The Manawatu Herald. Tuesday, March 23, 1915. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 1377, 23 March 1915, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Tuesday, March 23, 1915. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

An American writer, who claims to know Germany well and whose sympathies are thoroughly British, deals with the question “ Gan Germany Win?” He does not believe she can, but he considers that danger lies in underestimating the German people at this time. Germany is not an unwilling nation being flogged to war. She has set out with the spirit of the conqueror, and she is confident that she will win. And she will pursue this object unflinchingly with ruthlessness and cruelty, and with methods of scientifically-pre-pared and logically-cultivated barbarism, of which there is already ample evidence. That she will win in the long run, even by these means, I do not believe. But the struggle will be longer and more bitter than you think. The great factor, which in England is strangely overlooked, or—if not completely overlooked—most ignorantly and negligently under-rated, is the present spirit of the German people. To me it is amazing that a race, commonly so well informed as the English, should be so hopelessly without knowledge on this most essential point. This may be a harsh thing to say, but if my manner is blunt, my intent is friendly. The English will have to learn the truth on this point sooner or later, and they may learn it more unpleasantly than from a few straight words of mine. The spirit of the German people is a mighty force w T hlch must be faced.”

The eyes of the world are on the Dardanelles, and the operations of the British and French fleets in forcing the narrows en route to Constantinople. The Dardanelles are perhaps the most historically important of the “ narrow waters” of ancient and modern times. From the fifth and fourth centuries before the Christian era, when Xerxes and Alexander both bridged the Hellespoint (as the ancients called the Straits), up till the present year of grace-some 41 centuries afterwards—the Dardanelles may be said to have contributed some very stirring chapters to the history of Europe, says Chamber's Journal. Some of the old forts have been practically reconstructed, and the latest type of Krupp guns have been placed in position at the most effective positions in the Straits. The heights of Cape Hellas have been re-armed, and powerful steel protected fortifications have been constructed at Chanak and Kilid Bahr, so as to command the narrowest part of the passages. An arrangement of torpedo tubes has been set up at the water’s edge, while al! down the Asiatic coast of the sea of Marmora from Omali to Dapsaki, strong earthworks on ‘‘the terrace” system, and containing heavy guns, are now in evidence. Not only are the Straits thickly mined, but they are patrolled day and night by steam trawlers. Powerful searchlights have also been placed at the entrances and at various commanding positions on both coasts, whilst the approaches to the Dardanelles by laud have been protected bv earthworks and trenches supported by detached forts, most noticeably so in the direction of the Gulf of Saros. But it is quite characteristic that the Turks—being, as always, Turks, and not perhaps having then had their German mentors at their elbow—should have left an old type of rain, gun at the forts guarding the entrance; hence their destruction, with the loss of 90 German and Turkish officers and soldiers, at the bands of the British men-of-war! But the control of the Straits by an unfriendly Power has greatly affected British interests in the past, and will affect them still more in the future. This is due to the great and increasing supply of wheat which is derived from Russian and Roumanian sources, the present value of which exceeds per annum. It is not in the interests of either Russia or Roumauia, therefore, any more than of Great Britain, for that matter, the people of Turkey who also export wheat —as distinct from their pro-German Government, that the control of the Dardanelles should be in the hands of a strong and unfriendly Power,