6,000 CANADIAN FALL IN A WEEK’S FIGHTING.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 160, 20 July 1916, Page 3

6,000 CANADIAN FALL IN A WEEK’S FIGHTING.

Th e desperate nature of the fighting in which the Canadians havebeen participating during the early part of June may be imagined by an announcement made in Ottawa on June S, when, according to a statement made by MajorGeneral Samuel Hughes, Minister of Militia, upward of six thousand Canadians fell within the first week of June in the desperate fighting around Sanctuary Woods. Presenting colours to a Canadian regiment on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Sir Samuel said: “The great majority wounded are already clamouring to get back into the fray, but many of the gallant lads have gone down never to rise again. We deeply

mourn their loss, but that loss affords

an inspiration for tens of thousands more to take their place.”

AMERICA AND GERMANY’S WARSPITE CLAIM.

The Kaiser has 'ocen busy minimising his fleet's defeat by the British off Skager Rack, and his propoganda appears to have been concentrated upon the United States. Time after tyne the wireless at Sayville, Long Island has been burdened with tainted dispatches emanating from Berlin in an effort to discountenance the pvcrgrowing sympathy for the Allies’ cause in America, but news from neutral sources always upsets the wild assertions of the Teuton “lip factory” in Germany’s capital. One of the • mostemphatic claims of Germany’s officials is that the British Dreadnought Warspite ivas sunk in the naval battle off Skager Rack. In proof of the statement of thp British Admiralty that the Warspite had arrived safely in port after the North Sea Battle the commander of the warship himself received the representative of an American news agency and described his vessel’s miraculous escape from the concentrated German fire. Americans are now convinced that the German cloim to have sunk the Warspite is another ■“ terminological inexactitude ” as Winston Churchill would say. “I am still commander of the greatest, battleship in

the world and my men are as fine as Nelson’s bluejackets,” said Captain F. M. Phillpotts, the skipper of th e "War-spite, when talking 1 to the Venl-™

scribe. Captain Phillpotts, said the (American, Avas very modest, and minimised his own part in the battle. But he was full of praise for his men, and what he termed the amazing powers of resistance of his ship. “I am not surprised that there have been reports that the Warspit was sunk,” he said, “‘as from our position between our fleet and the German battleships our escape from such a fate was simply miraculous. Several times we disappeared from sight in the smoke and spray Even some of our own officers on other ships believed the gallant battleship had sunk As Ave left the lighting lino wo disappeared in a complete veil of spray You ask me Avhat results I saAV that our fire had on the Germans? I saw that Ave registered

hit after hit, enough to convince me that the Germans got a hiding Avhich Avill keep them in port, for many [months to come. After two hours of I action, in Avhich our division of battle- | ships engaged the Avhole German battle fleet in an effort to protect our battle ends errs until Admiral Jellicoe came up, th e Warspite’s steering gear wont Avrong, and she ran amok among the enemy. It must haA r e annoyed the Gorman guns pointers exceedingly to attempt to gauge our erratic movements, for soon Ave Avero almost in the midst of the German battl e ships, and avcll between them and our battle line.. I knoAV of six Gorman battleships Avhich 'concentrated their fire on the W arspite, and there may haA r e been others which I could not see. Under a Averse pounding than the Lion receiA-ed in the Dogger Bank fight, we remained in action without a single vital injury, our chief difficulty b e ing from the mishap to the steering gear. “The fact that we got out Avas an absolute miracle. Our repairs Avene quickly made, we Avanted to return, but found we were not popular. Sufficient battleships were present to fill th e line, and the possibility of our running amok among our own friends Avas not Avolcomed We steamed home. The Warspite will be sailing the seas months before the German fleet comes out again.”