REASSURING CALAIS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 134, 30 October 1914, Page 2

REASSURING CALAIS.

KMBODtS THAT JNSi'lllEi) IIUPH. a'LKNDU) FItKNOH J.TKLD GUNS. London, October 20. Reports from Caiais r.pm-t that hundreds of refugees are crowding the railway rt la.Liion platforms waiting for trains Tlie residents of Calais a week ago were themselves wondering where they should lieu. The French taking the offensive, resul'.lsd in calming Calais. This was a gallant feat of arms. Tile Germans held the right bank of the river Ly,i in force, anil played searchlights ami mitrailleusus upon the only fords. Under the cover of nigh;. the French cavalry massed ou the left bank at a point where the current was slow, and tlhi water deeper. The Germans apparency regarded this .pant as uutollable. A Fivnuh troopcT, an expert swimmer, stripped and dived in, carrying a light line. He reached the opposite bank and hauled across a heavier rope. The cavalry immedia'.wly crossed, and at dawn faced tile Uhlans, who, wring themselves oii'Ulanked and outnumbered, retired.

The Germans have a happy knack of combination which suggests that tUiiev have entered intio a oompact with Time himself. Antwerp fell just at the moment that the advance westward began. Perhaps, like Napoleon, the Kaiser lias given an order for tlie "Miserable little British Army to be driven,- into the sea."

The defences of Calais are not wholly artificial. Towards the south there is low-lving, marshy ground, Which the French would not. hesitate to flood if tl'.e Germans came too close.

It isn't an uncomMiion thing in normal times to sec peasants going about their business in beal's. Such a method of defence must confine the German advance to one or two TOtvtls, which could In: easily covered by artillery. The new Oromot 10.5 centimetre field guns which were made for a foreign Power, but were preseu!!ed -to France by Ihe Cruezot finn at the comisnenccmi'nt of the war, have proved of enormous value. They have a great range, and can be trundled about, as they are light. Tliev can reaclii amy but the heaviest Gorman artillery, and are flexiblo for the purposes of laying and sighting—unlike the German heavy guns, for which tho miud churned up o-n itihe loads presents insuperable difficulties.