THIRD PHASE PROCEEDING

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 80, 10 March 1916, Page 5

THIRD PHASE PROCEEDING

CURRENT WAR TOPICS.

Germany has declared war against Portugal. The inevitable has happened* but the future course of the war will not be seriously affected thereby. except that Germany will have another Power up against her, which will certainly mean more forces to resist on the western front or wherever the Allies decide they are needed. That Portugal is ready for the fray is certain, for as far back as October, 1914, a partial mobilisation of the Army was ordered, and even then there was a general inclination to join in the European struggle on the side of the Entente. The addition of a few hundred thousand men from the country of Britain's oldest ally will be welcomed by the Allies, though victory for them was, and is, the only outcome of the increasingly unequal contest against the Powers of Evil. The report - that a large fleet of German warships, accompanied by Zeppelins and submarines, were out in the North Sea, and that there was every probability of the rival Navies coming to close grips, roused the people to that degree of excitement which must always be attached to the prospect of "The Day" being at hand. Of course, no one dreams for a moment that the Germans are 1 yet really in earnest in their search for the Grand Fleet, and to-day we have another proof of this. They have already ieturned to their base! Rather an amusing case of rumor again proving a lying jade occurred this morning,, when a well-known resident 'phoned to inquire if it were true that the German Fleet was in the English Channel! At the same moment a cable was lying on the editorial table stating that the German Fleet had cabled the Kaiser stating that they had returned to their base! Out on Monday, home on Thursday! Evidently, they did not waste much time in the North Sea, and must have taken a spin more for the purpose of wash-* ing the barnacles off the ships' bottoms than for anything else! However, it will be interesting to review the reports that have come to hand in connection with the advent of the enemy ships to'the North Sea. It appears they were seen by a trawler off Terschelling, one of the Dutch Friesian Islands at the mouth of the Zuyder Zee. On Monday morning five large cruisers of unknown nationality passed Ymuiden, a fishing town at the terminus of the North Sea Canal, fifteen miles west by north of Amsterdam, going at full" speed. In the afternoon a fleet of at least fifty German warships, followed by a large fleet of armed trawlers, two big Zeppelins, and numerous submarines, were seen proceeding westward. The conjecture aroused by the report was that an attempt was being made to .break the British Blockade. Whatever the game was, the Kaiser has the satisfaction of knowing that his precious Fleet is again safe and sound at the base, growing more barnacles!

The cables announce that some of the funnels of the German ships were curiously painted, one being conspicuous in yellow, while the others were an invisible grey. It is noteworthy, as supporting the conjecture that the Fleet had dashed out to hreak the blockade, that recent reports indicated that such vessels would play a part in Germany's new commercial-raiding and mine-laying policy.

Mi- Archibald Hurd, referring to the loss of H.M.S. King Edward VII. by a mine—all the crew were saV ed—says in tho London Telegraph: "This is the first occasion that the Admiralty has been compelled to announce a disaster to a battleship of the Grand Fleet. Other vessels have gone—armored cruisers, light cruisers, and torpedo-boat destroyers; some older battleships, which were on independent duty, %ave been destroyed; but the Grand Fleet to-day is, actually and relatively, stronger than it was when hostilities opened. This is tho consolation that a review of the naval situation, in the light of the sinking of the King Edward VII., -brings to us. But the margin is not too great—whether it is sufficient, in view of the risks which are and must he run, time r.bne can ..show,"

Lord Kitchener's prophecy or the prophecy which some enterprising person ascribed to .Lord Kitchener, that the Avar would last three years, is supposed, to have been repeated again the other day in Athens. According to a Swiss newspaper correspondent's'version of a statement by the Serbian Minister to Greece, Lord Kitchener declared that the preparations of the Allies would until the end of the second year of war—that! is, until August, 1916 and that the third year of war, until the autiimn of 1917, would be devoted to crushing the Austro-Gennans and their allies. He added that perfect unity exists between the Allies regarding the Balkan campaign, which would certainly ,not be abandoned. England and France would give Serbia all she needed in the way of guns and ammunition and other equipment, and the Serbian army would be able to reorganise. In the meantime, the Allies would continue their concentration of troops at Salonika for an advance from that point. "Our enemies/' the Serbian Minister is supposed to have continued, "cannot fight in all the theatres or war and still dominate the Balkans; their fantastic scheme for the conquest of Egypt is likely to vanish into thin air. Lord Kitchener talked to me of the Russian army. In the .spring Russia will. have under arms no fewer than seven million men. Wait two or three months and you will see. . . Even if no mistakes had been made by the Allies in dealing with the Balkan situation other pretexts would have been found for refusing Greek aid to Serbia Great indecision still exists among the Greek people f and some striking victory in another area of war or the speedy arrival of 300,000 Allied troops in Salonika i snecessary to impress them. I must admit that the Greeks have done everything except intervening actively in the war on our side. Serbians and Greeks are still united in their memories of a common struggle against the Bulgarians, and when this immediate crisis has been surmounted the Bulgarian menace to us both cannot fail to re-unite us in the future."

The principles of the mechanism of the French "seventy-five" are described very interestingly by a French writer in the current number of Blackwood's Magazine. Until 1898 artillery fire was slow, because tdie shock of discharge upset the aim after every shot, so that the gun had always to be laid again. But in that year the French produced a field-gun which was 1 attached, not to its axle tree, but to a buffer in a cradle, which not only absorbed the shock of the recoil, but ran the gun back into exactly its former position. One laying was, therefore, enough, and the rate of fire became much more rapid. Still it could be.no more rapid than the rate at which the gunners could adjust the fuses of the shells. A machine was, therefore invented which would set the shells. Its details are kept secret, but thanks to it, whereas on passing behind a French and a British battery in action "the British gunner appears to be laboriously eviscerating his shell with a tin-opener, the Frenchman you describe as ining a 'beer-engine, with one clean crisp stroke for oach shell."

As a result ot these twt improvements, the seventy-five is easily capable of twenty-live aimed rounds per minute. The details of the recoil-ab-sorber are also kept secret. It consists of a- cylinder beneath the gun, which contains a mixture of glycerine, compressed air, and springs, and, since, if the cylinder is opened up the air escapes, the secret of the proper pressure cannot be obtained even from a captured gun. Next, muzzle velocity, and therefore l'ange, was increased not by increasing the charge and with it the thickness of the walls of the gun, but by making the barrel very long and using a very slow-burn-ing "propellant; it is on this principle that the British naval guns get their range and penetrative power. Finally, it was found possible to make the whole gun and cradle traverse along the axle tree a small number o. e decrees right and loft, without upsetting the stability of the base-thc wheels and the spade at the end of the trail-on which the gun rests. The muzzle of the gun can. therefore be used as a hose. No wonder the s*7eo',y-Sve has been called the finest field-*"* m the world,