The Ocala evening star., 1915-08-16
THE WAR

TWo-thirds of summer mas gone III
half a dozen weeks frost will fall IN
northern Europe, and unless peace Is
made in three months from now the
armies will settle down for the hard
ships of a winter campaign.
Teuton success is at high tide.
The Germans hold tenth Of France
and nineteen-twentieths of Belgium,
half of Russia's Baltic provinces and
two-thirds of Russian Poland On the
other hand, France holds few square !
miles of Alsace, Russia few nun
dred miles of Galicia and Italy per-
haps as much of Carniola and Tyrol. |
At the Dardanelles, the allies hold as
much ground as they can sweep with
their guns.
The Germans have done mighty
work this summer. In the west they
held the allies helplessly at bay; IN
the east they have cleared the Rus
slams out of thirty thousand square
miles of territory they had taken
from the Austrians, and from the
Russians they have taken twice as
much more. We say the Germans
have done this, because tho the Aus
trians have done some good fighting,
had it not been for the Germans they
had by now been overwhelmed, and 1T
is likely the Russians and Italians
had met in Vienna.
The allies have no success to bal
ance this. Italy has made the best
showing. The Italians have rolled
the Austrians back from the line all
( around their border and made good
progress toward Trieste. Consider
ing the force at their command, they
have not done much. Great Britain
and France have done nothing but
keep the Germans from advancing.
Indeed, there is reason to believe that
they have lost little ground. At the
DardanelIes, the allies have at the ex-
pense of thousands of lives, several
ships and uncounted tons of ammunl-
ton gained enough ground for their
camps on the Gallipoi peninsula. In
the Caucasus and Armenia, the Rus
slams have won some victories and
driven the Turks back a considerable
distance, but this success will have
little weight comparatively with the
general Importance of the war.
For all this success Germany anC
Austria have paid frightful price IL
life and treasure. At the least esti
mate, a million Teutons have beer
added to the dead and wounded since
the first of May. The Russians have
also lost heavily, principally in pris
oners, but the other allies, except a
the Dardanelles, have been able t.
treasure their men.
The world is now guessing what tn
Germans will do next. Will they pus
on eastward and try to paralyze Rus
sia before winter sets in, will the
strike southwark and try to overru
Servia, win Bulgaria to their aid an
establish connection with Turkey, O
will they make a grand effort in tn
west to capture Calais and gain cor
troll of the strait of Dover.
At present, the first seems to b
the most hopeful plan. While tn
Teutons cannot hope to drive muc
further into Russia, if they can az
vance another hundred miles the
will cut the lines of railway ths
connect the Black Sea ports with tt
north of the empire, and in that cas-
even the capture of the Dardanellt
will be offset.
If they move to the south, they Wi
1ap,
in a most difficult country before the
can make any appreciable advance.
is true Bulgaria may come to the
assistance, which would be very aw
ward for Serbia and the other allie
But if Bulgaria joins the Teutons al
Turks, Greece and Roumania, almo
certainly, will enter the war on t
other side.
AS for breaking thru to Calais, t
whole strength of both Great Brita
and France will be exerted again
this. The British and French a
stronger than they ever have been
the west, and the Germans have ma
no appreciable advance there sir
the two armies settled into tn
trenches on that line last autumn.
is safe to believe that the Germa
will have to do something undream
of in warfare to break thru the Ii
on the west. At the same time,
must be remembered that they ha
already done two or three things |
dreamed of.
AS the Germans need to make
supersupreme effort to break thru
Calais, so the allies need to do aim
as much to break thru to Constar
nopIe. The Dardanelles have pro-
to be better fortified than any
supposed, and the Turks have fou
better The Turks seem to have m
men on the ground than the all
In the number and quality of its
diers the Turkish empire has b
greatly underestimated Unless
garia joins the allies and moves
army on Constantinople, it may
doubted that the allies succeed
forcing the straits.