NOTES ON THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2280, 14 October 1914, Page 4

NOTES ON THE WAR

There is a dearth of live war news to-day, but such items as havo come to hand arc of a satisfactory nature. The position in France, according to the Amiens correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph, has been further improved from the Allies' point of view. Tho Battle of the Aisnc, this messngc states, has ended, and a fresh struggle has begun. It is quite impossible to toll in this great campaign where one

battle ends and another begins. There has been a continuous series of battles fought from day to day along the long line of opposing forces, but despite the tremendous losses inflicted nothing that could be described as decisive has occurred. When the Daily Teleijraph correspondent states that the Battle of the Aisnc has ended he no doubt desires to emphasise' the fact of the Allies advance beyond the region where tlje long-protracted struggle* raged backward and forward for something like a month without any material gain to cither side. Now the Allies nave not only picked up any ground that was lost, but are pressing forward in an endeavour to strike home a telling blow at the German llight before General Von Kluck is strengthened with any reinforcements that may. be dispatched to his assistance consequent on the fall of Antwerp. It is useless to speculate as to the possibilities of these reinforcements being available for the simple reason that we are .quite in the dark as to the strength of the British and Belgian force in the vicinity of Ostend. German troops cannot be spared from Belgium in any force so long as the British-Belgkin Army around Ostend is able to threaten their line of communications and perhaps operate against their right-flank. We must rest content with the information that the Allies have made another forward movo in Prance and have checked all the attempts'of the enemy to take the offensive.

From other quarters tho news is of the briefest. Some of the forts to tho north and east of Antwerp still seem to be holding out vigorously; and the Russians' continue' their progress. Our friends the Japanese are prosecuting their attack on Tsingtao and have silenced one of_ the enemy's outlying forts. There is internal trouble in Italy which may have a bearing on the war situation. It has been made clear that public feeling in Italy favours the Entente, but the Government has been backward in responding, to the popular demand. It would now seem that this may have been in a- measure due to the fact that the Army had been neglected and was not in a position to take tho field. The Minister of War we were told a few days ago had resigned, and though it is by no means certain that his resignation wa-s duo to the state of affairs in the Department under his control it is by no means unlikely that his retirement may bo traced back to this source. But Italy has been over two months now under the shadow of war, and has had time to repair much of her past neglect. She should therefore be in a- position eva long to throw in her weight with the Entente shouldhor inclination so prompt her. ,

As matters stand, it seems unlikely that the capture of Antwerp by the Germans will have any more important effect upon the naval operations of the irar. thau it is expected to have upon the land campaigns. Had Germany been able to assort herself, at sea, she would now have in Antwerp a convenient base from which to make a naval raid upon England. The mouth of the Scheldt is distant only about 130 miles from the Thames estuary, and is therefore within easy striking distance of ports on the south coast of England. From the German point of view, Antwerp is therefore a- much better strategical position than the mouth of- the Elbe, which is three times as far away from the Thames. On the other hand, the advantage of possessing Antwerp is diminished by the fact that uoth ,banks of "the Scheldt at its mouth are Dutch, territory, find there are probably good grounds for the opinion expressed by the Times naval correspondent that there is'nothing whatever in the changed situation from, the naval .aspect to cause apprehension. No doubt if she- saw any way of converting Antwerp into ~a useful naval base, Germany would'as ruthlessly tramp upon, the neutral rights of Holland as she has already done on those of. Belgium, bnt fortunately no such possibility appears to exist. It is a far.cry from the German naval ports, on theElbe to the/Scheldt, and Germany certainly cannot take any. ships of size over the' intervening distance save at the cost of the fleet action which she has carefully evaded since the war.began. If she were free to profit by her conquest, the great Belgian port would no doubt be used as an additional base for the naval small craft—instruments of wasp warfare—upon which Germany has so far chiefly relied. Judging by 'what has happened up to the present time, the advantage so gained would be a poor compensation forthe penalties involved in a further breach of international law by violating the neutrality of Holland. Apart from naval operations, the capture of Antwerp may appear to have provided Germany with a valuable base for an airship raid on England, but hero the fact woiild operate that the unwieldy; Zeppelins have to bo housed in special revolving sheds of elaborate construction, and th'at lacking this shelter they arc exposed to serious risk of destruction. Still another factor, and one of vital importance, is that an airship depot at Antwerp would be open to'easy attack by English airmen starting from either land or sea.

The German authorities are continuing their system of pillaging the Belgians by imposing fines, or war contributions, on the captured cities. The citizens of Liege wero the first to be fined for daring to offer resistance to the unprovoked attack of the Kaiser's troops. Latdr on a war contribution of £8,000,000 was imposed on Brussels, and now it is reported that Antwerp has been ordered to pay no Ices than £120,000,000. The contribution demanded from Brussels is equivalent to a> compulsory levy of no less than £G0 on every family, and about £320 is sought to be extorted from every family in Antwerp. War contributions aro not expressly • forbidden by international law, but as the Manchester Guardian points out, they are repugnant to the whole spirit of the law of nations in modern, times. This sort of confiscation is simply the survival, in another form, of the" barbarous medieval practico of pillage. ■ The amounts which Brussels and Antwerp have been compelled to pay are practically the ransom of property which it would be unlawful for the Germans to seize, as such seizure would bo pillage, which is forbidden. "The. Germans maj; not sack Brussels, but they force its inhabitants to compound for its sack at the price of £S,000,000." It was rumoured somo time ago that the Russians intended to retaliate by demanding similar contributions from captured German cities, but so far this course does not seem to have been adopted.

The action of the military authorities at Samoa in allowing the two German planters who cpnimunicated with the German cruisers Gneisenau and Scharnhorst to escape with no further punishment than removal to New Zealand calls for comment. We pointed out on a recent occasion the folly of the mistaken leniency shown at the local Court here in connection with the prosecution of a, naturalised German found in possession of a wireless telegraphy apparatus under cirenmstances which could only arouse the gravest suspicion. Now we have a case of Germans caught red-hand-ed in • communication with the enemy's warships off an island captured and held by our troops, escaping with no greater punishment than temporary removal from the island. In Europe those men, if caught under similar circumstances by the Allies, would have been' promptly shot. They wer;.> doing the work of spies, supplying information to tho enemy. No one knows what they told the commanders of the Germa-n warships, nor how far the information thus supplied has assisted the enemy or added to tho difficulties of our own vessela and our .own force in Samoa. We. do not for a moment suggest that these men should have been shot, but they should have been severely punished a.nd their property confiscated. The present is not a time for half-mea-sures. .We have enemies in our midst who are merely waiting tho opportunity to do us injury, and wnen caught they should be treated with a severity that the momentous issues at stake warrant. Tho authorities should realise that misplaced leniency at such a time falls little short of treachery to the nation. We need not copy the.atrocious methods of tho Germans in Belgium, with their terrible tionof innocent people, and the reversion to- barbarism in the forcing of tribute from undefended towns, but we owe a duty to our own people and to the Empire, to see that those who do us injury by assisting the enemy are made to suffer the utmost penalty of tlw.law.