The Manawatu Herald. Thursday, January 14, 1915, NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 1347, 14 January 1915, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Thursday, January 14, 1915, NOTES AND COMMENTS.

PhTKocRAi) advices state that 150 guns have been delivered at Danzig, and the surmise that they are tor ships under construction there is doubtless correct. Two of these vessels are good capital ships, and it is only to be expected that their construction should have been hurried along, with the intention of joining the German High Sea Fleet as soon as possible. But there should be no ueed for anxiety over this lact, because in our estimates we bad six of the Queen Elizabeth class of ships, which, if pushed along, would probably be added to Admiral Jellicoe’s fleet at the present time. As our ships mount eight 15m. guns each —which is the same as the largest German addition—our increased strength in Dreadnoughts will be in the ratio of six to two. We may also place reliance on the statement of Mr Churchill that our fleet is continually increasing in numerical superiority.

To those who, reading the war communiques, note that progress is reported in a certain district day after day, and when they refer to their war map at the end of the week, find that the sum total seems to have been no progress at all—to these it is essential that a good idea of the nature of the fighting in the western theatre of war should be secured, lest absolute bewilderment be upon them. A despatch by “Eye Witness” spoke of the herculean tasks that were necessary to take a series of German trenches, so cunningly were they constructed, so well were they fortified and hedged about with impediments to an advance, and so stubbornly were they defended. A letter from an officer in the French Ambulance Corps to a Loudon friend well supplements this ; “At some places the trenches,” he says, “are only about 20 metres from each other, and so near that the artillery dare not fire on them from either side, and the men in the trenches dare not move cut, as it would mean certain death, so that in such instances bayonet charges are out of the question. In modeen war one expect:? to deal with an enemy distant and unseen, so that this side of it is peculiar. In these trenches dug in the ground, the soldier can stand upright, safe from bullets. It is only the shells that can destroy the men in the trenches when the artillery happens to get the exact range. Each day, while some of them watch, the others keep on digging, inclining these trenches always towards the enemy, nearer and nearer. With this way of fighting, progress is slow. One considers that a lot has been done if an advance of too metress has been achieved. And if the Germans evacuate a trench, they retire to another one built in the rear, and so it is to begin all over again. It is as I have heard it called, ‘a siege du soT (a siege of ground). It is not at all like the war of 1870-1871. In those days the men fought for a few hours about every eight or fifteen days, and a decisive victory was gained, or the reverse. Now there are few charges, no manoeuvring—simply men disputing, inch by inch, a few metres of laud. The soldiers are re-provisioned during the night, and to prevent attracting the enemy’s notice, it is done in great silence, The colonel and his officers live also in these trenches, and iustal their office and telephone in these caves. As soon as anything suspicious is noticed in the enemy’s trenches, a telephone message is sent to the artillery, and then, if the trenches are far enough apart to allow the enemy to be fired on without the risk of bombarding our own lines, the shells start whistling.”

Speaking at a recruiting meeting at Salford, Lord Newton said he did not know that the country grasped even jet the gravity of the situation, but, having recently had an opportunity of visiting the French and English lines, he felt that he did grasp it. Along a 350 miles front he did not suppose the British position could be more than 25 miles. There the task was very severe. The Prime Minister, who would be the last man to deceive the country, said there were 57,000 casualties, but at present there were more like 80,000, Some battalions had lost all their officers. One crack battalion was commanded the other day by a quartermaster, and two divisions, representing roughly 37,000 men, had been reduced to 5,300. He did not see the wisdom of hiding these facts; he did see the wisdom of urgently impressing upon the nation that reinforcements were urgently lequired. Threats of a German invasion were spread by Germany in the hope ibat they would induce us to keep our soldiers at home, but the device was transparent and would not succeed.

By the Admiralty's announcement at the beginning of last month the North Sea is to be “considered a military area,” and what was done was to close the northern entrance to that sea. The closing line runs from the Hebrides through the Faroe Islands to Iceland, or practically to the Arctic Circle. The southern entrance — the Straits of Dover has, of course, been strictly patrolled all along. The Admiralty explained that the object of closing the North Sea was to prevent Germany from laying mines on the trade routes, By employing merchant ships flying a neutral flag she had already mined the main trade route from America to Liverpool by way of the north of Ireland. Such vessels can now no longer pass through the two entrances to the North Sea. What measures the Admiralty is taking within the North Sea itself are not disclosed. Neutral vessels are directed to pass through the Straits of Dover, thence northward along the English coast to Earn Island, which lies just south of Holy Island. Northumberland, and thence, if practicable, to Lindesnaes lighthouse, off the Naze, the southernmost of Norway. With neutral shipping confined to this route the navy can exercise a complete supervision over it. Eaki.y in the present year the biennial local body elections take place. Under the legislative amendments of three years ago, all local body elections are now to take place upon the one day, so that in April next the electors will be asked to vote for the return of mayors and councillors, members of harbour boards, members of hospital and charitable aid boards, and possibly members of school committees. Prior to the legislative enactment in question each local body held its election upon a different day. Five separate election issues will now be submitted on the one day. In the past mayors have always been elected annually, but under recent legislation it is now provided that the mayor, in common with the council, shall in future be elected for a two-year term. The coming election, therefore, will be the first occasion upon which a mayor will be elected to office for more than a year.