CURRENT WAR TOPICS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXX, Issue 13, 18 April 1916, Page 5

CURRENT WAR TOPICS.

interesting to note that the following works announced in .1901 are to be''carried out within the next twenty years; (1) A navigable canal joining the Danube with the Oder ; (2) a canal connecting the Danube with the Moldau, (3) the Danube Oder canal, to* be connected with the Middle Elbe and also with the river-Vistula. In 1905 it.was proposed to make a canal to connect the Rhine and the Danube in three sections': from Mannheim to Hcilbromi, utilising the bed of the Neckar; from Heilbronn to Cannstatt or Esslingen; and from Neckarrems to the Danube. Vessels of 4000 tons can steam up the river as far as Braila (above Galatz), and sea-going vessels of 600 tons can proceed as high as Turnu-Severin, at the east end of the Iron Gates gorges. Barges of 600 tons, and vessels drawing less than sft., can get as high as Regensburg in Bavaria. The total length is 1725 miles.

The Balkans still maintains the place of honor as the seat of great possibilities. The Greek Government is between the devil of the Central Powers and the deep blue sea of the Allies! The “strong of it,” “as the racecourses habitues wquld put it, is that the Allies literally told Greece to “Go to tlie devil!” And although His ( Satanic Majesty was beckoning to Tino, Skoudoulis and Co. to join him, I they thought better of it. and swallowed the Allied curse! What the Allies think of Greece is plainly shown in the statement that the Premier was informed that Greece’s official sanction to the' overland transport of- the Serbians was immaterial to. their purpose, which would he carried out willyniljy, and that they would have recourse to strong measures if their designs were thwarted. Again, it is significant that another navfil base is being'established at Suda Bay, in the Island of Crete, similar to the iericnt, move at Argostoli, in the island j of Cephaloma. Poor puny Greece! j|v ",

' Amara/, thirty-one miles, upstream from.-K'alat' Salih, is. the most) considerable town between Basrajriujd Bagdad (writes-the British yvau correspond - ent.vyitli the Mesopptrilriiari force), ft -is - with apd all flotsam'and .jetsam which follows in the'iWiike of the war. The British flag flies over thiu ‘Turkish! Tpir racks, and the wounded British Tommy seated oh a bench in his blue hospital suit surveys lithe' Tigris with the same complacency as he has watched the waters of the Nile, Seine or Thames. The bazaar is spacious and stone roofed, some thirty-five feet in height, as in Bagdad, and the crafts are localised as in all the ’ citiSk" of the" EaSt.' 1 ’ ‘At every turning from the main thoroughfare the ..streeit names are inscribed in fj&nglifh (brisid;eS the rAralnq ; There ir* an A bpporfunity ; ' here : for an imaginative touch, but- one finds a nomenclature which is truly British. Tip* Sook-al-Casareon of the Arabs haj? become plain “Butchers’ Street,”! the ,Sqok-al-Khahareen. “Bakers’ Street,” «‘SapperdStreet,” ! Street,” “Soap Street,” proclaim the needs of the hour, as if the scribq.of Haroun-el-Raschil had never existed'. It is the Turks we are fighting, but it is a significant commenti upon the length and strength of the British arm and the complexities of administration upon which we enter with a light heart that there is not a Turk visible among these thousands of newly-made subjects of the King. All this motley of tribes and religions, with their conflicting interests, policies, and creeds, is incidental. Judging by the past, everything will bo straightened out all right. In the meanwhile Amara, is a mere ripple in the Mesopotamian backwater. Ahead of us, 150 miles up the river are the Turks. We are pushing on our old paddle box to be in time for the advance, and curse our luck that we had to lie up at Amara to coal, and now this morning wo find we have in tow half a (b'-mi; V"+s plunging in our wake, which will .'.cl I us back the best part of another day.

The report that the municipality ;pf Vienna is summoning a .‘conference of 't;iei>’-«sentatiyes of cities oh the Daunthe with a view to considering the ennv strnction of a canal from the Rhine to Danube is riot. plain)’. for the ‘nVerk are already connected' by the Ludwig’s Canal. However, here is an opportunity to delve into geography. The fact that the Rhine arnica tributary of.the Danube have their sources very npar egch other, indeed, in tfi© same canton of Switzerland, and, that the Danube rises in Baden in the southern portion of the Black Forest, north of Switzerland , in south-west Germany, will be news to many readers. In referring to this matter, one ihust touch on the geographical position of 1 the “highlands of' Europe,” for Switzerland includes practically the whole, of the Western Alps, the highest point' of wv'liich is Mount Rosa (15,217 ft.), i for Mount Blanc is non-Swiss. Here in the Swiss glaciers, the three of the greatest European rivers have their origin, and it is remarkable that they spread their waters to such divergent points as the North Sea, the Mediterranean, and the Black Sea. This may not he quite assimilated without the aid of the map, when the immense scope will be thoroughly gauged. The rivers are, respectively, the Rhine, the Rhone, and the Danube.

The Rhine rises in the canton of Gnsons, which is the most easterly of the units of the Confederation, and after passing through the Lake of Constance it forms the falls of Schaffhau-, sen. Between Basel and Mainz it is known as the Upper Rhine, from Bingens to Cologne; as the Middle Rhine, and from Cologne to the North Sea as the Lower Rhine. The deepest point in the river is at Boreloi Rock, where (he depth is 75ft., the river being only 660 feet wide. Many canals are cut into the Rhine banks. The river is connected with the Rhone (before mentioned) and the Marne (of immortal memory), while the Ludwig’s Canal connects it with (he Danube in Bavaria, through the waterway from Dierfurt on the Atmuhl to Bamberg on the Regnitz. “Father Rhine” is very dear to the hearts of the German people, and has formed the subject of song, legend and romance, and always gives a strong impulse to German patriotism. The “Wacht am Rheim” (Watch by the Rhine) is the battle-song of the German Army.

The Inn, a tributary of the Danube, also rises in the canton of Orisons, and runs for 320 miles in a general northeasterly direction through Tyrol and Bavaria and enters the Danube at Passaic, which - is 90 miles east north-east of Munich.

!- The Danube is, next to die Volga in Russia, the largest river in Europe. Navigation commences at Mm, in East Wurtemberg. It was at Mm in 1805 that the Austrian general, Mack, capitulated with about 30,000 men to the French. As a waterway, the value of the Danube is inestimable, and huge sums have been spent at times in util- ' ising its waters for trade and commerce. Between 1878 and 1898, the Hungarian Government' carried through at a cost of on© and a-lialf millions extensive works at the gorges of ■the Iron Gates for straightening and deepening the current. Improvements have also been effected a/> Vienna and at Budapest. Exactly what is meant by to-day’s cable is not clear, but it n r