New-York tribune., 1918-07-12
Military Comment
BY William l.. Mcpherson

HE Alllcd advance IN Albania
continues unchecked, Vienna
admitted yesterday a with
drawal "across the Fieri- -Berat line. :"
That would seem to indicate an evac-
uation of Berat. Berat had become
untenable. The mountain positions
dominating this important Southern
Albanian town had already fallen
into the hands of the Allies.
According to the latest reports
from Rome, the Austro-H -Hungarians
are retreating toward the Skumbi
River. From Berat, which is on the
Osum River few miles below the
point where the latter joins the De-
voli to form the Semeni, a road runs
north to Elbasan, one of the most i'm
portant towns on the Skumbi. It is
thirty miles from Berat to Elbasan.
Further west, the distance between
the Semeni and the Skumbi is from
fifteen to twenty miles.
The Skumbi Valley is probably the
strategic objective of the present op
eration--and for this reason: It is
a century-old route of travel from
the Adratic to Salonica. 1t contains
the only practicable east-and west
highway across the Albanian noun
tains. The Romans built road
through this valley, striking south
east toward it from Durazzo. 1t still
retains the old Roman name-Via
Egnatia. We're it to come into the
possession of the Allies they would
have way open up the course of
the Skumbi to a point near the pres
ent Serbian boundary, and thence
around the head of Lake Ochrida to
the flank of the Bulgarian positions
north of Monastir. If the Austro-
Hungarians cannot hold the line of
the Skumbi the Bulgarians will have
tn bend back their right wing in the
Monastir section, and something like
new warfare of movement might
be initiated along the eastern half
of the Balkan front.
The Salonica army for a year past
has been disckarging political
rather than a military mission. It
has been defending Greece and at the
same time keeping alive the hope of
a partial redemption of Serbia. Any
thing it may do now cannot directly
affect the decision which the two
groups of combatants are seeking on
the West front, and which, under ex-
isting conditions, cannot be obtained
anywhere else. But successful AL
lied campaign in the Balkans
though still in the military sense a
"side show" w"-could not fail to have
highly stimulating moral effect.
Renewing their pressure on the
German line on the west side of the
Aisne-Marne salient, the French on
Wednesday night retook the town of
Corey, lost to the armies of the
Grown Prince OF Prussia in the first
days of June. Corey is on the little
Savieres River, northern tributary
of the Ourcq. The French were
pushed back to and beyond the Sa-
vieres when the German forces driv-
ing south from the Chemin des
DANES toward the Marine faced to
the west and began to clear the north
and south banks of the Ourcq. All
aIong this sector the Germans pushed
forward from eight to ten miles and
got close in to the northeastern, east
ern and southeastern edges of the
Forest of Villers- Cotterets.
Now Foch is slowly elbowing them
back. A few days ago the French
made an advance in the neighbor-
hood of Longpont, which is a little
further up the Savieres Valley than
Corey. Similar advances have been
made further north, and also on the
south side of the Ourcq
The Lenine war office issued a
communique yesterday reporting the
reoccupation of Yaroslav, a city 173
miles northeast of Moscow, which
had been seized by White Guard
forces. Some setbacks for the coun-
ter revolutionists and Czecho-Slo-
vaks in the Volga region were also
announced. Dispatches from Stock
helm say that Germany is send
ing large reinforcements into the
Ukraine, where the peasant revolt
is gaining headway. Russia cannot
lay down her arms. What the Boil
shevlst government purchased at so
exorbitant o price at Brest -Litovsk
was not peace. 1t was only an option