GENERAL WAR NEWS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 226, 14 June 1915, Page 7

GENERAL WAR NEWS.

NOVELIST’S VIEW OF WAR. WHAT IS WANTED. LONDON, June 11. Wells, the novelist, in a letter to newspapers, says modern war is essentially pa struggle of gear ami invention. Opponent must perpetually be outwitting opponent. Britishers had shown great individual courage, but this was insufficient; avi?.tora were inadequate, a supply of seaplanes was necessary; they should produce aeroplanes capable of overtaking Zeppelins, some counterstroke to submarines and Germany’s improved torpedoes was wanted. Troops still'want armour al protection during an advance against machine guns. The exploit at the Dardanelles throughout had been unfereseeing and uninventive. They had been recruiting millions of infantry, while the Germans realised that for defensive purposes, one well protected, skilled, machine gunner, was superior to a row of riflemen. We want, not politicians, but self-govern-ment, scientific, technically,’ competent men to wage war. A TIME OP CONTRASTS. It is impossible to see the efioets of this war at a glance. A hundred vital things are happening simultaneously. In the shipbuilding and naval yards we have our old friend Strike sitting on his hammer and calling Capital a thief, while the “boss” retorts that no patriot ever down tools at such a crisis. As a matter of fact, employers arc reaping huge profits from Government contracts, and they, stoutly refuse to give Bill, the torpedo-builder, an extra “bob,” because some phantom, losses, incurred in the year One. have not been made good. In the agricultural districts we have farmorsejocting from their cottages : the wives and children of soldiers at i the front. The farmer’s defence is that i he must have the cottages for the lab- | oarers called in to do the absent so*i diets ’ work. And so the wives and j children of the soldier who was patriot- : ic enough to leave his job are hustled j over the skyline. j Side by side with deeds of gallantry and heroism we see fraud and rapacity on the lurk. We have men fighting desperately to corner the nation ’s food supplies, the transport rervico, and medical stores. These men would gladly garotte the people and burn the evidence, only for the presence of a hairstuffed apparition that is often mistaken for the Law.

We have also -wealthy men and wo- j men in our midst who are flinging everything and their fighting sons into the cause. I have discovered, after much travail and observation, that the son. of the hoe-haw peer is just as hefty a fighter as Mike, the boiler rivetter. Indeed, after six months spent in 'Britain’s greatest military area, where recruits and territorials arc pouring in at the rate of dfty thousand a month, one has a more favourable impression of young Aubrey do Voro than of TV illiam ’Enry 'Awkina. For, although William has all the vices of Aubrey, it is seldom .tJjAt'hc poegesyos V* '