VASTNESS OF THE WAR

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 26 May 1917, Page 6

VASTNESS OF THE WAR

ARMIES TOTAL 24,000,000,

GREAT POWER OF THE PRESS

LONDON, May 16

There was a great gathering at the Newspaper Press Fund dinner. Lord Northcliffe presided. The anniversary donations were £5500 —a record. The principal speaker was Sir William Robertson, Chief of the imperial General Staff. He acknowledged the ar-

my’s great debt to the navy, and paid a tribute to these fine seamen who were silently and heroically engaged in mine-sweeping and other -hazardous enterprises.

Every Avar hadlts peculiarities, but no war so differed from its predecessors as the present one. Aeroplanes had entirely changed the character .of operations. Enormous masses of artillery rendered the preparation for the battle a long process, requiring an elaborate system of transport. We had expended in the past five or six weeks

200,000 tons of ammunition in France alone, and conveyed thither 50,000 tons of stone each week to mend roads. Hence the tremendous amount of railway work. He wished to acknowledge the services of railway managers and employees who had gone to France to do the work.

The greatest peculiarity of the war was the colossal numbers engaged, amounting to something like 24,000,000 men. In the war of 1870 the armies numbered from 100,000 to 200,000 men on each side, and at Gravelotte, where the casualties were highest,, they reached 30,000 on both sides. For the whole Avar the totaT killed and wounded was below 500,000. In

present war the killed alone could be counted by the million. It was not a war between armies, but between nations, and no man or woman in the Empire but Avould do something to win or lose the war. A man of distinction told him 'the other day that he estimated that in the present war 25 per cent, of the weight was represented by the military strength and 75 per cent, by non-military things, su* as agriculture, shipping, food, and diplomacy. "That brings me to my last point—the power and responsibility of the Press,” Sir William added. “Not long ago a war correspondent was regarded by most of the soldiers, putting it mildly, as a nuisance. That is not the case to-day, and no one more than a soldier realises the value of that factor —the press. This is also part of the great transformation in the character of the Avar. Formerly a correspondent thought his chief object -was to supply thrilling, graphic,

and sensational stories of fighting and with a few notable exceptions devoted himself to keeping the public amused and interested rather than in educating them. That is all changed. ,r We are to-day,” fie said, “fighting a war upon the Issue of which depends our Imperial existence, and regarding the necessity and the righteousness of which none, except a few cranks and a few other not very sig--31 A? ant peo P* e > has any doubt.”