IF GERMANS RAID ENGLAND.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 96, 23 December 1914, Page 7

IF GERMANS RAID ENGLAND.

THEY WILL BE LYNCH ED—NOT

FOUGHT

VIEWS OF MR 11. G. WELLS

MEN AND-WOMEN WILL SHOOT

Mr H. G. Wells, in a striking letter in the “Times,” appeals for some simple guidance from the authorities as to what the British populace should do if the Germans get into the country. He says;—

Frankly, I do net believe in the raid, and I think we play the German game in letting our minds dwell upon it. I am supposed to be a person of feverish imagination, but even by lash, ing my imagination to its ruddiest 1 cannot in these days of wireless telegraphy see a properly equipped German force, not even so trivial a handful a s 20,000 of them getting itself with guns, motors, ammunition, and provisions upon British soil. 1 cannot even see a mere landing of infantrymen. I believe in that raid even less than I do in the suggested raid of navigahles (airships) that has darkened London. Still, ag the trained mind does insist upon'treating all hnenlisted civil! ans as panic-stricken imbeciles and upon frightening old ladies and influential people with these remote possibilities, and as it is likely that these alarm s may even lead to the retention of troops in England when their point of maximum effectiveness is manifestly in France, it becomes necessary to insist, upon the ability of our civilian population, if only the authorities will permit the small amount of organisation and preparation needed, to deal quite successfully with any raid that in an extremity of German “boldness” may be attempted. THE RAID WILL BE LYNCHED. And, in the first place, let the expert have no illusions as to what we ordinary people are going to do if we find German soldiers in England one morning. We are going to fight. If we cannot fight with rifles we shall fight with shot guns, and if we cannot fight according to Rules of War apparently made by Germans for the restraint af British military experts, we will figld according to our inner light. Man; men, and not a few' women, will L out to shoot Germans. There will no preventing them after the Belgian stories. If the experts attempt any pedantic interference we will shoot the experts. I know that in this, matter I speak for so sufficient a number of people that it will be quits useless and hopelessly dangerous and foolish for any ex-pert-instructed minority to remain “tame.” They will get shot, and their houses will be burnt according to the established German rules and methods cn our account, so the', may just as well turn out in the fi r st place, and get some shooting as a consolation in advance for their inevitable troubles.

And if the raiders, cut off by the sea from their supports, ill-equipped as they will certainly be, and against odds, are so badly advised a s to try terror-striking reprisals on the Belgian pattern, we irregulars will, of course, massacre every German straggler we can put a gun to. Naturally. Such a procedure may he sanguinary, but it is just the commonsense of the situation. We shall hang the officers and shoot the men. A German raid to England will, in fact, not be fought—it wall be lynched.

War is war, and reprisals and striking terror are games that tw r o can play at. This is the latent temper of the British countryside, and the sooner the authorities take it in hand and regularise it the better will be the out. lock in the remote event of that hypothetical raid getting home .to us. Levity is a national characteristic, but subraissiveness is not. Under sufficient, provocation the English are capable of very dangerous bad temper, and the expert is dreaming who thinks of a German expedition moving through an apathetic Essex, for example, resisted only by the official forces trained and in training.

WHAT WE WANT

So far as the enrolment of uS goes, cf the surplus people who are willing to he armed and to be used for quasimilitary work at home, but who are not °f an age or not of a physique or who are already in shop or office serving some quite useful purpose at heme, we want certain very simple things from the authorities. We want the military status that is conferred by a specific enrolment and some sort of uniform. We want accessible arms. They need not be niodern service weapons; the, rifles of ten years ago are quite good enough for the possible need we shall have for them. And we want to be sure that in the possible event of an invasion the Government will have the decision to give every man in the country a military status by at once resorting to the levee en masse. Given a recognised local organisation and some advice —it would not take a week of General Baden Powell’s time, for example, to produce a special training book for us —we could set to work upon our local drill, rifle practice, and'exercises in such hours and ways as best suited our locality. We cou’d also organise the local transport, list local supplies, and arrange

into fighting cars by reconstructing and armouring them and exercising crews. And having developed a discipline and self-respect as a fighting force, we should be available not only for fighting work at home in the extremely improbable event of a raid, but also for all kinds-of supplementary purposes, as a reserve of motor drivers, as a supply of physically exercised and half-trained recruits in the events of an extended standard, and as a guarantee of national discipline under any unexpected stress. A.bove all, we should be relieving the real fighting forces of the country for the decisive area, which is in France and Belgium now', and will, I hope, be in Westphalia before the spring.