GENERAL WAR NEWS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 36, 18 January 1916, Page 5

GENERAL WAR NEWS.

BLOCH'S PROPHESIE& ■> i. i THE oLD SYSTEM AND THE NEW ... • 4 [United Piiess Association.] London, Januasy 16. Mr H. (i. Wells, the well-known .novelist, writing to the Daily Chronicle, paid a striking tribute to German thoroughness and adaptability." A Russian named Blosh, prior to /the Beer war, declared that war was uihyed out, because when the combatants were fairly equal and increasing on-the defensive, the efficiency of entrenched infantry woidd nullify the most brilliant strategy and attacks oy superior numbers, resulting in a deadlock.• Mr Wells points out that the tiermans studied Bloch ? whose book, was not translated into English The Overmans correctly reckoned that their 1911 army had to oppose an enemy retaining the year 1900 methods. Wljen the Germans built their strategic Railways France should have prepared-the most complete trench works. ,T,he Germans should never have passed Liege and the Ardennes. One of.'-the marvellous maxims: of the Dark Ages, which seem to be the chief reading-of our military experts, states that the army which entrenches is defeated. Until the battle of the Marne the war was conducted on the loose mobile 1900 pattern. The Germans were conlident in their overwhelming numbers, but then they abruptly changed ,the game, and, adopting 1914 rules, .entrenched, thereby offending British sporting instincts. The Germans "did not expect the Allies to modernise so soon, and reckoned to achieve victory with the Allies still fifteen years behind. They must not expect a triumphal 'titry into London, Paris Berlin, or Moscow. M. Bloch's prophecies have been justified on the East front, the West. front, and at Gallipoli, and unless sudden peace occurs there is a deadlock—of which the Balkans is the only dramatic, tragic, spectacular, and inconclusive sequel—which can end only by the succumbing of the most exhausted and immobilised of the shattered antagonists.

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS. Loudon, .January 17. The Turks who were defeated at Masagrish left behind them a large quantity of medals which had been struck to commemorate their victory. The British staff distributed them as souvenirs to the troops. Report? from the West front state that the British steel helmet is widely used, and has proved a protection against shrapnel and bomb splinters. The French helmets are picturesque, while the British are strong and light, nit unsymmetrical. Swiss Socialist newspapers state that the German workers are mdigiant at the new taxes, 600 million marks of which are indirectly passed in to them. { Twenty thousand German deserters ire domiciled in Switzerland. An. agination has been commenced for their internment, as they are regarded as iangerous characters. A neutral correspondent in the Telegraaf gives his impressions of a,visit :o Germany. Everywhere he was struck by the number of wounded soldiers, and the Red Cross flag was prominent in all the towns and villages. There was an almost entire absence of middle-aged men, and women and chilIren and old men were carrying . out the field work. There was a total absence of gold. The prevailing temper ;>f the people was no longer jubilant, mt tending to be pessimistic. From •onversations with wounded soldiers it was unquestionable that fhey had had more than enough. There was a total absence of, enthusiasm. -■■ ■;.

The Times' Washington correspond>nt says that the news that Britain it least really means to institute ' a strangulating blockade has been received"with the greatest interest. -Am-M-ican correspondents on the Cnntili>nt agree that wholesale smuggling of food, rubber, and fats is going on from Denmark and Holland into Germany. America is speculating whether Germany is playing fair with the enormous supplies sent to the relief of

Belgium. Private Wells, of the Suffolk Regituent, who has just returned to England, describes the horrors of the treatment of prisoners at Wittenberg. 3e says: "They took my overcoat dur■g freezing weather, and made me march in the snow barefooted. When . could not walk the doctors refused to treat me and left me to die. Three British doctors arrived and found I was suffering from gangrene. They -rperated, removing portions of both •nv feet. Floggings were frequent. When typhus broke o\\t the Gorman doctors bolted." The German press is sarcastic at Mr Runciman's trade speech; The Cologne Gazette says that it is equally impossible to break either the economic or military strength. Germany can hold out as long as she has coal and iron, and winnable soil productive of seed. • Amsterdam, January 17. The Telegraaf asserts that neutral States are negotiating with a view to demanding the liberation of Belgium, and threaten to break off relations with Germany. Berlin, January 16. The Lokal Anzeiger is surprised'to bear that the Dardanelles troops were 'removed with such small losses. Certainly they did not lack ships for the embarkation of the luckless remnants of the expedition.