A COMPLETE FAILURE.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 290, 24 September 1915, Page 7

A COMPLETE FAILURE.

LAST ZEPPELIN RAID ON LONDON DESCRIBED. NO MILITARY ADVANTAXJifI GAINED. RABIES AND CIVILIANS SUi'VER. At the Press Bureau's roi'.e.it, Mr I Simon, an impartial observer, has des- ' eribed the effects of the last Zeppelin ' raid on London district. Mr Simon add s that the total casualties from air raids were in all cases correctly stated. The description carefully avoids details regarding the route and places bombed. The description state s that the experience of last week combined with German official reports thereupon demonstrates that com- [ manders of aircraft are often grossly in error regarding their movements. They have no means whatever of estimating tlhe effects of promiscuous j bombardment. Everywhere only private property suffered. In most cases the j houses were of the small residential j kind. Almost all the unfortunates killj ed were non-combatants who were hitherto exempt from attack in accordance ) with the honourable pracitce of civl- ; lised warfare —that is, women, children small shopkeepers and working men. The futility of the raids can be imagined when it i s remembered that the | London district is 700 miles square. j The enemy professed to hav e accomI plished important military purposes by I hastily dropping explosives and incen- ! diary material at random on this enormour surface. As .a point of fact, no I public institution was hit. It is true I two hospitals narrowly escaped, but it is fair to say that t|he armjy which has done its best to the cathedrals of Belgium and France only succeeded in hitting one church. From Berlin's standpoint the moral i effect of the raids is a complete fail- [ ure. If Count Zeppelin accompanied | th e raiders, as repotred, he will be dis- ! appointed to le?m that only a minority of the vast population of London was aware of the presence of the airship. The feleings of those who heard the gunfire and saw the Zeppelin were of interest and curiosity rather than fear. The fact is that London and suburbs faced calmly the murderous efforts of unmitigated, callous and purposeless i brutal raids. I SOME PEN PICTURES. Of the tragedies involved, the following are a few pictures o fthe effects of a London raid: Outside a public-house a man and a woman were talking. The women depz/rted to bu,y supper. A bomb fell at the man's feet, killing him outright, blowing in the hotel front, and reducing the stock" to a mass of broken g!a3=;. It twisted an iron bedstead and injured a sleeping woman. How can this conceivably contribute to the progress of the war: A bomb was dropped on a block of work); en's dwellings.which were nightly crowded with children. On the tenmest flat, four children were sleep! -g. Two surreptitiously rose up to mice tea in an adjoining room. They escaped miraculously, the sleeping children being killed instantly. That ls> what occurred when the cpatain of the Zeppelin professed to think of visiting the docks and vitally damaging the port. A bomb was dropped on a stable and set fir e to a motor-car. The stableman and his wife rescued eleven horses, a dog, and a cage-bird. The only casualty was a bantam-cock. The utility of the attack is ridiculous. * j Elsewhere a IV-agic incident occurred. ] A bomb was dropped squarely on a block of flats. Two girls who were' sleeping vanished with the room. Their bodie s were found two days later un-' ler the debris. The parents were sleep-' ing when the partition wall was blown nit. They serached for the remaining Jire e children. An eight-year-old boy ■an for safety to Ilhe staircase, which' vos .'.■'••sc'-'s'.-.ed, ana fell into the hole ;hors his sisters- were Juried ia the

ruins. Two out of three children belonging to another family on th e first floor were missing. Their bories have been recovered. The worst effect of t|he explosion was on the ground floor, where lived a widow, her daughter, and a lodger. Part of the latter's body was found 150 yajrd s away. A bomb dropped in a street, blew in a shop front, and spent its main ! force on a passing motor-'bus. Twenty were aboard, of Whom nine were hilled and eleven injured. Thes e incidents account for nearly | half the deaths, and suffice to show '<t|he real measure and nature of the raiders' success. The net results of a week's raids to life and limb in the London district were 3S killed and died of wounds, and 124 injured. Two policemen and one Army Sendee man were among the casualties, otherwise none of those injured were in uniform.