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Show PROGRESS OF THE WAR. The outstanding feature ia the progress prog-ress of the wax this week is the renewal of the conflict between the central pow-frs pow-frs and -Rustki, or, strictly apeakuij. that part of Russia which acknowledges the sway of Lenine and Trotzky. It will be remembered that Troiaky left Brest-Litovsk without signing a peace pact, although .declaring that tho war "as st an end so far as Russia was concerned. con-cerned. At the ?auie time the Bolshe-viki Bolshe-viki troops were fighting with the Cossacks, Cos-sacks, the Ukranians and the l'lnns. The central powers had made a treaty of peace, with the Ukraine delegates at Hrest-Litovsk in accordance with the self-determination idea advanced by Trotzky, although the foreign minister said he did not desire to have his plan applied in that way. The upshot of the whole matter was that the German military mili-tary authorities ordered an advance upon the Russians within two hours after the expiration of the armistice, declaring the Ukrainians had called upon them for help. Up to the present time they have met with little or no opposition, and have taken town after town, captured many hundreds of guns of large and small caliber, and secured an immense quantity of war material. In addition, they have made sure of supplies of wheat and oil, and have very good prospects of becoming masters of much of Russia's undeveloped mineral wealth. There has been some talk of the unwillingness un-willingness of Austria to take part in this latest war enterprise. At the same time, there is more than a suspicion that all the plans were laid at Brest-Litovsk; that Trotzky was a party to them, and that his opposition to the Ukraine treaty was a mere pretense for the purpose pur-pose of giving the Germans an excuse to take possession of such parts of Russia Rus-sia as they desire before a treaty, of peace can be concluded. -A Russian courier with peace proposals has arrived iu Berlin, but we are informed that the reopening of negotiations cannot be expected ex-pected for some time. During the do-lay do-lay the German military leaders will make the most of thpir opportunity, and the whole Baltic region will fall under their sway. The separation of Finland is practically assured. In the west the German armies began the week by making three separate and distinct raids upon London, twenty-seven twenty-seven civilians being killed by bombs and forty-one injured. One enemy plane was brought down by the British. The lighting activity on the fronts in Belgium, Bel-gium, Trance and Italy has been con-lined con-lined almost - exclusively to artillery dtieH, patrol en'-ounters and raids1 The American forces have sc.f Cored a few casualties, but they have retaliated upon the Hun forcen in front of them, and, if the truth were known, it is fair to presume that the German casualties outnumbered out-numbered ours. "In a patrol encounter an American infantryman captured a Teuton soldier and brought him back to the trenches, our first enemy capture nince our men took their places at the front. The itrot important raid of the v.crk was made by Ike French in Lor laiuc, the Herman lines being penetrated pene-trated and K'O prisoners raptured. The British made a number of Mucressfu! air raids and repubpd a number of Gorman Gor-man attacks. In Italy the Italians arc holding their own and seem well able lo tflke care of themselvo. general Alb-nby conliiiucs his nd-am-e in Pnb'-.t ineT ;md dericho has been o'-r-ujiu'd by I'.ritih troop. T h c' a n ie n t town is said to be of gre;it trateg'n- im-portaii'-e, 'and its possesion will aid in i baring the Holy Land of the. Turks, ""jo ::r:::v of Turkey, however, has made an advance in the Caui-au.s region without with-out awaiting the expiration of their ;irini-'i'' w:th the I; us. in and have hoen Meeting with fen-ces- owing to the complete demoralization of the b'nsjdan lifioj. since the advent of the liolshe-iki liolshe-iki and the overturning of the govern-nieirt govern-nieirt at. I'rtrograd. An event of importance on the wet-era wet-era front n Die diking over of an-iiliin an-iiliin s tor of the breach, line by the troop' iiu-iei command of 'ieneral ll.'iiu', Ho- transfer bring a, urn p! i ed with' out a hit' h or being noticed by the one-inv. one-inv. flic admiralty report showed a de.rerr.rd number of HritUh nirrchant-dot nirrchant-dot roved by fubmarinri or mine-. during the week. Another Spanish vessel ves-sel has been torpedoed, and there is some indignation in Madrid over this most recent violation of the solemn promises of the imperial government at Berlin. A number of significant political events have occurred at the various capitals. cap-itals. One of the most important was the shelving of the British chief of staff, General .Robertson, who could not agree with the conclusions reached liy the supreme war council of the allies. General Robertson had a plan of his own, but was unable to secure any support. sup-port. The plan adopted was one presented pre-sented by General Bliss, the American chief of staff. Tho argumeuts were so logical, according to the statement of Premier Lloyd George in the house of commons, that, all the members of the council, with the sole exception of General Gen-eral Robertson, gave ready assent, and the war will be conducted in accordance with the American idea of what should be done to assure success. In the United States the senate "war inquiries" have been continued, but the publio has lost interest and war legislation legisla-tion is being speeded up to some extent. The Overman bill conferring additional powers upon the president will he reported re-ported to the senate within a clay or two, and it is expected to pass, though not without strenuous opposition upon the part of those who would take the conduct of the war out of the hands of the commander in chief of the army and navy as far as possible. The house has passed the urgent deficiency bill, carrying carry-ing a huge amount, and the senate has passed the railroad bill. During the week President Wilson put an end to the strike of the carpenters and joiners iu some of the eastern shipyards, ship-yards, and the men returned to work, although the matters iu dispute have not yet been straightened out. The executive council of the American Federation Fed-eration of Labor, at the close of a seven days' session at headquarters, pledged the great organization to support sup-port the principles of free democracy and aid iu beating dotfu the Prussian autocracy. The resolutions adopted indorse in-dorse the war aims of the United States as set forth by President Wilson, and declare the great struggle now in progress prog-ress a uorkiugmau 's war. On Satur.Jay the British labor conference adopted practically the same platform and will support the government to the end. The working classes iu Germany are willing to go on with the war on the prospect of territorial aggrandizement now that Russia has collapsed. Word has been recived from Ambassador Francis that the entente diplomats are prepared to leave Petrograd in case German occupancy occu-pancy becomes imminent. |