TOPICS OF THE DAY.
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A MILITARY STOCKTAKING.
MILITARY stocktaking at this moment is a pleasant occupation for the Allies. Wherever they turn their view the position is consolidating in a way favourable to them. Though constant and sensational victories are not to be expected, or perhaps even desired, though the pace may be slower than the ardent wishes of the watching public like, and though there will no doubt be occasional setbacks, the soldiers of the good cause are plodding on to their final victory. Nothing can defeat them now but some act of folly on the Allies' own part. But that act of folly will not be com- mitted, for no Alliance in the world's history was ever firmer than that which is now waging war against Germany and her satellites. It is inspired by a common purpose which will prove invincible not only to war weariness, but to the wrecking tactics of our enemy (masters though they are in the arts of intrigue) and to the inevitable perils and accidents of common action among so large a body of independent States. The Allies are bound by an unbreakable cement, the cement provided by the blood that has been shed, and by the unspeak- able danger that would overhang us all should there be a premature peace. We have dealt elsewhere with' the details of the great battle on the Somme of last Saturday and the day before, and therefore need say no more about it here, except that it was memorable not merely for the gallantry with which particular pieces of ground were won, but for the military spirit pervading the high command, and for the tenacity of aim and of method which inspired the battle-plan in conception and execution. It was the work of a master-hand. Our whole push forward was, indeed, like the indomitable advance of those new monsters who have been called into existence to break down the resistance of the foe. Sir Douglas Haig has laid a series of tactical and moral pedrails which will enable his Army to surmount all obstacles.
We have also dealt elsewhere with the recent wonderful successes of our Italian Allies in their mountain fighting. Here we will only say that it need not be supposed that they will be prevented by the coming of winter from making further progress. No doubt the snows will soon stop move- ment in the Trentino and the Cortina regions, but we see no reason why November, or even December, should prove an obstacle to an advance in the Isonzo district with its Mediterranean climate. Unless we are greatly mistaken, the Austrians will soon find it very difficult to maintain the wall of men which has hitherto prevented an Italian advance towards Trieste. The Austrians are, in truth, faced with the dismal dilemma of either keeping the Italians out of Trieste by maintaining a force there which is badly needed for the protection of Hungary from the invading Rumanians, as well as in Galicia and the Carpathians against the Russians, or else of letting Trieste go. What their ultimate choice may be we cannot, of course, predict, but we are sure that they cannot provide men to meet all three attacks. And yet whichever loss they have to cut will be a very terrible loss for them.
Rumania, both in the case of her soldiers and her politicians, deserves respect and admiration from the point of view both of military science and of statecraft. She has set us all an admir- able example. When the war began the Rumanian people chose, and as we think most wisely chose, the bold part of advancing at once to the liberation of Transylvania and their unhappy brethren who have suffered so long and cruelly under the Austrian yoke. The German General Staff, with that boldness of design and cleverness in political calculations which have always distinguished them, at once replied by an attempt to strike at the vital interests, or what seemed the vital interests, of Rumania by an invasion through Bulgaria of the Dobrudja, the great stretch of level swampy plain which lies between the Danube and the Black Sea. The country at this time of year offers few obstacles to an invading army, for that army has its flanks protected by the sea and the wide-stretching reaches of the great river while it appears to imperil the very safety of the Rumanian nation by striking a blow at the heart. A hostile army in the Dobrudja looks most unpleasantly near to the Rumanian capital. In truth, the German General Staff have been trying Frederick the Great's system of strategy. Frederick the Great boasted that he made the enemy Dragon turn back by treading hard on its tail. Happily, the Rumanian Dragon has a better head and a better heart than Frederick the Great's enemy. With a forti- tude which is wholly admirable, the Rumanians have prose- cuted their main ob'ective, the invasion of Transylvania and 'Hungary, undeterred by the thought that the enemy seemed to be coming within striking distance of Bucharest. Resound- ing stories of successes like the storming of Silistria, and the alleged instant need for troops to defend the soil of the capital, .were firmly disregarded. In a word, the Rumanians have taken their temporary setbacks with the most admirable good sense, and we may be certain that the German General Staff are now beginning to feel very unhappy at the failure of their strategic intrigue. There was no value, but only a great deal of potential peril, for the Germans in the Dobrudja campaign, unless it succeeded in frightening the Rumanians and " bouncing " them out of their well-considered plans. The situation, as we understand it, is that the Rumanians have fallen back to a line of entrenched positions which stretch from the Danube to the Black Sea at the narrowest portion of the Dobrudja—the district which many of our readers have crossed, though probably at night, if they have travelled to Constantinople by the half-sea route, that is, by rail to Cons tanza, and thence by steamer through the Black Sea to the Bosphorus. Here the Rumanians will await the attack of the mixed force of Germans, Bulgarians, and Turks with their flanks well protected and with a well-laid railway line `behind them parallel to their front. The position is an ideal one for holding up an enemy's attack. As we write on Thurs- day there is news of a Rumanian success in the Dobrudja, and we should not be surprised if before long bad weather, the difficulty of getting up supplies, the threat of Russian action on the Bulgarian coasts, and, worst of all from the Bulgarian point of view, defeat at the hands of the Serbians around Monastir, coupled with Allied movements in the direction of Sofia, place the force that rashly invaded the Dobrudja in a position of deadly peril. In that case we may see the force broken up through the Bulgarians racing back to defend the soil of their own country, and possibly even their capital and military base. If that happens, woe betide the cause of the Central Powers in the Balkans !
The future in the Balkans is menacing to our enemies not only in regard to Bulgaria. The recent turn of events in Greece seems to indicate that the final overthrow of German influences there is rapidly approaching. As usual, the Germans have overdone their contemptuous exploitation of the Greek Court and the baser type of Greek politician. The kidnapping of a Greek army corps, or at any rate a portion of it, was more than even King Constantine and the Hellenic Government could stand, and we read in Thursday's papers of the despatch from Athens of a very urgent Note to Germany demanding the release of the captured Greeks. The Note, we are told, is " firm and decided in tone." The Greek Government demands that its stolen soldiers shall be brought to the Swiss frontier, and thence be allowed to return home. Presumably the Germans, having got all they can out of Greece, will reply with a direct negative. They would. be quite willing now to see a state of war arise between them and their late dupes, for war would automatically blot out the huge batch of promises which they no doubt have been making to the Greeks for the last six months. But though there is a certain interest and amusement in watching these recent developments, we are bound to point out that if _circum- stances have rendered the attitude of the Greek Government unimportant from the German point of view, they have rendered it unimportant also from that of the Allies. We are sorry for the position in which the Greek Government has been placed by those who have proved unworthy of the trust committed to them, and personally we should like even at the eleventh hour to see something done to help the unfortunate Greek nation, as distinct from its Government. At any rate, neither the British people nor the British Govern- ment will want to be vindictive or to demand their full pound of flesh. But if the Greeks are escape the consequences of the criminal follies committed their Government, there must be an end to all further trifling and a cessation of that muddy mixture of perfidy and procrastination which has hitherto passed in Greece for high policy.
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