WAR NEWS BY MAIL

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2335, 17 December 1914, Page 6

WAR NEWS BY MAIL

THE BATTLE OFF THE DUTCH COAST OFFICER'S GRAPHIC ACCOUNT An officer serving in tho Undaunted sent tho. London "Times'" a stirring account, of tho' naval battle and the sinking of four Gorman destroyers oif the Dutch coast last month. He wrote:— - - ■ "We steamed out of Harwich with all ships' companies jubilant and eager to get into the danger-zone, as it was reported that a certain amount of 'liveliness' prevailed in the North Sea. •AH was quiet until 2 o'clock, when heading up northwards and skirting the Dutch coast-lino we sighted the smoke of four vessels. Our captain immediately cleared for action ana signalled the order to chase. We steamed at top-sueed with two destroyers disposed on either side of us. It was a uevor-to-be-forgotten sight— nerves strained to their utmost tension, and everybody as keen.as mustard at our' luck. The seas aiid spray flew all over us and covered us fore and aft. Tho German destroyers turned about and fled, but we had the advantago in speed and soon got within range with our 6-inch bow gun, and opened fire. "Our captain formed up our flotilla on either bow, and once within effective rango our 4-iuch semi-automatic guna blazed away, tho destroyers acting independently. The German destroyers, seeing themselves cornered, altered their course with the 'intention of obtaining a' better strategic position. They. opened firo on us, most of the shooting being aimed at the destroyers. Lusty cheers rang from our ships as the first German destroyer disappeared. A six-inch lyddite shell struck her iust below tlio bridge. . She toppled over on her. beam-ends like, a wounded bird, then righted herself level, ■ with the ; surface, and finally plunged bow first, all in the space of about two minutes. We /had .by this time closed to yards range, and tho enemy .commenced firing their torpedoes, and as 'best as we could judge they must have discharged at least eight, one missing our stern by only a few yards. Fortunately for us we caught sight of. tho bubbles on the surface, denoting its track, and we just missed the Aboukir, Cressy, Hogue, and Hawko's fate by a hair's-breadth.

"At 2.55 p.m. tho second of the enemy's vessels was seen to be out of action, being ablaze fore and aft, showing the fearful havoc, our lyddite shells were making. As each shell hit its mark, funuels,i bridge, torpedo tubes, and all deck fittings disappeared like magic, dense fumes from the explosives, the deadliest of its kind, covering the'ships fore- and aft. We actually passed over the spot where the first vessel had .sunk,and just for a 6pace of a couple of seconds as we were tearing through the water at over 30 -knots wo caught sight .of scores of poor wretches floating- about and cling-' ing to charred and blackened debris and wreckage. This was truly a pitiable sight; bvit, as we had two more combatants .to put out, of action, to ■stop at such close range, even to save, life, would have, been courting disaster. We should merely have been osposing ourselves to torpedoes. We had to tear along and try to forget the grue-, some result of our work. . ''The second ship, now a mass, of seething flames, sank quite level, with the water, and we soon had the remaining two literally holed and maimed.' Their firing was very poor and inaccurate, although several shells flow around, throwing shrapnel bullets about. It was, a.marvel that none struck us. Tho. destroyers' Loyal and: Lennox got in'close proximity to one of the German ships, and both' German Bhips.were holed before giving up the ghost. : . The surviving ISerman fired W last torpedo, which, however, went ■wide of the mark. During these activities wehad closed up with the last •>f the Kaiser's destroyers, and placed her hors de combat. , The Legion had two men wounded. .

"By 3.30 the action was over, and fche German Fleet had , been reduced by four' units; Them camo the order to Ret out boats and save life. Altokether we saved, two officers and 29 men. One of the officere, the captain of the destroyer SU9, was so badly maimed .that he died shortly afterwards. The total complement of tho four destroyers must have been about 240, so over 200 perished in the engagement, which lasted about one hour v a crowded hour of glorious life."

THE SPIRIT OF YOUNG FRANCE

A TALK WITH A SOLDIER-BOY. An. example'of the spirit of young ■I 1 ranee in tne war came my way'to-day (wrote the London correspondent of the "Manchester Guardian , ! on November 6). It was a boy of sixteen,, who had been in seven battles, had been wounded, taken to hospital in Arras, shelled out or' it by the Germans, and, after many adventures, was in the French passenger - ship Amiral Gantoaume, which was toi-pedoed in. tha Chanuel by a German submarine, rescued by the Queen, taken to England, spent a week m London and is off to-morrow to trance. 'His first idea was that he had done his turn at soldiering, and that now he would go back to his trado as a fisherboy. That, however, did not seem to be his final idea, for he talked again of getting back to his regiment, ilow thelad came to be a soldier at all was surious. He had been a fisher-boy, and then worked with a gardener. At the beginning of the war the horse and cart he was working were commandeered,, and he was, to his great joy, made a wagon driver of military stores. At Vauvroaucours the horse was wounded when he was conveying rifles to tho frbut. He then took, or stole; a riflo and cartridges, and followed a regiment and demanded to be a soldier. "I am a soldier! I am. a soldier! Behold my rifle and cartridges! Give me a kepi!" he cried. He was mado a soldier—bayonet, kepi,, and all—in the 12th Regiment of Infantry. One of his first adventures was when his company slept in a banr with the straw still warm from the <leparting Germans. He went outside in the night and saw an automobile approaching which he belioved 'to bo German. Ho ran to tho fairmhouse ivhere the commandant was, woke him up, got cursed for his pains, but when they found that it was a real German advance the bugles were sounded and the troops turned out;, and the Germans were forcod 1 to retire. He was wounded at Lille. There was a wounded German near him who could speak French, but be did not wisli to speak to him.

Asked what he thought of the' Germans, the boy said that they had such large boots that they could not walk, and that they had great vulgar oyes, and looked aa if thev had nothing to do but eating. Somo, ho snid, were afraid, and some not afraid. They were very bud shots, but verv good with tbn artillery. About the English, he snkl, that thev were'very good soldiers, very j:ond soldiers, but they had. oh! such jolly good things to eat ami good places to sloop in,. Ho had seen .the TiuVons, whom he called tres boilsguerriers. He did not call them soldiers, but insisted that they were "warriors." About his own nation, he snid that, they had three very good generals, but all the officers were not good. Still . . . hn :nevor thought his nontenant and captain would go at tbo head of the attack as Oipy did. . It was strange to hei-.r nil this : from this small bright lio.y, with an extraordinarily ewresßivo face, and

a rose on his coat which someone had given him, sitting talking about the horrors he had seen. He was going back to France, but what he would do afterwards was in the hands of God. The one thing he did not like in England was Alexandra Palace, and/he was not sure if he loved all the Belgians.

GERMAN BRUTALITY IN BELGIUM

AMERICAN RED CROSS NURSE'S STORY. Americans have been rather sceptical of the generality of the tales of atrocities in the war told by returning-travel-lers,, but the iiiKratite of .Yliss Frances Watt, daughter <>f -'he American Consul General at Brussels, last month created a profound impression- throughout the country. Miss Watt arrived in New York on November 4 from Rotterdam on board the Holland-America liner ' Potsdam. She was a Red Cross nurse, and from what she witnessed in Belgium declares that the Germans act like beasts. "Their one idea seems to be to devastate and destroy and outrage. No woman, or child is safe from them, and their only excuse is drunkenness. Their defence for the sacking of Louvain was that girls poured , boiling water on them. My most dearly beloved girl friend, my chum, i lived •at ■•Lonvain. She hoard that the Germans were coming and eho knew too well their inhumanity, so she killed herself. "My friend Baroness Fallon saw her husband shot down like an animal. She fled to her home, and the Germans killed her aunt and undo and three ■cousins eimply because they had neglected to keep their door open as the Germans marched by.. Of all those killed in Belgium four of every five wero civilians. My friend Count Gaston. Iridoucourt Wayruiest was made prisoner in Brussels after being wounded. . Hβ was kept in a house four doors from his home, and was' not allowed to communicate with: his family. After a week he died, as much from the sour mflk they gave him as from his' wound. ."The Germans compelled ■ the Red Cross nurses to care for tho German wounded and to neglect the wounded 1 Belgians. They take food from thu populace, and in every community scores die from nothing but hunger." Mise Watt was broken-hearted and weary. .'•..•'

THE MAUBEUGE GUN PLATFORMS STORY OF GERMAN PLOT^DENIED. The Paris correspondent'of the "Manchester .Guardian" wrote, as followß on November 3:— ':■■'.,.. ■'• ' * ■ The sufferers from espionitis ought to be cured by the denial in.the "Matin" of,the whole story about platforms for German guns in . the Lanierea engine .works near. Maubeuge, which the' "Matin! , itself published and caused to be repeated in the whole French and English press. The denial is, I understand, due to the- threat of a libel action. The Lanieree works, which wero alleged to belong to the firm of Krupp, belong to a' purely Franco-Belgian company founded by Baron Empain, of Brussels, who' was one of the hostages taken by the Germans;. the directors, who are all French or Belgian,.include M. Daniel Berthelot, brother of the As-6istaut-Directer of the Ministry of Fortign Affairs. The "Matin" is obliged to admit that the Germans did not even make use of the works or go to Lauieres; their guns were ou the other side of Maubergo. ...■■'

■ The facts about the Lanieres works were given two or three weeks ago by the■ "Humanite" and the "Bataille Syndicaliste," but the rest of.'the press; ignored them, and continued'to treat the story as true. It was the prototype of the other similar stories that have 'cropped up in various- parts of France, not one of which is at present supported by any satisfactory' evidence. If and when the others are investigated we shall see whether, they have -any foundation or whether, like the Lanieree myth, they are pure inventions, without even a plausible .basis in fact._ At present it is iinpo3s.ible .to investigate the other stories, because—no doubt for excellent, reasous —no exact indications of locality have been given. All tna't we have been told is that platforn\s for guns have been found in some unnamed place near somewhere or other. When details are given enabling the stories to be investigated it will be time to consider them. '..-.

RUSSO-TURKISH FRONTIER

WAR ON THE ARMENIAN TABLE- .-..•■ LAND. . Russia, and Turkey have one common land frontier, and that a short one. For 300 miles from Mount Ararat westward to tho Black Sea coast, a little south of Batuni, the Tsar's territories march with the Sultan's., At Ararat begins the ■frontier of Persia, which lies east of Turkey and south-east of Russia. In considering the military position, it should be remembered that Russian troops are in effectual occupation of North-western Persia.; . ■ Tho.'Ararat-Batiim boundary is purely conventional'. Russia possesses a natural rampart of great strength in the Caucasus, a range measuring 750 miles .from sea to sea, and on tho average over 100 miles across, witL .only one groat military road through it. The. peaks riso far above the snow line. About 150 yeaTs ago, however, the Slav Empire spread over.the mountains, and the border was from that time pressed steadily south, until after the- Turkish war of 1877-8 it reached its present position, 200 miles beyond the Caucasus. Along the southern foot of the mountains lies the narrow furrow through which tho rivers Rion and Kura flow west and east. To the south, again, rises the northern edgo of the great Iranian plateau. For 150 miles the ascending slope is Russian, but its culminating point near Erzerum, 6000 feet above the sea. level, lies 50 miles on the ■Turkish side of the frontier. The plateau. streteheS; -westward across Asia 'Minor. Elevated 'plains soparated by mountain ranges and broken by wild gorges support small populations. On the Black Sea coast the Lazis, in the middle the Armenians, and on the Persian border the Kurds outnumber the Turks who live among them.- Head streams of the Euphrates and Tigris cross tho uplands southward and westward, while one important river, the _ Choruk Su, finds a course northward into Russia.

In times of peace Russia has three army corps and four cavalry divisions stationed in the Caucasus, and Turkey two armp corps on the Armenian tableland. The fortress of Kara, which played a famous part in Turkish hands in the war.of 1877,' is on the Russian side of the present border. , • ,

A CURRENT TALE IN GERMANY

GERMAN DOCTORS' CONTRADICTION. Most horrible iales of atrocities committed by Belgians upon Germans have been current for a long time in Germany. Tho . "Kolnische Volkszcitiinp" of October 29 published the following interesting letter upon this subject written by a man of superior education:— ' . "In spito of the repeated warnings of the Press, wild rumours .-about the soldiers with gouged-out eyes to bo found in tho ophthalmic hospital at Aachen continue to be circulated. In tho course of a journey in the neighbourhood of Aachen I myself frequently heard these horrible stories. For in— stnnre, a soldier sitting at a table of 'tlu! upper ten thousand' in an hotel near Aachen riivo mo the following evirloimc :'t have niysnlf been in the oplithalmio hospital in the Stephanstraase,

A sister led mo into a dark ward hung with black—the so-called death ward. Twenty-eight noldicrs with gouged-out eyes were lying there. At my entranco they cried out to mo in bitter anger and pain, "If you are a comrade, stab us to death." • Other soldiers confirmed this statement, and those who were sitting round told me, when I expressed some doubts, that these reports wero current in all directions. "On Monday, October 19, I went to call on the director of tho hospital in question, Dr. Buellers, who said, 'Very well. I will show you this terriblo ward.' He opened the door of a sickroom.' The occupants were all right. A second and then a third ward is inspected. 'Is anyone in pain?' ,'No, doctor.' was tho answer. Finally another door is opened. Here we found darkened lights, black curtains: All of a sudden the electric light is turned on. 'Does that hurt your eyes?' 'No. doctor.' 'Were your eyes gouged out in Belgium?' The wounded men laughed aloud. And so it went on through all the wards. There was misery ,aml pain in some of them. Cases in which both eyes had been injurprf were very rare. "The surgeon-in-chiof, turning to mo, said: 'If you, want to state in public what yon have seen, please write that neithor I nor my colleague have up to tho present treated a single soldier with goiiged-out eyes.' " The same letter proceeds to'deal with the Teport, which hrts much circulation in Germany, of dead men anil dead horses being found on battlefields with their eves cut out. An ambulanco man who had been over a great many battlefields, questioned on the point, said that he himself had never seen a dend or wounded man who had been mutilated in this way. As to horses, it seemed not improbable that carrion crows were responsible for mutilations.

A BELGIAN. SOLDIER AND "HIS FIRST GERMAN" WHY HIS" FEELING CHANGED. A correspondent writes to the "Manchester Guardian": —l was taking tea the other day'.with a party of three or four Belgians who are the guests of tho .Nonconformists of a small town in tho Midlands. One of the Belgians, a young student.from Louvain University, who joined' the colours a t the outbreak of war, and who saw a good deal .of the earlier lighting and. Jiad been wounded, did nio'sc of the talking. The conversation had gone round to Belgian politics and educational problems, whenit was brought back to the war by the question of ,a little English boy who was one of the party. VDid you aver kill a German, sir?" he asked. In reply the young Belgian told how he'killed-his first German. . . , Hβ and a comrade wore on one occasion on outpost duty in a village near Tormonde, and hearing the sound of horses' hoofs they hastily ran into the street, and saw two Uhlans coming towards them. It is no part of a Uhlan's duty'to fight when ho is out, to gather information, and both of them turned their horses' heads and made' off. The student hit one in tho knee with a bullet, and the man fell to the ground. He was helped into a house and later on to a field hospital. .His captor, feeling sad at having hit a man, frequently visited him, and as ho spoke German they became quite friendly. The wound did not heal, fever set in, and it became evident that tho Uhlan was dying. He handed over a packet to tho man who had shot him and asked him to forward it to Germany, and soon afterwards died. , Tho Belgian found that the letter contained a photograph of a girl, a short letter. written to her bidding her good-bye, and a few lines of poetry, obviously, original., Before- the prormee could be kept, the efcudeut was wounded in tho leg and carried in an unconscious condition to another hospital. : When he recovered he asked after his belongings, and the nurse explained that the doctor, having examined the ■contents of his pockets, had discovered 'the German's letter, and taken steps :td secure its safe dispatch. "And did you much mind killing this German?" a'sked , the little boy. "Oni, I did then; but not now, after Louvain—understand? .1. was* glad," said' the Belgian; : , ■ . ■-■

GLOOM IN GERMANY*

OMINOUS MURMURS OF RESENT-; , MENT. . According to the Amsterdam correspondent of the ."Now York Hurald," Writing under date" Octobsr 24, German gloom increases. The boisterous gaiety bf the earliest stages of the war is being rapidly .replaced'.by, subdued, sobriety intermingled : with .the lowest depths of depression. Bad fflows has travelled quickly, and now'something of the .truth of the position is'beginning to dawn upon the Emperor's subjeots. The retreat of the German armies in France is known everywhere, and distorted news officially circulated cannot conceal facts. . '■ ■ -. . . '■ .• Too many people have received notification from military authorities of -the death of a son or husband. "So many hundreds of thousands'. '■ have learned that one of their family has.been wounded in action." The losses of the Germans have been appalling, the correspondent says. While the Allies have five or eix wounded for every fljldier killed, the proportion of Germans kill-' '.ed is nearly one-half of tho total. After barefulexamination of all available lists, and comparing and weighing information derived from specially well-informed quarters in ,Germany, the correspondent estimates that 250,000 Germans have been killed,: and that the killed and wounded together number between 500,000 and 600,000. These may appear startling figures, the correspondent, eays, "but- the slaughter has been so relentless and the sacrifice of German. soldiers so utterly callous that there is little reason to doubt that they are substantially accurate. In advancing and retiring, • I am told that tho'Germans suffered losses unprecedented in the annals of warfare." , , Nothing, the writer says, has caused so much surprise in Germany as the inactivity of'the great German fleet. The great value of a Navy to Germany has been asserted, and its menace to Great Britain extolled. Great masses of tho German people fully expected.it would at least hold tho British Navy m check, and many of them expected sensational maritime victories. Many exijerts reckoned with certainty that Great Britain would never send a substantial Expeditionary Force to France so. long as the German Fleet was m being. The. national chagrin at the failure of the Grand German ' Fleet to do little more than conceal itself in German fortified harbours is almost pathetic, The Germans, says the correspondent in closing his dispatch, "aro beginning to feel that they .have' been duped and misled by their -rulers, and signs are beginning to manifest themselves that they will voice their resentment vigorously. It is rumoured here that ■unemployment in Germany increases and distresa-grows.'. The murmurs of the people, however, are not yet ortioulate and hardly audible..., They resemble the first low, ominous growl of a savagedog." _^

The wonders of tho deep are being considerably increased .by the modern steamboat, tin .board the Anuitaiua there is an electrical plant; bin enough to lujht a town the size of Plymouth or Coventry. Tho chief engineer has under him thirty-four engineer officers and 3"iO men. The "Kind's Oak" at Tilford, the apo oC which'is "estimated by some authorities ftl 1000 years, has lately become seriously decayed, and in daiißor if collapse. Tho decayed, '"'d '" danger of colapse. and the cavity filled with masonry, under the supervision of au expert from Kow Gardens.