NOW MARK THIS.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 219, 8 January 1917, Page 6

NOW MARK THIS.

THE DESTROYER RAID. “New mark tills. After over 26 months the British naval machine w-hich has been working with uniform success on the flank of our line of communications with the Continent on which everything military depends —Avas the object of a carefully planned attack by the enemy.” writes Mr. Archibald Hurd, in the “Telegraph, Avith regard to the German raid towards the Channel.

“He attempted a surprise and realising the risk, he employed a large force —10 destroyers. He came in strength, and he came by surprise, and at night. It was rather like a raid on a hundred yards of trench in France, and an unsuccessful one. “Everyone who has given a moment’s consideration to such a war as

we are waging at sea, must realise that Ave cannot be in superior strength at every point. We are guarding, on behalf of the Allies, not only the English Channel, but the North Sea, and every sea. ;We are doing so, with success, by night as well as day. The enemy has the advantage of convenient bases; he possesses large forces.

“On this night he made a raid —not to the right or on the 50D-mile front of our north-eastern or south-eastern coastline, but at the point where the North Sea and Channel meet. He had a wide choice, as he always has. He gained all the advantage from darkness. He possessed the benefit of the element of surprise. Nevertheless, he failed.

TWO AND A QUARTER YEARS AFTER. s ’

“For a matter of nearly two and a quarter years—think what that means —he waited for what he considered a favourable opportunity to strike us at one of a score or so of more or less vital points, and he did not succeed. The transport of troops will go on as before; the peril will be no greater than it has been in the past. Indeed, the conjecture is reasonable that as a result of our shipbuilding operations the guard in the Channel is being continually strengthened, and hence the danger to the troops, instead of increasing, must be decreasing. “Nothing has occurred to undermine public confidence in the patrol services or in our unparalleled success at sea generally, and it is of some importance that that point should be made. The power of the naval authorities rests in the national will.

That is the case even in Germany, and that is the reason why the raid on Thursday night was attempted. The Germans needed encouragement, and instead they will learn, in time, that two destroyers were sunk. This is a democracy, as Germany, is not, and therefore it is of all the more consequence that the nation and Parliament should appreciate the exact character of ever;/ incident, so far as revelation can be mads without assisting the enemy.

“If before the war opened anyone suggested that, with the German fleet undefeated, transports could make thousands of voyages to and from the Continent without the loss of the life of a single soldier, he would have been regarded as mad. There has not been a day or an hour when it has not been open to the Germans to attempt, at some risk of course, to cut our line of communication by sending out a force which they had reason to believe would at the point of contact be superior to the force we -had instantly available. : THE MIRACLE IS—‘With swift vessels, such as the dcgtrovers not torpedo beat;--under the German ensign, it has always been possible for the enemy ;o carry out such an operation, and with some hope of success, if assisted hy darkness. The miracle is that he has done so only once, and then failed, for he sank only Un empty transport. “We may assume that if it had been a loaded transport the Germans could not have sunk her. Indeed, that assertion can be made with the most complete confidence. In these days, when there are a hundred and one claims on th patrol services, an empty transport does not have that measure of protection which is accorded to a vessel heavily laden with men.”

Combles does net appear to have suffered excessively, and seems to show its joy oA'er its deliverance. Rocfs and windows still remain, and at least the skeletons of houses. The

interior of the houses -.every where recalls the expelled enemy. The name plates on uie streets had German names, such as “Rue Kronprins Ruprecht.” Some of the men who- drove out the Germans, many of whom 7 ave their homes in the cou; try, v/ere surveying their conquest. The liaison officer AA r ho accompanied us had left his Avife and children behind in Cambrai, and had received no news of them for two years. He remarked ■quietly, “It seems the British have been bombarding the station there. So much the better, it was sure to be bombarded one day.” a