Another Note from United States

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXX, Issue 29, 9 May 1916, Page 5

Another Note from United States

CURRENT WAR TOPICS.

No one will regret to hear that the Crown Prince has again fallen from grace among the war party of the Prussian'Empire. It? is not so long ago that the Prince was scarified for his failure to make sufficient progress as commander of the German Army in Alsace; therefore, to give him a chance to retrieve his shattered reputation he ' was appointed to the command—at the instance of the Kaiser and against the wishes of the staff as a whole—of the forces facing Verdun. Just what a holocaust he made for his soldiers may be seen in the announcement that the Germans have had about enough of the fighting in this region, and, following this that there should come the ■* Crown Prince's removal from command is the most significant proof of the failure of the Verdun offensive. Old Hindenberg will, for once, join with the Allies in rejoicing at the turn af- , fairs have taken, for his plans to- prosecute the war against Russia were turned down:by the Kaiser in favor, of 7 iiheim and the Verdun ~, | operations, i . . ~; ~ -_ ; . , ■ ■ vr/.l The: furious nature of ■ the .'fighting been continued on the -Western 'fiit'ront, and'the enemy appear to have ja < 'been > rather 'the worst of it. Their occupation of a short strip of the i : French trenches east, of the Meuse at Verdun was short-lived,! as.succe-slul counter-attacks were initiated and miuio ' prisoners' were'taken 1 . This ••nist. be . very disheartening to the enemy, sit was only by great sacrifice that 'hey were able to get a footing in our advanced works. Similar report's of >uc- \ cess come from the west of the rtvyr, the Germans being driven from a position east $f the famous Hill 304 with the loss of "twenty prisoners, besides

. the dead and wounded. Artilbry ■aclffV vity is reported from Pont-a-Mou.^aii, in the southern portion of Alsace. 1 ! The /' German"airmeh'and their machines are 11; suffering "badly from the : attentions be!fci stowed upon them by the French, and .every day now adds to the record of 'fosses sustained by them. ~

f'' 1 .Something like' a shock will be felt >J %y.'.the announcement of the operations' of two'German raiders in the North Atlantic, although this will be softened by the report of the Naval Attache to the British Embassy at Washington that he is unable to verify the statement. Members of the crew of the Venezia state their vessel bad been fired upon by the enemy but luckily had escaped. According to the story, the raiders were operating in the vicinity of the Azores, a group of islands 930 miles west of the coast of Portugal, of which they are not colonies but a constituent part. That disposes of the likelihood that the raiders have a base on these islands. Indeed, there is not much need for any set place to work from, as the style of warfare being conducted will be the same as made the Emden famous, and, latar, ' the mysterious Moewe, which had such a successful dash out of and back into . home ports recently. Now that iho British cruisers at Halifax, Nova Scotia have been informed to keep a sha'rp look-out for the enemy, we may expect to hear shortly of them being tracked down or else of further piratical operations. In this connection the aid of the ships of the Canadian Navy will be available for the chase, it is interesting to note that to-day the first announcement of the entry of the Canadian Navy into the war is made, the cruiser Rainbow having captured two prizes in the Pacific as the result ot German ownership being suspected.

The position between the United States and Germany is slightly altered, another ultimatum having been sent by President Wilson, who, this time, has taken a somewhat more decided and encouraging view. The Note states that if the instructions to the German submarine commanders are observed then diplomatic relations between the two countrres will remain unbroken, at. the same time pointing out that any signs of dictation "as to the Anglo-American relations will be resented. On top of this, come reports of a general peace movement) emanating from the Pope, but which, it is believed, have been engineered by the Kaiser himself. It might bo a feeler, and it might not, but whatever its origin it is doomed to instant .failure. Was it not only yesterday that Lord Curzon at the conclusion of a brilliant Speech before the Primrose League said the word "peat""" bad been expunged for the time being from the English vocabulary!

Mr Archibald Curd, continuing his article on the losses inclined by the mercantile marine of / the world, says: The next- series of figures deals with the merchant fleets of the enemies. The Germans and Austrian;-; were able to employ wireless telegraphy in the early days of the war to warn most of their merchant ships to make for the nearest neutral ports. They thus saved no small part of their merchant fleets from capture by the Allied Fleets. But, nevertheless, their losses have been considerable,' and, fortunately, we have not. as a rule, destroyed our prizes, but have given the most serviceable of them crews and are now using them for our own purposes. Our Allies have also followed the same course; Portugal has this week taken similar action. The losses of Germany and her principal partner have been as follow :•

German. No. Tonnage. Detained in U.K. ports on outbreak of war ... 70 84,716 Ditto in Oversea British ports ... -J 90* 134,80. x Seized on entering Bri- • tish ports ... ■ ... 23 95,279 Detained in Egyptian ports 18 85,03* Captured in German Col- , onial ports....„ ...,,28,. 08,870 Captured and sunk i, by British ... "... 9 31J42! Captured by British ... 74, 189.402 Detained in Belgian ports 89 103,171 Detained in French and . Russian ports , ...; .95 142,930 Detained in Italian ports 36 153,866 Captured and sunk by , the Allies ... ••■ 5 6,456 Captured by the Allies 31 44,308 Sunk!by submarines ... 20 49,480 Damages by submarines 9 20,755 Sunk by mines or explosion ... i ... 4 6,081 601 1,276,590 lighters - tugs, dhows, etc. Austrian. Number. Tonnage. Detained in U.K. ports .13 37,929 Detained in Oversea Bri- ' tish ports ... 7 28,056 Detained'in Egyptian ports' 3 11,629 Captured and sunk by '.; British ... ... 1 2,223 Captured by British ... 7 32,688 Detained in Belgian ports ,2 5,873 Detained in French and Russian . ports '... 14 48,464 Detained in Italian ports 23 79,777 Captured and sunk by the Allies 1 1,006 Captured by the Allies ... 4 13,426 Damaged by submarine ... 1 3,125 Sunk by mines or explosions ... •■• 4 3,468 80 267,664 In isolation this aggregate tonnage ie an impressive figure, but it mus{, also be remembered that for over nineteen months all the rest of the mercantile marine of these two countries have not only been earning no profits during a perio'd of unprecedentedly high freights, but have been a heavy charge for upkeep, harbor dues, and care and '■, maintenance.

There remains the record of Turkey. Here the figures are necessarily incomplete, but probably to-day Turkey, owing to the ravages of the Russian Fleet, in the Black Sea and British and French submarines in the Son cif Marmora, has hardly a merchant ship of any size afloat. This circumstance must be handicapping her grievously in her military operations, particularly in maintaining the supplies for her troops in the more distant fields of operations. Such figures as LJoyd's possess are as under: Turkish. (Mostly of small tonnage). No. Detained in U.K. ports ... ... t Detained in oversea British ports 43 Captured by British ... ... 11 Sunk or damaged in Black .Sea or Sea of Marmora ... ... 69 Captured and sunk by Allies ... 2 Captured by Allies ... ... S 124,