The Stratford Evening Post. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1912. THE WAR GAME.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 81, 28 November 1912, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1912. THE WAR GAME.

Hie latest effort of the Army Council at Home is the formation of a Territorial Corps of Guides. This Corps will be composed of men who possess an intimate knowledge of localities and local circumstances, and they will he available for employment in war with troops operating in their neighbourhood. It is left entirely to the discretion of each Territorial Association whether a corps of guides shall be raised or not, but they nuiy proceed with the formation at once. Their organisation, it is pointed out, will necessarily vary under different local conditions. If the Association decide to raise a corps of guides, there will be no grant from army funds for the purpose, nor may the funds of the Association be expended on the service, except for postages. The conditions are that the Association shall appoint a Chief Guide to raise and command the corps. District guides will be appointed at suitable centres whose fuhbtion will be to gain a thoroughly detailed knowledge of their district and arrange for co-operation with the district guides in adjoining districts, whether within or without their,own country. The district guides will appoint local guides to assist them in their work. Military training ikS not essential, and they will not bear arms unless they are serving in the armed forces of the Crown, and will not. wear uniform unless they are so serving. On mobilisation any distinguishing badge required by the Hague Convention would be supplied. A register of the guides in each country will lie prepared under the supervision of the Chief Guide. Each guide will he required to sign an undertaking in the following form :—“ln the event of invasion, or of tlie mobilisation of the military forces in the United Kingdom, I undertake to act as a guide to the troops of His Majesty the King if so required by the military authorities.’’

The military correspondent of a leading English journal discussing the matten - remarks that this new movement opens up a wide field of specialisat on and inquiry for those who have studied the topography of different portions of the country. The information needed will vary according to the arm of the service demanding it. it is assumed, for instance, that the knowledge of huntsmen will he best suited to direct the leader of cavalry, that the land-

owner or farmer will be better acquainted with the surface .of the roads and the gradients host suited for the transport of heavy technical stores and for tiie passage of guns and general transport. The weight capacity of bridges would require the expert knowledge of the engineer, while information in relation to places where troops could billet or bivouac, and the nature and extent of the water and food supply could be given by any of the district guides who knew their district thoroughly and had some acquaintance with the requirement of troops. Possibly the, most trying and responsible duty will bo the guiding of troops across country by night. It is held that in modern warfare night marches have become more than ever necessary, for one thing, in order to conceal movements from observation by the enemy’s airships. Under the most favourable conditions the officer who undertakes night marches in warfare incurs a heavy responsibility, which a trained guide would greatly assist in relieving. When the regular army is moving by night in open country where reliable guides are not available the route is fixed by compass bearings, and the general direction is sometimes fixed by means of stars. The new Guidos Corps will play an important part in this aspect of the groat game of war.

LOOKING FORWARD,

It will not, says the London correspondent of the “Age,” surprise any student of Continental affairs to hear that the German people are reading with avidity a new hook called “The European War of 1913,” which gives an imaginary picture, set out with much strategical detail, of a gigantic conflict involving six nations—Britain and France against Germany and Holland, Austria against Italy (with swift disaster to the latter), and then Austria successfully aiding Germany to achieve the glorious result that, all good Germans believe to be inevitable in the near future. The details are highly stimulating. While the allied military forces of France and Britain are being pulverised on the Belgian frontier—Belgium being trampled over impartially by all concerned—the British fleet, ranged idly along an array of impregnable forts on the North Sea coast, is suddenly attacked from above by Zeppelin airships which cripple .(the best Dreadnoughts with high-power explosives. The German fleet then emerges and completes the destruction at its leisure. In odd half-days the German aircraft find congenial occupation in terrorising London, and making debris of the naval yards at Portsmouth and Chatham. Of course, Britain is as little able to make Austria uncomfortable as it is to withstand Germany, as there will be “no British fleet in the Mediterranean.” It all works out as fortuitously as the war gods of Berlin and \ ienna would have it. France, though beaten, -‘s not crushed. It is magnanimously forgiven on condition that it isolates the real enemy 7 and accepts the friendship of Germany. Destruction and humiliation are reserved for Britain alone. It is rather curious that the honour of composing these agreeable fancies does not belong.to a German. The writer is stated to be an officer on the general staff of the Japanese Army. The Japanese were ever versatile.

THE NEWEST SHIP.

The “corrugated ship” is the latest idea in shipbuilding. Instead of the flat sides of the ordinary steamer the new type of vessel has a double corrugation—two outward bulges and a corresponding inward bulge between them—running fore and aft udder the load water-line and tapering off into the normal shape at how and stern. The idea was conceived some few years ago by Mr Ericsson, a Swedish ■, engineer resident in Newcastle-on-Tyne. He made a model and tried it in a tank, and the results were so satisfactory that he built the corrugated freight steamer Monitoria, with a carrying capacity of 3125 tons. This steamer has now been in regular service for over three years, principally in the Baltic and Mediterranean. A sister ship, the Hyltenia, has now been running twelve months, and a third is being built at Sunderland. A well known naval officer, who spent a month in one of these corrugated steamers on the Baltic speaks very highly of them.’ The principle object of the side corrugations is strength. An iron plate that has been bent or corrugated can stand a much greater strain than the same plate flat. Owing to the increased strength of the hull the builder has been able to dispense with half of the vertical ribs that are necessary with a flat skin, and altogether with stronger plates or longitudinal frames. The result is much greater carrying capacity at no greater, and probably less, cost. An all-round saving in fuel of some 16 per cent, is claimed ; in other words, a “corrugated” vessel can travel to this extent more quickly or further than a plain ship of like dimensions and horse power. The “corrugated” steamer is almost incomparably steadier in a had sea. The adontion of this new idea for the largest liners and for battleships is even advocated. With regard t.o the latter, the armour plate would present no difficulty. Anything which would procure a stendv gun platform or that would reduce vibration (particularly hi swift cruisers and torpedoboats') will he of special interest t.o the navy.