NOTES ON THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2227, 13 August 1914, Page 4

NOTES ON THE WAR

The average citizen who has been struggling to piece together the disjointed and frequently conflicting messages which have poured in from abroad since the war started ' will weloome gladly the news from tho Official Press Bureau which comes to hand to-day. It is sparse enough to be sure, but it bears the seal of the News Bureau established by the British Government, and its. very sparsencss perhaps is a guarantee of its accuracy. First of all it is worth noting that the earlier accounts of the fighting in the vicinity of Liege seem now to bo substantiated, Especially in the matter of the German casualties. The official re,port states that 2000 were killed, 20,000 wounded, and 9700 prisoners were takerir-;a total loss of nearly 32,000 men. This bears out previous estimates, and indicates' the .severity of the fighting at this point. It is further stated that it is believed that the' forts at Liege have not been captured by the Germans; that there is good reason to beliove that the main portion of the German forces are now assembling in the vicinity of Liege; and that in the south—that is to say, in AlsacoLorraine —the Germans are- in comparatively Tight strength. These are the principal items of news supplied by the Official Press Bureau, and they are supplemented with an intimation that tho public must not expect information of the movements or intentions of the British forces,-pre-sumably until there is no' danger, of the information proving of any value to tho enemies of the Empire, or until tho .purpose in view has been attained.

Taking the news generally it is satisfactory. Tho statement that tho great mass of ; tho German forces 1 appears to have been assembled at Thionville and Liege strengthens the view that have, been based;oii- the invasion of Franco from ,tho north. /Thionville is about DO miles.'.southreast of- Liege, and. tho? movement in France from this point 'Would probably. he made through the independent Duchy ol 'Luxemburg, against which ' breach of ■ neutrality ineffectual protest has already been made by the Grand Duchess of Luxemburg in person. Prior to the big advance movement by the German forces, of which we may have news at any moment, there has been further 'skirmishing and cavalry reconnaissances in foray but the Kaiser's troops do'not seem to havo gained- any material l advantage. With the aid' of siege guns, which are being brought to the front, they may be able to batter _ tho Liege forts into silence, but in tho meantime the French, British and Belgian troops should have assembled in force across the German line of advance. \ln the far ■ south—in _ Alsace—there have been further minor encounters. Nothing of note however is reported. News from the llusso-Gcrman and' Russo-Austriap frontiers is meagre and confusing. The probability is that there havo been unimportant engagements tietween small bodies of troops, with varying fortune. . So far tne main forces have not come to grips. •

Since the above was in type a later message confirms the nejvs of tbo massing of the German troops between Thionville and Liege. It is stated that the Kaiser has a million men marching on France between the points named, while further sotith he has 275,000 more available. Enormous as ' this force is, the strength of the allied_ French.- British, and Belgian troops should at least equal it, and they have the advantage .of position. Never before in the world's history have two such 'armiei met in the field of battle. It may be days before the main bodies- como into contact, but in the meantimo the-ro will bo opportunity for the French artillery, admittedly the finest in tho world, to' try its'skill against tho German artillerymen, and there will be many desperate- encounters between the outposts' and"- skirmishing parties; Tho movements of each army will be known to tho. other through the medium of aeroplanes and airships, and the theories of-modern warfare will bo-tested to their uttermost limits. v: 7

Ie straws show tho_ way the wind is blowing then evidence is not lacking to' show that tho British Fleet is'dominating the trade routes of the North' Sea and adjacent waters. Readers of tho war news who put two and two together will have already-noted the fac ( t' that British troops have been _' safely transported across the Straits of Dover to Belgium, and drawn the conclusion ' therefrom that the German Fleet was either sheltering in port or had already suffered severely at the.hands of the British ships. To-day we are told that Denmark is maintaining its regular supplies of hogs and butter to England: Anyono who chooses to look at an atlas will sco that to maintain this trade, which,comes mainly through Copenhagen, vessels must require to pass out from the Baltic through, the narrow sound between Helsingor and Sweden, into the Cattesat,. and then the Skager-llack, which in turn opons into the North Sea; thence across to London.' Tho narrow waters leading from the Baltic into the North Sea were reported quite recently to be hold by German vessels, and to have been laid with mines. If, as stated,,a regular trado is now beina naintaiiied between Gopen-

hagen ancl England, then it would Mem fair to assume that these waters have now been reopened through the German vessels retiring to the Kiel Canal under pressure from the British Fleet. Indeed, everything points to an engagement of some sort having been fought in the North Sea with results favourable to Britain, but so far we have had no news of such a happening.

The doings of tho German warshTp Gotben, which was recently reported to have' taken refgge from its pursuers in ■ Messina Barbour,'and which is now supposed to-be making for the Dardanelles, raises some interesting questions of international law bearing on the duty of neutral States. It. is laid down, for instance, that a neutral State must not give armed assistance to either lse!ligerent or grant to one privileges denied to the other; it must fIOIT supply belligerents with money or" of warfare; it must not suffer belligerent agents or' its own subjects to fit out armed expeditions within its dominions, or increase therein the warlike iorco of any belligerent ship or expedition The .application of these broad principles to particular. cases is bjr no means an easy matter. A belligerent ship taking refugo'in a neutral port must not be supplied with- arms or ammunition, but according to the old British rule she may be given enough coal to take her to the nearest port. She must not be allowed to remain in a neutral port for more than twenty-four hours. If she exceeds this limit she must be dismantled. During the war between jfussta and Japan some of the Russian warships took shelter in -Chinese ports, and were dismantled. - In one instance the Japanese entered a Chinese port and took- a Russian warship out because they_ did not consider it was being dismantled quicETy enough.

It is not quite clear whether the English rule has been generally adopted by other nations, and in the case of tho Goeben the available information is so meagre that it is impossible to say what happened at Messina or how long she remained there; but .judging by Italy's action in preventing German liners leaving Genoa with coal /for German warships it is fair to' assume that the Italian Government did not knowingly permit any breach of the rules of neutrality 'at Messina. The report that the Goeben when last seen was apparently going to the Dardanelles raises another question, for the principle that waterways between open seas may be navigated as freely as the seas themselves has Been limited in the case of the Dardanelles by treaty so as_to exclude the warships of. all nations except Turkey. This 'would prevent the Goeben passing through to the Black Sea or sheltering in the Dardanelles, unless indeed Turkey threw in her lot with tine Austro-German Alii-, ance. But the cablegram, regarding the Goeben may only mean that she was seen sailing in the direction of the Dardanelles.

The monetary and trade conditions throughout. the Empire are steadily improving. The. Bank of England is now receiving all the go,let.. that is reaching tho London market. According to a cable message the Bank has received nine millions 1 sterling in gold in about six; days. The Transvaal output for lastmonth; is the largest since June, 1913, and expressed in money represents about. .$12,000,000, tho .greater portion if not'.'the. whole of which will find its way into the Bank of Eng- j land. British overseas trade,- it is hoped, will be carried on much as usual, except that there may be de-'j lays owing to some of the larger ves- ■ sels being commandeered for Admiralty and War Office services. Every nation except Germany and Austria will be doing its utmost to'promote trade, and to-day we have the announcement that Denmark will continue her weekly shipments to England of butter and togs. • British ft-Ado with Denmark,- Belgium, Sweden, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy. Greece, Turkey, the Balkan States, the whole of Africa, Asia, Australasia, and-North and South America oan. be carried on' without serious hindrance. It is Germany and Austria that must suffer, The'export and import trade of Germany is valued at £876,000,000, and the whole of this oversea trade has come to a full stop. This means an enormous loss, 'indeed, _ it means moro for it spells starvation for tho people of Germany if long continued.

The action of the Now Zealand authorities in taking into custody German aijd Austrian reservists here no doubt has been prompted by -the Imperial authorities. _ The fact that there are many estimable German residents 1 in the Dominion does not in any way relievo the Government of its responsibility in the matter of safeguarding the interests of this country. The present is not a time for taking any risks of any kind whatever. .There are sentimental peoplo who have not yet fully realised what this war may mean to' the Empire and to ' the world at large. They appear to imagine that necause "tye are so far removed, from the chief centre of conflict we can afford to be lax and ignore possibilities which at the moment may seem remote. Nothing could be more foolish. Happily there are. very few who have not realised the gravity of the crisis with which the Empire <and indeed the whole world is faced. That there is no immediate, occasion for alarm is truo enough; and sp far tho clash of arras has been in our favour, and seems likely to continue so; but it would be-the height of folly to shut our eyes to the immensity of the issues at stake or to relax in the slightest degree any- precautions which may appear advisable. The Germans and Austrians interned at Somes Island will be well treated, and will be shown every reasonable consideration, but it must not be forgotten that whatever their inclination may be they are under obligation to assist their countrymen against ours 'It is our duty to prevent them doing so—aiicl to. tako no risks.

Mention is made in the cable news to-'day of a paper famine in London. This is a matter of as much importance to the public who want the news as to the newspapers who supply it. In New Zealand newspapers obtain the greater past of their, printing paper from Canada, and already there has been considerable dislocation of supplies, due to the sheltering of steamers carrying cargoes for New Zealand ports. There is hardly what might bo tormed a paper famine here yet, but a number of papers vthich do not carry large stocks on hand are stated to be short o£ supplies. So far as The DomTnion is concerned no shortage is anticipated, for tho. present, but the enormous demand which is made

upon our daily issues, necessitates the exercise of reasonable economy until further shipments 'tome to hand. AVe need hardly say that should a shortage occur regular subscribers to the paper will receive first consideration.