GERMAN VIEW OF MUNITIONS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 319, 21 October 1915, Page 3

GERMAN VIEW OF MUNITIONS.

A £325,000 BOMBARDMENT.

In the Berlin Lokal Ariaoiger there are some interesting statistics of muni-

tions. The writer speaks of the demand for munitions in Eng&iid .and Fance) as being partly Insincore and exaggerated, for the purpose ff explaining and excusing fa:lu-33 in rhe offensive.

His historic survey .f ihe •juestion is interesting. He says: In the Franco-German W:v a German battery fired on an avenge two hundred shells from each g-.m. In the Manchurian War the average had already risen to twice that figure. These totals are far exceeded by those of the present war. In the whole of the war of 1870-IS7I the German artillery iired 817,000 shells. Of these 470,000 were used in the sieges of French fortresses and 338,000 on the field. Of the Utter total 10 per cent, was fired off in the battle of St. Privat alone. In th«-Russo-Japanese War the total was 954,000 Statistics as to the present war -are meagre. The German General Staff announced from the sent rn war in the West on March 10 last that the enemy had used 100,000 shells in 24 hours on a front of ight kilometres. . . . . which is about six times as many for each metre of front at St. Privat. . . . The French used near Arras in one day 300,000 shells, nearly as many as the whole Field Artillery of Germany expended in 1870-1871.. . . The writer estimates the cost of this bombardment at £325,000, ytul from the fact that it did not result in the piercing of the German line he argues that heavy artillery has not, in spite of the prevailing opinion to the contrary, taken the place of + he individual soldier. Even the "real war of munitions" as it has been waged in Galicia, he contends, does not support the popular view. A Year of Economic War. The Vorwaerts, without boasting, as Dr. Halfferich has been doing, of Germany's financial* invincibility, yet sees cause for satisfaction in the economic condition of the Empire after twelve months of the war. For this we have especially to thank German applied science (Technic) and her power of adaptation of the German captains of industry, as well as of the workmen themselves, to new conditions and new demands. How many new inventions, such as the winning of saltpetre from the nitrogen of the air, or the substitution of by-pro-ducts for raw r material hitherto deemed indispensable, has not the iron necessity of the war produced. The upheaval of the first week of war was indeed serious, and the grim spectre of unemployment was in the air. But it was soon laid. The best results were obtained in the sphere of unemployment. At the beginning of the war it was about 22i per cent., in October only 10.9 per cent., and in May it had further sunk to 2.9 per cent. The figures for June were 2.6 per cent, as against 2.5 per cent, in the previous June Similarly the daily output of coal of the Ehenish

Westphalian Coal' Syndicate, which, in July, 1914, reached 327,974 tons, sank in August to 170,51 fl tons, in September rose again to 211,995, and in October to 223,700, the figures for that month being CO per cent, of those of the previous October. ... In later months, in spite of the calling up of more and more workers, it has only been 25 to 27 per cent, below the normal

The writer tells the same story of the iron and textile industries, and traces the good results to the fact that the supplies of raw materials were far greater than had been thought. For instance, there were about 700,000 bales of cotton more than are needed in a normal year. Besides which the stores of conquered countries were at the disposal of the conquerors. The only trades which really suffered were those in luxuries. The Work of -no zzaiiks. Spl<endid was the work of the banks, especially the Eeichsbank, which had by systematic efforts spread over many years (a notable admission) completed its armour. They were able to defray the cost of mobilisation, which alone was over a milliard of marks (£IOO,000,000). The article concludes thus: The German trade has survived the shocks of the first year of war better than the most convinced optimist could have hoped, and better than the organisation of other belligerents. All fears of immediate inevitable industrial' collapse which haunted us at the beginning of the war have been dissipated. Instead of this we meet in all industrial circles with the consciousness (often much exaggerated) . that "We can endure.'' The words in parenthesis are significant. The Iron Man of Emden. Germany has revived the ancient custom of raising funds for charitable objects by selling the privileges for driving nails into statues. Thus Berlin is shortly to have a statue (forty feet high) of Von Hindenburg as already -reported. There has, however, been a hitch, because the police are afraid of the consequences if it should be placed in a crowded place, while the promoters refuse to place if in a secluded spot. Similarly Hamburg has erected an iron image of St. Michael, its patron saint, which was solemnly inaugurated by a royal personage, and Posen has erected an iron "Wehrmann" (or Protector). The most interesting expression of the new movement has been at Emden, where an iron statue of Lieutenant Muller, of the Emden, is shortly to be erected, to be called, in the patois of the district "Der Yserne Kerl von Emden" "the Iron Man of the Emden).