The Manawatu Herald. Thursday, August 20, 1914. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1287, 20 August 1914, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Thursday, August 20, 1914. NOTES AN D COMMENTS.

One local miller offered a piece of land to his employees and the use of the team for ploughing, in which to plant potatoes. Several employees availed themselves of the offer and planted tubers. One man objected; “What’s the use of planting potatoes for other blokes to steal ?’ ’ If the pinch comes that man will probably envy the fruits of a profitable employment of spare time by his fellows and in true socialistic fashion expect a share of the spuds. Every man who has a spare piece of ground and a few hours on hand should [not fail to plant a supply of vegetables because there is no knowing what the food shortage- may be in the future. Anyhow, the present tilling of the soil will be more profitable in the future than a discussion on socialistic platitudes, while resting the back against a verandah post.

In an article on the use of the aeroplane in war, which appeared recently in the Morning Post, London, it was pointed out that reconnaissance, for which the aeroplane was so remarkably adapted, might come to be the last duty which it would have to perform. Just as surely as the horseman was challenged to fight for his information, said the writer, so would the aeroplane be challenged, and it would have to be armed and equipped to accept the challenge. Just as the cavalry fight had often to precede the search for information, and the possession of it rested with the victors, so the first effort of the Flying Corps commander would be to beat his opponent to the ground and keep the air clear for his own purposes of reconnaissance. Nor would it be for reconnaissance only that he would use the field that he had won. What was left of his fleet would be employed for ceaseless harrying of the enemy’s fortresses and camps and in attempts to destroy the depots on his lines of communication. In such a forecast, added the writer, one was not forgetting that the aeroplane had not jet been seriously opposed, and that the shell and the gun to prove its special bane might already have been invented. Most certainly the plane would soon have to confront the invention ranged against every new engine

of war. aud for that reason it seemed probable that much which was at present regarded as within the aircraft’s sphere, such as directing the fire of batteries in a general action, would disappear from it.

Kiau-Chau Bay, in China, which Japan lias asked Germany L quit before a given date, is Germany’s only Asiatic possession. It was seized in November, 1807, by the German fleet, nominally to secure reparation for the murder of two German missionaries in the Province of Shantung. In 1898 the bay aud the land on both sides of the entrance were leased to Germany for oo years. During the continuance of the lease Germany exercises all the rights of territorial sovereignity, including the right to erect fortifications. The area leased is about 117 square miles, and over a further area, comprising a zone of some 32 miles measured from any point on the shore to the bay, Germany exercises a protectorate. The population of the ceded area is 84,000. The chief seat of government is Ts’ingtao, the administration being entrusted to the German Navy Department. The German garrison in Kiau-chau consists of 92 officers, 2394 German non-commissioned officers and men, and one battalion of the East Asiatic Garrison Brigade, The port is used as a fortified base for the German Far Eastern Squadron. The United States is now satisfied that Japan is not seeking to acquire the possession of territory.