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Show PROGRESS OF THE WAR. i Military observers are watching with extreme curiosity the extension of the Teutonic operations agaiust tho Rumanians. Experts have staked their reputations on the dictum that the war must be won on the western and eastern east-ern fronts, but practically the Teutons have abandoned offensives on these fronts and just now, if we may use a football term, are making "a run around the end." From a military viewpoint it may be considered a correct cor-rect move if it can be so developed as to turn the flank of the Russian posi tions in Bukowiua and Galicia and j thus force the Russians far back into 1 their own territory, making a rectification rectifica-tion of the entire eastern front necessary. neces-sary. Nevertheless the experts are puzzled.. puz-zled.. They have no adequate explanation explana-tion to offer for the continued Rumanian Ruma-nian offensive, for thoy see no immediate imme-diate military benefits. And yet the spokesmen of- the central empires have set their trumpets to their lips to announce an-nounce that Von Mackensen intends to drive into Russian Bessarabia and as far as the mighty Black sea port of Odessa. If the military observer can devise no satisfactory explanation the economic eco-nomic observer may be able to afford him a little help. Rumania is a granary; gran-ary; so, too, is the Odessa district of Russia, and the central powers need food. Already the Teutons have occupied occu-pied parts of Rumania populated by more than 3,000,000 people. The food of these people has been taken from them and is being shipped into Germany Ger-many and Austria-Hungary, but it probably prob-ably is not enough. A further drive must be made; new storehouses must be captured and Odessa's agricultural riches present an alluring prospect. The ultimate direct military advantage advan-tage is not without importance, but it is trivial compared with the immediate importance of acquiring new sources of food supply if, as the economists arc beginning to suspect, the central em- j pires have arrived at a stage of the war when they are able no longer to feed themselves until the next crop is harvested. ' i Before the war Germany produded about 80 per cent of the grains it con- j sumed; 0 per cent was imported. Any nation can reduce its consumption 20 ! per cent under the pressure of neces-! sity, but it cannot reduce it 50 per cent and havo Supplies enough year after year. That Germany's production has been reduced below the level of SO per cent of consumption is more than probable; prob-able; it is almost a practical certainty. In the years just prior to the war Germany Ger-many imported more than 10,000,000 metric tons annually of manurial materials ma-terials and potential manures such as animal foods, fodders, oil cakes and meals. Tho absence of these materials must have reduced the productivity of tho land far below the 80 per cent standard. By way of Switzerland reports re-ports have come out of Germany that average production of rye would be ten to eleven quintals (2205 pounds) per hectare instead of fifteen to sixteen quintals (3307 to 3527 pounds), the usual production. Tho reduction here expressed is about one-third, and if that reduction were applied to all the other crops the seriousness of the shortage would become obvious. The allies set out at the beginning of hostilities with three main plans for the defeat of the enemy. The central empires were to be beaten either financially, finan-cially, economically or militarily, or by all these means working in conjunction. conjunc-tion. Is it possible that while the Teutonic Teu-tonic powers are still strong, even vie torious, in arms, and far from weak financially, they may now be on the edge of absolute collapse economically? Is it possible that they have not enough food and fuel for another year of war? It is,, of course, out of the question to answer these questions ex cathedra. We are limited to deductions we can make from the evidence at hand, and that evidence, so far as it comes from central Europe, is meager. But we feel that the evidence is sufficient to afford a likely explanation of tho Rumanian drive. Tho Teutons, not content to rest for the winter on their Rumanian laurels, continue to fight furiously against the Russians and Rumanians along the new line of defense from the Transylvaniau Alps to the Black sea. Having captured Buzeu, the Teutons pressed northward along the railroad to Rimnik-Sarat and drove out the Russians after a series of costlT encounters. Von Mackensen drove forward in Dobrudja slightly and in the Transylvanian Alps the Teutons have crushed in the extremo right flank of the Russo-Rumanian line in this region, re-gion, capturing a series of heights. There is another explanation of the drive which we have indicated in other articles. It may bo that Russia is so depleted of ammunition that she cannot can-not stop a resolute and sustained Ten-tonic Ten-tonic offensive. If so, there is an excellent excel-lent chance the Teutons will be in Odes-fa Odes-fa before the winter ends. In Franco the British have taken over another sector of the French lines, probably all of the French front on the Sommo. Should the Somme offensive be renewed in the spring it may be that only British soldiers will take part in it. The extending of the British liue enabled the French to mass reserves re-serves in tho Verdun region for an offensive. of-fensive. About the only important development de-velopment on the Verdun front this week was the attack by the Germans along a front of two miles in tho area near Dead Man hill. They appear to have captured several lines of intrench-ments intrench-ments and to have held their gains. British operations have been confined to elaborate raids on first liue trenches of the foe. The British are Becking to keep as many of the enemy occupied as the state of the weather will permit. per-mit. British mounted troops, aided by aircraft; air-craft; captured a stronghold of the Turks at Maghdaba, twenty miles southeast of El Arish, which the British Brit-ish had occupied on December 21. Thoy took 1350 prisoners out of a total Moslem Mos-lem force of 2000.- Most of the others were killed or wounded. The British casualties were reported as light. |