WAR NOTES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 137, 3 November 1914, Page 6

WAR NOTES.

NAPOLEON'S MAXIMS. Here aro a few striking sentences by the great Napoleon, quoted from his "Tabie Talk aud Opinions": Tiio sight of n battlefield alter the fight is enough to inspire Princes with a love of peace and a horror oi war. It is better to have an open enemy than a doubtful ally, ily givatcot fault, perhaps, was not having the King of Prussia when I con d have done eo easily. Intelligence lias rights before force. Force without intelligence is notuing.

To a father who loses his children rictory has no charms. When the heart gpeaks, glory is itself an il. union. Tents are unhealthy; it is much better for the soldier to bivouac in the open air, for then lie can build a lire ami .sleep with warm feet. Tents are only »m-»-sary for general officers, w'lm are obliged to read and consult their maps.

The fate of war is to be exalted in the morning and low enough at night. There is but one step from triumph to ruin.

It is in times of difficulty that great men and great nations display all the energy of their character, and become an object of admiration to posterity. Valor and a love of glory are an instinct with the French, a sort oi sixth sense.

THE NAVY IX THE PACIFIC. "So little can be said'about the navy, ami so little does the navy say about itself, that our sailor men may feel that t!:. /. are forgott; n." remarks the Melbourne correspondent of a Sydney newspaper. "TVey are not. It is the silent service, never more silent than in war, hut the inen engaged on our ships in the Pacific, and in our navy oilicc and district administrations at home, may be assured tliat, though their own people are not ta king or writing about them, they are remembering them —and are proud of them. We know now what would have happened had we been without tile Australia. Our traders would not be proceeding a3 they are, wilh ordinary trading as if no war exi.su-.i. and it would have been long odds that she.l s would have dropped in Sydney and our pretty Manly would have been blown to little bits. It is the Australian ship Australia, and the Australia alone, that has sent the powerful, speedy Seliarnhorst and Gniesenau, scuttling ofT to the Kasti rn Pacific. But the story that will bp told some day, and will tell of the Australian Navy's emancipation from blank cartridges and ceremonial salutes, will possibly have little in it about these big Germans who ran away. It will be more a story of less spectacular, but rastiy greater, heroism—dashes at high speed with lights out in unchartered waters, running at night into unknown harbors where mines might have been, landing parties, and surf running. Tinmen have taken their lives in their hands, not once but fifty times. They fcave run through risks with the gay a;i' venturousness that cares nothing for the momentarily-expected death. It can be said that the entries into Samoan ports and into the treacherous New (iuinea waters were well done; done as only great seamen can do them, and with all due preparations —and hopes—that more than mere land soldiers would be found within. The story of the landing at Nauru is typical. Official reports tell how this boatload, with orders to destroy the wireless station, ran through great • breakers before it was dawn. It seemed certain that all would be capiked. But, instead, the Germans on the island, some forty or fifty of them, \tere taken completely by surprise, and the manoeuvre nipped resistance in the bud."

MORAL QUALITIES Ef WAR. An articlo in the •urrent iisue of Blackwood's Magazine, entitled "Moral Qualities in War," is not only a striking confcsson of a soldier's faith, but also the military testament of one who was among the .first to lay down his life for liis country in the present war. The article is unsigned, but Mr Blackwood states that it was iwitten by Major C. A. L. Yate, of the iJngs Own Yorkllhire Light Infantry, whose death, in action was announced in the first casualty list published on September 3. The following passage occurs:—''The importance of moral qualities for success in war can scarcely bo overestimated. Xapoleon, by comparison with material factors, put it at three to one. Since his day their relative value may be said to have increased. The times when serried masses—or .even supple columns and shoulder-to-sbouldev lines—moved up to a hostile position are past and gone. Then, an advance through a comparatively shallow zone of fire with comrades close at hand was succeeded by a bayonet attack or by a retrograde movement wHiicfo soon brought immunity from hostile weapons. Two-day battles were rare; intany emcounicrs wdebratnd in i..story lasted a few hours or less. The long periods of re.st und freedom from danger which intervened between battles Served to reatwre fci;atLered nerroa and weary frames. . But of presently warfaro the distinguishing feature is its intensity. Long mercies, irrespective of weather and season, will frequently mark the opening stages of a campaign; incessant vigilance is needed from the moment war is declared; constant is the risk of sudden destruction—which in thcisa latest days ddiv come even from tlio sky yiliove—<#i.illj ibivoua.es must often be the substitute for snug winter quarters of prc-Napoleonie days; battles last for days, and even weeks, and wMst they endure scarcely a «pot. for some miles from the enemy is safe from shot and shell; moreover, experiments provo that the very latest 'projectile* ill u« cause wounds more terrible than, any previous weapons ;have done. What a strain 011 nerves overtaxed already m many cases toy our modern higti-pre-ssuiv. existence? What a teat for 'bodies »c----eusUmwl to the eomforta of latter-day e-irilisatioa"