War in Half-an-houp.

Manawatu Herald, 22 April 1899, Page 2

War in Half-an-houp.

HOW GERMANY WATCHES FRANCE. As all the world knows (^ay9 tbt Daily Mail) Metz and Strasburg. the outputs of the German Army, face watchfully towards ihe wes.. From the gates of Me-z the road to PjH< taper through wall after will of entrenchments, which enl in tb< height* above the s.rickeo fi^ld o* Gravelotte. Thence to tUe froatier of Fiance U only a short walk across the gravecovered ground. From M>:ts to France is jaat one long 4I glacis " -unassailable by the invader. Above it rise thefiva great S'-ntinsl f irts which surround M-* z ; and from the high ground on whic«. .hese stand you can clearly fee. fifteen niile3 to your west, Verdun, th? noarest French f jrtreas— thr^a •f France. When you have been half an hour in Muz and Strasburg you see thai you are in the entrenched camp of an army ready for way. lof.inrry. oivalry, artillery, and the ivst of t.womp'ete army corps are all iqiipperi n if for instant active service What General L iboeuf untruthfully -aid of F.anoß in 1870 is true ol Germany in 1899: - "NOT A SHOE LACE IS WANTING." Touch the right buttVn in Berlin and in half an hour 80,000 men wil be marching from Met 2, and within twelve hours 100,000 men— tb frontier field force of Alsace Inrraire will be crossing the border while th, system in accordance with which the railroad* Up all the great oanton ment* of Germany, and theo converge on to the frontier, will land half a million near M tz in threi days. In a week two and a hilf million men will be on* and beyond tbi frontier : in a week four million Germans will be under arm 3. In Mrflz and Strasburg stores and food . and fooder lie ready in the magazines, the transport animals stand harnessed to the wagon*. \ll the appliances and munitions ol m >dern war to hand, and would be on the road in a few minutes. When the troops go " route marching " they carry with tb^in three day*' ammunition ; their clothes are in th-iir knapsacks. They can carry n< more in war. Metz and Straeburg are the imprcg nable •• advance bases " of tu< frontier forop, which stands alert along the rim of F. aocp. Thence it can launch itself across the border, or stand and b xr the way to G j i m voy. The ont«ida circle of defoneo at Metz 13 a chain of fores, some of b^ra all but invisible. Tnnse ar< itmel with non; know how m^ny guns, for none may enter but th \ Great Staff itself. Thn circle is three miles from the city, its centre ; the forts are about three miles apart, so that fire from dach would cover the spice which lies between thorn. That is to siy, cxc 'pt you paaa through the zma o= smash one of the links of the ch.iio, you can assuredly not enter oattack Metz itself. Eich fort stands on a biil sloping emjothly and g ntly downwards towards Franc*. No eaomy can approach within four miles of the oity unledd he first

demolishes the forts — and a 9 these dug from the inside of the hills, and offer no broader target than the muzzles of their &un§, you will conclude that Metz is practically impregnable. I approached one of these forts a 1 ? close as a sentry would allow me. The garrison of the two regiments of infantry and one regiment of artillery live in AN EXCAVATED BARRACK, which is entirely underneath the* surface of the ground, and completely hid from view. Ai seen from the French side, nothing whatever shows except one long mound, from which protrudes rows of loopholes of various siz>s. Even as seen from the rear, you can get no more idea of what is within than yon know what are the contents of a coal-mine when you have only stood above the shaft. All I knew was that there, within the earth, were hidden nearly 8000 men, with 3000 riflei and about 1000 heavy guns - not to ppeak of machine guns. A.U I law were mounds of smooth green earth, out which stuck the tips of the mazzlts of the gone pointing westwards, and outside Wftll of flanking entrenchments, to meet the energenoy of the fort being turned, and at the rear of each fort, magazine after magazine of shells, each magazine being out ont of the earth juat like an Egyptian tomb. Supposing that you are an invader and have passed this chain of forts, you find yourself in a space of open ground some two miles broad. Even then you are only on another glacis, for you are now within the fire zone of the batteries in the first line of the entrenched worki, which immediately surround the city itself. In the front line of these works, are at Straßburg, the heavy seige guna I feared to ask how many ; the gunners live within the earthworks themselves ; while on either flank and immediately in the rear are entrenchments and infantry lines ; rear, again, more entrenchments, and the lines of cavalry and field artillery. Close to each are their several magazines, which contain all they need ; while in rear of all are the engineers, with their depot and " park," the commissariat, the telegraph and hospital corps, with their depots ; INOFFENSIVE THOUGH EVER PRESENT. In Strasburg lie the stores ard impedimenta of two army corps fur two years, And this, in the midst of the ci o't o f rifles and cannon, the civiltuu element — considerable at Straaburg, small at M^'Z —pursues its Ufa ; the storekeepers and merchants go about their work in the old Fivnch cities ai do the camp f»l lowers on our Egyptian and Indian frontfera But if you, among the shops of Strasburg are even inclined to deny that you are in a camp of troops ready for instant war, then walk far enough in any one direction, and yon will <oin com* up to tha gr«y and blue circles of soldiers in which you nre, Tha German army is ready for defence. But yet, in spite of all this Me'z and Strasburg convey no threat ; they seen m^r?ly to ba reminding the ne'ghbour of whit is past ; th -y *eem raeerly to be a recognition ■.f Ff.-nch instability ; they are. just a proof that G^rminy cannot forg t Bismarck's maxim— "Never trust Prance." The swords hang over France but t will be the fault . of the French ruemselves alone if the thread which upholds it is cut.