| OCR Text |
Show ALLIED HIS HUE HUNS Iron Ring on All Fronts Being Drawn Tighter by Entente Arms, Troops in Russia Expected to Rally People of That Nation. By MATTHEW F. TIG-HE, Staff Correspondent Universal Service. WASHINGTON, Sept. 22. The military maps at the war department show that allied and American armies, slowly but continually advancing, again arc perfecting perfect-ing a ring of iron around tbe Teutonic nations. On the western front the American and French field armies, by taking positions opposite the "natural gateway" into Germany Ger-many via Metz, have completed that part of the ring that threatens Germany from the west. On the ItaJiaji front, Italy, with reinforcements rein-forcements from the Americans and allies, al-lies, is a part of the ring, and is standing stand-ing ready to strike again. On the Macedonian frpnt the Serbians, backed by British, French and Greeks, are cutting off Turkey from the two German nations. On Germany's eastern frontier a cloud 13 gathering which, with the assistance : of the patriotic people of Russia, will seriously menace Germany and her so-! so-! called liberated provinces next to the Tiussian western border. The ring of iron from the land side will be actually a military fact when, as heretofore pointed out, the Anglo-French-American army moving southward from the Murmansk peninsula meets and combines com-bines with the Czecho-S-lovaks, British, American and Japanese' forces, which are steadily pushing on toward Samaria, in the province of Orenberg. This junction,, whose strategic purpose and importance is being more and more revealed, will liberate Hussia proper and enable her again to take up arms against the central cen-tral powers. Russia Iay Aid. The very appearance of an international internation-al army threatening Moscow, from Samaria, Sa-maria, in Orenberg, it is thought here, will cause the people of Russia to rally to -their old standard for the overthrow of the political elements which only yes- ! terday were emphatically denounced by j the state department as outlaws. 1 Thus, for the first time since the en- ' trance into the war of America as a fighting ally, the vast project of encircling encir-cling Germany and crushing her with a slowly contracting ring is being visualized, visual-ized, and realized as well. The somewhat celebrated ring of "blood and iron" which Bismarck employed at Sedan is sooner or later to be repealed at Berlin. If anything were needed to complete the military isolation of the central powers, pow-ers, it is to be found in two additional considerations: First The fleet of France is holding Turkey and Austria from the eastern Mediterranean, while the navies of Great Britain, Italy and the United States are bottling up the Austrian ships of war from the rest of that sea. Already the Anglo-American fleet has bottled up the German fleet in home waters and has made the egress of the old Russian Baltic Bal-tic fleet, supposed now to be ih the hands of Germany, impossible. The greater part of this old fleet may already have joined the German naval forces at Kiel. Second The revolutionary attitude of , Rumania, the uncertain attitude of the Ukraine and the absence of any kind of commerce, except that which may be had from already plundered provinces. Germany Weakening. Commenting on the simple reiteration of accumulating weights crushing the central powers from within and the tightening of the ring of steel, an officer on the general staff said today that Germany Ger-many could not "stagger very long under her Internal and external load." As to the situation on the western front, it was pointed out today that the Germans no longer have a salient from which to launch an attack. Besides this, the Americans hold the most important salient which has been thrust into the German line opposite the old German salient of St. Mihiel. For this reason, and In view of the daily reports that the Germans are naturally concentrating for the defense of the highway into Germany, which runs by Metz, coupled with the determination of General Pershing to advance ad-vance on that road, military opinion here Is crystallizing Into belief that the Americans Amer-icans and French soon will swing beyond Metz, shell the trenches from lines parallel paral-lel to them and take them by assault. Meanwhile it is necessary to advance along the Moselle toward Pagny. That advance, with artillery preparation, accounts ac-counts for the frequent references to the , "bombardment of Metz." j |
