solely upon statecraft, while Germany Ger-many won prestige by dis'plays of mighty military power. It is said that the Persian Per-sian government has promised Russia to top all activities of German agents in Persia and to give the cousuls aud other agents of the allied nations propei protection. ,On the seas the submarine warfare has continued actively. The Germans and Austrian have bagged two English gunboats, gun-boats, an English auxiliary war vessol of small size and several more Italian craft. In the Xorth sea the English have lost some vessels by mines and torpedoes, chiefly the hospital ship Anglia. In the Baltic the British submarines do not seem to be finding as many targets as usual. |