WAR JOTTINGS

Horowhenua Chronicle, 8 January 1915, Page 3

WAR JOTTINGS

A French correspondent, describing the J3t-itiLs.li repulse ot <tho Prussian Guards at Zonneboko, near Ypres, last month, says:—Tlio English ft ta if wero dining when a despatch-Ik arer announced tho approach of strong columns of tho oneiny with cavalry acting as a scrOcn and supported by ten latteries of artillery and two heavy guns. Tho English general succeeded in seizing a strntegic point of the railway boforo the onomy and opened firo with his batteries. The Prussians continued! to advance tlio first rank firing lying down, tho second kneeling, and tho remainder standing. Suddenly their ranks opened and m,aehine-guins aippeared. Tlio situation looked critical, but the English general orclreed a bayonet cliarge. One cokincl headed hie regiment, shouting "For Honor and England I" The opposing ranks met with a terrible shuck. Tho bayonets of tho Allies and tho enemy frequently ; went home at the same moment. The ground am] tho uniforms nnd faces of tlio co-mbainnts jworo eiplashcd Iwith Vriinr-un. The Prussians iKXiknl and broke liwfiiro the British onslaught. Gerninii prisoners state that they wci'e .'-.I the Brittish battle-cries u reminiscent of football. The G.-rirvij*. were- sliot and bayoneted to tli. i.ri<-*i <,( : On" the ball!" "Murk yoiiv niu.'i!"- "Hoi'e't, fo.r a goal!" * ;.■ a # * • * "AVtil* . nnflngrations. Botli have a 'lutur.il teiidim-.y to spread, unless they are kept under sin'cb control," These are the opening ,<-e?ilenoes of an nrticlo in tho i'Y/rtnigi,Uy by "Fabriciiis." Ho suggests that the^Germans having token Antwerp, will endeavor to seize the Flushing fortifications l>y a coup de main, pleading necessity ; and as Holland cannot lose Flushing and ~«t . i i..._i.'j._ 'j.l. • _ _ -i _i

yet maintain her neutrality, this would mean that she would be dragged into the war. Then there aro indications that tho force of public opinion will lead Italy to occupy the Italian territories of Austria-Hungary. Roumania is in a position similar to that occupied by Italy, and if slio wishes to advance a claim on the unredeemed Roumanian provinces in Hungary, she must do so before it is too late. So Rflu mania may conic in shortly. Then there is Bulgaria—she may be expected to follow a policy which promises to be most • profitable to her, and she is not likely obe found on the losing side. An attack on Turkey by Greece is very probable. Before long, the armies of Hol--1 an<l, Italy. Ron mania and Greece and. pehaps of Bulgaria, also may bo drawn into the war. All nations, it is added, nro vitally interested in Germany's failure, and the United States may at last be forced to intervene, in the interests of humanity, and of their own security. On the field of battlo it-self the German intelligence work seems to be well organised (writes the London correspondent of an Australian paper). Here, the critic can only admire. German scouting has always been brilliant, and tin? name it mm in the Austrian and I'Yenoh wars of tho middle of last century has in tin way suffered. Tho German scouts havo kept pace with modern, science, and their ingenuity and daring have been worthy a better cause. At one place in Poland ive are told si. Russian patrol saw two men, apparently peasants; digging potatoes. nnd loading them into a cart. Tho Russians searched tho cart. 'but. found nothing except the potatoes, til! one of them noticed the horse's nosebag wiw curiously bulky. They took it oif and found it continued a telephone transmitter. The wire went to the wheel and then through tho grass to a cotago. whore complete iiifttalllafcion of two instruments was discovered. At ; - another place troops were crossing a bridge, and saw a fisherman casting his lines into a river from a boat moored close by. Summoned to the shore to sell the fish he had caught, he refused. and the soldie-re sent in another boat to compel him. discovered that be had mi electric button at the bottom of he boat. A wire went through the water and «'!is- joined to an underground caible on the bank. The supjwsed fisherman was really a, spy and was signalling by tho Morse code, long and abort rings full details of the number of troope crossing the bridge.