No European Peace Overtures

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 77, 7 March 1916, Page 5

No European Peace Overtures

CURRENT WAR TOPICS. If the cables are to be believed, the Germans have clone their dash at Verdun, in other words, they have made their maximum sacrifices and are preparing 'for an offensive elsewhere. This appears to be borne out by the transference of the Crown Prince's headquarters to Mulhausen and the uninterrupted movement of troop trains southward from the Rhine. Mulhausen is in Alsace, about thirty miles north east of Belfort, which was referred to in this column yesterday as the probable point of a French offensive upon Germany. Today's news rather bears out this contention, as heavy cannonading has been reported from the Black Forest, a mountainous wooded stretch in South-west Germany, stretching through the gr'andduchy of Baden for 100 miles, along the right bank of the Rhine, and parallel to the similar range of the Vosges on the left bank. It is a region of lovely valleys winding among wooded heights, the loftiest of which is 4900 feet high in Feldberg, and it is inhabited by an industrious race of woodcutters and lumbermen, and makers of wooden clocks, barrel organs, musical boxes, and straw hats.

The Black Forest is one of the favorite summer resorts of the Germans, and is also of great strategic importance as a barrier to the direct passage of troops east or west between South Gerniany and Alsace and France. The principal bulwark is' the entrenchments built in 1704 of Kniebis, which are 3080 feet high. In 1796 these were forced by the French General Moreau, who was in command of the Army of Ahe Rhine, but who, being unsupported, conducted a masterly retreat to the Rhine. In German legend and literature, the Black Forest plays no inconsiderable part, being the home of many quaint legends. Mannheim, which is-also mentioned in the cables, is in Baden, thirty four miles north of Carlsruhe, at the confluence of the Neckar with the Rhine. It is one of the principal shipping centres of South Germany, with a population of about 200,000. Mannheim suffered severely during the Thirty Years War and was again destroyed in 1689 by the French. On the face of the map, it would be only guesswork to place the actual scene of the action, the sound of which has reached Mannheim, as this # town is distant from the Franco-German frontier at least 100 miles. The probability is that a mistake has been made in the name. Most likely, Mulhausen was what the Cablecrammer meant.

The ramifications 'of airships are strikingly shown in the latest attack on England, when, almost without exception, every county on the East Coast was visited. A glance at the map will coavey the Meat impression of the extent of their flight, faking Heligoland as the base from which tho airships started, the length of the journeys must have been anything up to 1000 miles in some cases. To the Norfolk or Suffolk coasts, the nearest point of English land to Heligoland, it is about a 500 miles journey straight there and back. "When the devious flights are taken into consideration, and the distance to the Yorkshire and the northern counties measured up, it will be found that the estimate of 1000 miles is approximately correct, as shown by the triangle, Heligoland to Yorkshire (400 miles), to Kent (300), to the base (350). Calculating on an average of 60, miles an hour as the rate of speed throughout, the raiders must have been over England for about six hours.

The Germans are easily satisfied if the result of their last raid (12 killed and 33 injured) gives them any satisfaction outside the opportunity to gloat at Britain heing made to feel the horrors of war. This feeling is shown strikingly in an amazing novel called "Hindenburg's March into Lon-

don," which has recently been translated into English and is securing a big ready sale. The book is said to bo worth reading, not because it is good literature, or because it is funny, but because it is well to know something of the mind of the enemy. For che purpose of this topic % it will be sufficient to quote a short reference to the part -the airships were supposed to play in the invasion of Britain. There is an amazing. comment upon a great Taube raid on London. It shows the nature of the satisfaction which the Germans derive from their baby killing expeditions.' "])i'tring the days of the hard calamities of war with which England and her accomplices have visited the entire world," he says blasphemously: "it is an indescribably majestic feeling to play the Lord God, to be able to send down lightnings on English soil to exact retribution for the fault of the English intriguers, who, in frivolous temerity, once began 'to play with th,*; idea of the world-wide war." Again, that night terror again stalks in the Metropolis. A fleet of Zeppelins sails forth and pours bombs upon "the town of pedlars, the town of envy. These are the last wonderful strokes in the European concert dreamed of by Edward VII."

Though the cables invariably speak of "Zeppelins," these are not .the only typo of aii-ship used by Germany. The types invented by Major Parseval and Professor Schutte are also being turned oui, and it has even been asserted that the new Schutte-Lan/. airships are much superior to the Zeppelins. They arc built (according to the editor of the "Aeroplane") on the "outside skeleton" principle, but the frame is of wood instead of aluminium. Hence they are almost free from the worst of the Zeppelin's troubles ; n not having, after one or two fairly long journeys, or a short journey in rough'weather, to lay up for weeks while the internal, girder work is repaired. The light aluminium nuts and bolts used in Zeppelin type of airship arc said to rack loose or break or pull through the sheet aluminium girders, with the result that the whole ship becomes slack and flabby, and would before long fall to pieces if not overhauled. In the Schutte-Lanz this trouble is reduced, so longer continuous service is secured. Also the Schutte-Lanz is said to be ten miles an hour faster than any Zeppelin.

There is little further startling news from the theatres of war outside the fact that Ceneral Alymer, who has been bottled up in Kut-el-Aniara, has given battle to the Turks. No details of the result of the action are sent along, but it is satisfactory to learn that British reinforcements have arrived to succor the beleaguered garrison. Bagdad is said to be in imminent danger of falling into the Allies' hands, and a success at Kut would be of great assistance towards this end. Nothing is reported of the position in the Balkans or of the operations in Russia.

Wherever peace talk may come from, Colonel House, President Wilson's confidential agent, who has been on a visit to Europe, is of opinion that nowhere is there any sign of peace overtures; in fact, he is fully convinced that the war is still far from coming to an end.—P.J.P.