CURRENT WAR TOPICS.
Many reports are to hand of a renewal of the German offensive in the
West. At several points on a long line violent lighting has taken place, and j the nenry appears to have met with a measure of success at certain points, hut in most cases the occupation of the Allied trenches was only momentary. As usual, the Germans claim the fullest possible credit for their work, and the latest communique reports the capture of many hundreds of officers and men, guns, and ma-chine-guns. The Allies admit certain slight reverses, hut they also have their successes to report. The most notable of these is that at Yimy, where 250 yards of the enemy's forward line was seized after months of determined assault on the position. The work of the Lancashire Fusiliers, who were responsible for the success of the operations, appears to have been worthy of the best traditions of the British Army.
. The County of Kent, England, is getting more than ites share of aerial attention, the latest being on the occasion of the visit of three seaplanes at two o'clock on the morning of Saturday. One of the raiders dropped bombs on what is known as the "Isle of Thanet," which is not an island but a peninsula, nine miles long by five miles wido. It is an extremity ot Kent County formed by the division of the river Stour. The Isle of Thanet contains Margate ( Ramsgate, Broadstairs, and other watering-places. The damage done there by the raiders is stated to be broken windows and nothing else. In the south-east, however, where two of the three seaplanes passeel in their flight, twenty-live bombs were dropped, and a soldier was killed and one woman and one seaman were injured. Damage was also done to some buildings in the same town. The raiders made off as soon as the bombs were discharged, but one of them was brought down by the naval patrol on the Belgian coast.
As a timely set-off to the reported appearance of a big new German bat-tle-plane, which was seen at Riga, in the Baltic, comes the report of a new aeroplane for the French Army named "The Spad." Bleriot, the gifted French airman, who was the first to fly across the English Channel from Calais to Dover in 1909, when hewon the "Daily Mail" £IOOO for the feat, is the designer, and he states that it climbs rapidly and is'capable of travelling at a rate of 125 miles an hour. Now we have the explanation of the recent successes in aviation warfare on the Western front; it was due to the work of this new 'plane, which can "run rings round" the much-boomed Get-man Fokker. Perhaps the mysterious German is bettor than the Fokker, but if it is, it is not as fast as "The Spad." its speed being given as 120 miles an hour compared to 125 by the Bleriot design. The mystery is deepended by reports that the German is painted (of all colors) "black"—for effect, no doubt, for the Germans arc great believers in advertising. The Germans are getting a taste of the submarine warfare that will not be to their liking. In the Baltic British submarines are making a fine score lor themselves. What this means may be guaged sufficiently from the reports to hand to-day that the export of iron from Sweden t« Germany and the importation of German coal have ceased. Then, again, we learn that a firm of shipowners at the capital has been instructed to keep all its steamers in port! Germany will find that two can play at the game of torpedoing, and, perhaps, she will have to play second fiddle to the British. It is noteworthy that of late the campaign of submarining by the enemy has slackened considerably. Are they being hunted too well, or is the policy changed in view of the altered circumstances of the Powers? America's attitude, as well as the Neutrals, may have something to do with it, also.
Sakiz the town in Persia which the Russians are reported to Have occupied, has nothing to do with the operations in Asia Minor or Mesopotamia, but with the local risings in the co.mtr v Of the Shah. Sakiz is 300 miles west by north of Teheran, the capital, and about 100 miles south of the shores of the Caspian Sea.
The very kernel of Conservatism—the middle-class British family—is undergoing a process of change, says the Daily Express. "The long-establish-ed habits of over a generation are reluctantly relinquished because of the pressure of war conditions. Father no longer eats kidneys and bacon for breakfast, mother no longer dresses for dinner, no. longer are there fresh flowers on the table, and instead of going to a theatre or a bridge party in the evening, the whole household goes to bed at 10 o'clock. The girls are very tired after a day in the office or hospital, mother has had a hard day in the kitchen because a cook cannot be found, and father must he up at 2 a.m. for special constable duty. Many are the changes that have crept into the domestic interior, but perhaps the most remarkable is the changed attitude towards one another of the members of the family. Doris, who is nursing the wounded and attending at death beds in this her second year in hospital, is no longer her father's pretty pot, who must be .sheltered from the cold winds of reality. Mary, ivho is earning £3 a week as confidential secretary in a big commercial house, has opinions worth hearing on the subject of the country's industrial problems—secondhand, perhaps, but thoroughly digested opinions. Mother knows moro about economy and waste in the household—now that she is running the culinary department without the help of an experienced servant—than' she learned in thirty years- of previous housekeeping.
"Sympathy and a deeper under* standing colour the discussions of practical matters which generally take place over the evening meal, which tonight consists of brown bread and nut btitter, home-made potted tongue (rhade from the remains of a tongue that presided at two previous meals), steamed apples, and weak tea without sugar. 'I wonder if we shall ever return to a threje-course dinner after the war,' says Doris, who has a day off from the depressing effects of modern warfare. 'I hope not,' replies father. 'I never had a winter so free from rheumatism, and mother jias never slept so well in her life as she sleeps now.' 'That is, perhaps, because 1 get so much exercise in the course of my housework. I shall never be contented to let a hired cook throw away good food in my kitchen,' exclaims mother, with characteristic inconsequence. 'We certainly have all keptvery fit,' says father, 'fortunately, for I should not have known where to find the money to pay the usual doctor's bills.' "
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/STEP19160522.2.21.2
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXX, Issue 40, 22 May 1916, Page 5
Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,153CURRENT WAR TOPICS. Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXX, Issue 40, 22 May 1916, Page 5
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Copyright undetermined – untraced rights owner. For advice on reproduction of material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.