The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-12-17

were not opened up. This, in fact, was the principal reason why the long delayed offensive against Serbia was undertaken, when it was. though the attitude of Bulgaria necessarily played an important part in this. But Ger man and Austrian war stores were not the sole factor. The Central Powers could make good use of Turkish and Bulgarian wool, skins hides, cereals and copper ores and Turkey and Bull garia needed the revenues which would come from the sale of these ma terials. It is to be doubted that his tory ever before presented an instance in which the opening of a, line of com muEication met so adequately the needs of four allied peoples engaged in war, or that from this condition so ur- gent a necessity had sprung. For the first time since the outbreak of the, European war Germany and Austria Hun gary are relatively independent economically, while Turkey and Bull garia now have within their reach an inexhaustible supply of war materials inexhaustible to-day because the Ger man and Austro-Hungarian arms and ammunition manufacturers now have access to the great minefal stores of the Balkans and the Ottoman Empire. The shortage of copper in the Central States has been ended by the taking
 
 and elsewhere in Serbia. Bulgaria, too, has large number of copper mines. the best of them near Mesdra, on the Mesdra-Lom Pa1anka branch railroad, and the Turks can meet any
 possible shortage with ores from Ana tolia, notably from the Smyrna region. Chemical raw material also may be brought from Turkey in Asia and a
 paucity of cotton for explosives is now altogether unlikely, since this staple is produced in considerable quanti- ties in the Cilician plain. It is of in terest. to learn that even a placer gold field has fallen into the hands of the Central Powers, that near Mi1anovac, Serbia Washing Is now in progress.
 In single day the Associated Press correspondent saw as many as nine tows go down the river, each consist ing of a tug and seven barges-the latter each carrying the equivalent of one hundred freight cars, giving the days traffic total of $500 carloads or 215 trains of an average size. For the five days spent on the river the total cannot be less than 400 car loads, or. with bulk and weight brought into relations, over million tons. Many of@tI1e tows came direct ly from Germany, the names of the barges homeports and the distances travelled indicating that they had been concentrated in the Austrian reaches of the Danube when the offensive against Serbia had not yet begun. As an example of German and Austro- Hungarian thoroughness. the prepa- rations for the resumption of Danube traffic are noteworthy.
 Already train connections for mili- tary purposes exist between Berlin and Constantinople and according to as sertion made here, a through passen- ger and express freight service will be in operation within three weeks via Belgrade and Nish. The Serbs were not given time enough to destroy this line as thoroughly as it was ex- pected they would and as a result of
 this people here hope to travel soon on the B'f Express, a train that will link Brussels, Berlin, Budapest. Bell lgrade, Bulgarin. and Byzanthiurn.