Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1916-04-09
With Russians Advancing Against Them, Turks i'll
 Difficult Place,
HOLD WHIP HAND
 OVER THE GREEhS
With Little Fuel and Food, Greece Dependent tpoG the eocd VIII oi Britain for Importation Ol
 Necessities.

London. April S.-No one doubts here that the allies viii strike a great blow in the near east this spflne' Just where it will be is probapis known to less than dozen pefsoila, but the great forces at Salolllca alu the still larger forces Tn Egyp1 are not needed on the western front ana are hound to be thrown into the lurk sh empire in such a way as to assist the joint Anglo Russian offensive Ill Asia Minor. ,.,
 With the Russians blowing steadily westward, along the Black sea coast and through the mountains or AT mena, the leaders of the allies can view with cquanimity Turklsh felh- forcements to the Mesopotamla valley army. which holds General IoWn- shend's army besieged in kut-El- -Amara and. with the assistance of the floods, has so far checked the British relieving army few mlles down the'rigris :, No one here worries about the sll- nation in the valley of the Ilgrls. III l the first place, there IS no reason to doubt that new forces sent from l India are on their way Tn sufficient quantity to change the fortunes ol war here. In the second, the Iurks would be foolhardy to send great mass of men beyond Bagdad with the Russians threatening their rear ana pra aduallv eating away the territory from which Constantinople must draw recruits, supplies and tax money. | difficulties of transportation thru the mountains will prevent the turks from checking the Russian advance for some tme It is therefore eN- nectedN here that the German officers who supply the brains for the lurk- ish forces in Asia Minor Will taSe up some defensive line, probably to the west of line drawn north from tue east end of the Mediterranean, fortlty if strongly and make their stand hefe' | Between Two Fires.
 But at this point the knotty prop lem for the German tacticians arises l The T,,rks not only havc~to face ct tacks hy Russians through Arinenla from the Black sea. They are also ID danger of the great blow the allles can deliver falling on their flank from many points of the long coast | hnc of southern Asia Minor. They might have to fight an enemy ol three sides simultaneously. 1t ls the consideration of this problem WhlcE undoubtedly prompted the offers oi [ separate peace Turkey has mace 1T an informal manner to hussla' OILY C!
 The Teutonic allies cannot altot> to send a large force into Asla Mihc' for another reason still. It "oel' weaken the Turkish Blu lgarlan- leu- tonic armies now concentrated west of Coustantinople. A successful O. fensiye behind that is, to the west o' Constantinople, would cut otf ant leaye healpless and unsupplied ai the troops in Asia.
 So Yield Marshal von Mackensen instead of figuring on an lnVasloh O Fsypt must HOW decide how to mee threat many hundreds of miles iron that point ,.
 The German threat against ESyp was only q bluff anyway. It was m tended Ia hold great allied forces II rpyn, where they would he far iron inc main war theaters. But until I was positively proven to be hlul' the IfngliSh had to bite. lheN ha' to concentrate hundreds ot thousands ur men near the SueH canal, torl'f' this all important waterway strongly and mako preparations which would assure their control
 Egypt Considered Safe.
 Now. however, when it has devel oned that the Turks and Germans have done little to increase the amour of broken lines of one-horse railway
 between Consta!ttinople and tho canal. and to prepare for a grea' march through the burning sands ol the Arabian desert. where the ad vantage of transportation lies over whelminelv with the defenders, tht British can rest more easy. They can leave 0ul\ a fraction ot their torcef :n the neighbolhood of the canal and throw the hardened New Iealanders Australians, Indians and home troops for an invasion where they please The point selected may he anywhere from Palestine to Salonica
 At Salonica S00,0G0 French ant British and few Serbians hold an immensely strong 90 miles line ol mountain sand swamp ill great semi circle north of the city and are op- posed ty probably 500,e0t men i'll al most equally strong positions.
 The condition approaches one o stalemate. In the No Mans Land be tween the forces small detachmentS Of infantry and cavalry scout, seize villages and fight small engagements
 In the air there IS often great ac- tivitN. Great fleets of allied areo- planes lombard the German and Bul- gartn camps. leppelins, Aibatrosses and Fokkers wing their way of Salo- nica and throw their missiles at the warehouses, piers and ships of the al lies, often with the result that Greek citizens are killed,
 With the most elaborate entrench- ments and underground shelters, con lstructed with all the knowledge gained on the western battle line, each side