Labor Opposition to Conscription

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXX, Issue 33, 13 May 1916, Page 5

Labor Opposition to Conscription

CURRENT WAR TOPICS.

The sensational report from Copen-

hagen to the effect that the German authorities are commandeering their own merchantmen as from June the first opens a vista of startling possibilities, among which may be mentioned the long-prpmised invasion or Britain by the soldiers of the Kaiser. It is no news that for months and months the Germans have had transports ready to fetch legions across the North Sea. One of their plans for covering the shifting of troops by sea includes the use of , giant barges, mothered by submarines and Zeppelins. The idea is that the submarine is slow and practically blind, while the dirigible is swift and has an immense range of vision. Consequently one

can be made , the complement of the i other,A Zeppelin soaring one thouK; sand, feet ,above the sea can sweep , , the horizpn ,to a, distance of thirty odd , miles. -.lt could, therefore, peer over the, edge, ,qf, the saucer and detect any British,, warships bearing down towards, , the transports and submarines. By wireless, the subpiarines could be k,ept fully .pqstcd and arrange their ,defen- , sive well in advance, thus in i effect, -getting their blow in first. This is be,,lieved to be Lhe .very, marrow of the German invasion scheme for which England is prepared in every conceivable way.

But reading one cable with another, it will be seen that already the transport of' men and munitions to Libau .from Germany has been commenced, i with the object, of course, of pursuing the j offensive in Russia held up since last. summer. These transports were being Escorted by destroyers and torpedo craft,' who • would be certain, to be keenly! alert for the appearance .-.of British submarines, some ot whom are known to .be in the Baltic waters on- the look out for such desirable targets as German warships and transports. 3. ■'

For some time past there have been signs of a Gorman offensive. There was the recent activity along the Dvina and south of Dvinsk, and some weeks ago it was announced that the German forces had been regrouped in order to allow General Eindenberg to begin a new attempt at on Dvinsk. It is quite certain that Germany has been getting ready along the Dvina line. The big aerodromes that have long been established at Libau, on the Courland coast, at Ivovno, at'Suwalki, farther south, and at Radziviliski, on the Aa, not far below the Middle Dvina, have lately teen enlarged, and numbers of aeroplanes have been brought up from Germany. Enormous qantities of munitions are also, said to be arriving daily, and the German officers are supposed to be boasting that their naval and aeiial fleets are about to put forth a tremendous effort in co-operation .with the army, and that Russia is now to be finally crushed.

The report of a big fire at the Hamburg clocks brings this one-time fam-* ous shipping centre and most important seaport on the Continent of Europe into prominence. Hamburg is situate on the right bank of the i'U»e, 70 miles above its outlet into the North Sea, and 178 miles nortn-west of Berlin. Since the middle of cbc 19th century, its trade has increased enormously, namely, from twenty-six and a-half millions in 1851 to ovo: three fifty millions for the year preceding the war. On top of tins, Hamburg’s rail and river-borne tract with the interior of Germany has to be reckoned with. The effect of tli war has been, of course, disastrous to the port, but with the cessation o) hostilities the natural advantages o. Hamburg will be sure to throw off all handicaps, and the port will shortly re throw off all handicaps and shortly resume a position, if not as before, at least worthy of a great commercial centre.

The following facts and figures in relation to the port of Hamburg will prove interesting at this juncture ; In January, 1911, Hamburg owned a mercantile fleet of 1,225 sea-going vessels, aggregating 1,604,000 tons, of which 700 vessels of 1,369,833 tons were steamships—among the latter

tile fleet of the Hamburg-American line, including some of the largest passenger steamships on the ocean. The docks (twelve tidal basins) and wharves lino both banks of the Elbe (i.e. the island of Yvjlbclmshurg. on the south). The greater part of the harbour constitutes a free port, which wag constructed in 18S3-8 at a cost approximately of £7,000,000, and includes an area of 2,570. acres, of which some 1,750 acres are laud surface. Two large new docks were completed in 1904, and the total water area of the docks now amounts to 1,260 acres. It has recently been decided to extend and improve the docks at a cost of some £2,250,000. The changes will probably make Hamburg the best equipped and arranged sea-port in the world. It is now the third largest, coming next to London and New York. A tunnel under the river, giving access to the districts pn the left bank, where most of the docks are, was opened in 1911.

The reasons shortly why Germany should attack the Russians rather than the Allies on the west, are that she may by capturing 'Petrograd eliminate Russia,' ’and, failing that, by .advqp-, cing antj, ,t s he Russians site may not only impress the Balkan States,, but lyeakeu the Grand Duke’s efforts in Asia Minor. Then, what are von Hindenburg’s chances of victory? To a certain extent his chances have been spoiled by the Gorman tactics in the west. In attacking \ erdun, presuming that it was to bo simply a demonstration of strength (states one authority), the Germans became involved in greatei* operations than they expected after they saw the French driven in so rapidly 1 from the plain of the Woevre. Boasts were rashly made by the Kaiser to the German people and the world at large, and the Germans are now, through fright at the consequences of their miscalculations, compelled to persevere in their disastrous undertaking 'when they would much, rather not continue. Their enormous losses must to a certain extent detract from the chance of success of any attempt that von Hindenburg may be devising. Ho is, no doubt, basing his chances of success oiv the assistance' that the German fleet will give him- as an extension to the sea of his left flank. If the German fleet is permitted to work into the Gulf of Riga, and render the east shores of that gulf untenable to the Russians, be will, thereby, be able to turn the Russian right, resting in front of Riga. If R iga falls to his possession, the road to Petrograd along the coast will be opened. Fer-

nau will fall into his hands immediately, and Reval, which could hold off the Gorman fleet, will bo threatened by land from the south. That being so, Reval would have to be abandoned, and an attack on Petrograd would be only a. matter of weeks.

On land Russia is not like what sho was during the months following the retreat from the Donajcc. Often in that retreat her artillery was without shells, and her infantry without rifles and munitions. All that is chan geo. The armies of the Czar are now we(l equipped and well supplied, and the troops are full of enthusiasm. General Alexieff is no mean strategist, and his plans are no doubt as well laid as von Hindenburg’s. Moreover, when the Germans are rushing out of the front door in the east, tho Allies in the west will rush in tho back, and it will take a considerable force of Germans to stop them when they begin to move.