War Notes.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 112, 5 October 1914, Page 7

War Notes.

AN INVALID SALE. The sale to Turkey of the German I warships Goeben and Breslau, is invalid, ijccording to a correspondent of the London Times. In an article on the matter, he says:—Turkey, in the exercise of what is sometimes called benevolent neutrality, has purchased the Goeber and the Breslau. Such a sale would, apart from any convention, be open to the gravest suspicion; it would bear the obvious marks of a fraudulent transfer. The generally accepted rule as to the transfer of private vessels to neutrals, as stated in the Declaration of London, is that, if effected after the outbreak of hostilities, it is void unless it is proved that such transfer was not made in order to evade the consequences to which the enemy's vessel, as such, in exposed. There is an absolute presumption of invalidity if the purchase is made during the voyage. The reasons for this rule apply with greater force to a vessel of war flying from pursuers than to an ordinary merchant vessel, and such a transfer would doubtless be regarded by England and Franco as a transparent artifice designed to avert capture and internment.

j STRKNGTH OF KIAO-CHAU. A JAPANESE OPINION. The taking of Kiau-Oiau will be no' '"pienh" in the opinion of Jlr Takashi Nakamura, Consul-Gcneral for Japan is New York. During the course of an interview in Now York h e said that though he b,ilrtTed Port Arthur was much more inaccessible than Kiao-Chau. and that the natural advantages of Port Arthur .'cr offensive purposes were greater t'l.in those at Kiao-Chau, ho still believed Germany to bo in the forefront in const ructing defence works and in the use of artillery For this reason, contrary ti the general opinion in New York, Mr Nakamura considered tliat the liking of Kiao-Chau would be a more Gifficult task than the talking of Port Arthur He said ho was only expressing a private opinion and that'he had i;o official knowledge of the strength of the German position.

SWEPT FROM THE SEAS. It was the confident boast of the groat Cerman shipping companies that in the event of war they would harry British shipping from the Seven Seas, said a London correspondent writing last month. Bitter indeed must be their thought to-day when it is manifest to the world that it is the German shipping which has been banished from the face of the waters. In less than a week the 2000 steamers, representing 5,000,000 tons, gross, which wore afloat whan German sailing ships, have had either to remain in home ports, or to scuttle for neutral harbors, or have been captured on th» high seas. In seven days their overseas trado in Germany has been brought to a standstill. She has had to rely entirely upon her own resources, and already there are food riots in Berlin. In the German scheme for a world war the hungry dregs of East London were to descend like locusts upon the better provisioned West End, and England was to be smashed by a vast internal social convulsion. It is extraordinary fcovr German notions have miscarried. The Admiralty to-day can assure the safety of British shipping on every ocean and every sea except one, and even on this North Danish steamers are ploughing their way to English porta loaded with produce of every kind. It is Germany who is starving, and it is the Englishman who is haying three meals a day. And as I am writing the Admiralty is arming swift ocean liners for commerce protection and for commerce destruction purposes. It was Germany who first thought of converting ker merchantmen into cruisers. It is England who is profiting by her tip.

THE DAY OF MATURE MEN. Tkose who assert that this is the day •"' the young man, that a man is "ton old ab forty," and the rest of it, may be induced to modify tlicir views by ■oting the ages of the principal generals engaged in the present war. General Jeffre, -the Commandunt-in-Chief cf the Franco-British forces, is G2; his principal subordinate, the dashing, smashing General Pau, is four or five years older; Sir John French is 62; von Kluck is 08. These Teterans present in this respect a striking contrast to the leaders of the Napoleonic era. Napoleon himself was only 28 when he was placed in command of the army in Italy, and only 30 when he woa the battle of Marengo. He was a»t 48 at Waterloo, and most of his brilliant cluster of marshals were about the eamo aga as their illustrious chief. Wellington, his great antagonist, was only a few nonths older.