WAR NOTES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 162, 15 December 1914, Page 6

WAR NOTES.

THE RIVAL FLEETS.

PRINCIPAL CASUALTIES. Following aro tlio particulars of the principal casualties to the rival fleets prior to tlic Falkland Manila battle:— BRITISH. Battleship. Bnhvanl (1002), 15,000 tons, accident--1 ally blown up at Sheerness, November 26; 770 lives lost. Armoured Cruisers. Aboukir (1002), Creasy (1001), Hogue (1902), each 12,000 tons, torpedoed by submarines in the North Sea, September 22; about 1440 lives lost. Good Hope. (1002), 14,100 tons, sunk in action off the Chilian coast, about November 4; about 900 lost. Monmouth (1003), 9800 tons, sunk with the Good Hope; about 540 lost. Light Cruisers. Amphion (1913), 3340 tons, sunk by mines, North Sea, August C, 130 lives lost. Pathfinder (1900) 2040 tons, sunk by submarine, North Sea; September 5; 170 llives lost. Pegasus, (ISD9), 2135 tone, shelled and sunk at Zanzibar, by Konigsberg, September 20; 31 killed. Hawkc, (1893), 7350 tons, (old armored), sunk by sumbarine, North Sea, October 15; 400 lives lost. Hermes (1900), 5000 tons, torpedoed by submarine, Dover Strait, November 1. Armed Liner. Oceanic, 17,274 tons, wrecked oil Scottish coast, September 9. GERMAN. Battleship. Kaiser Wilhelrn der Grosse (1001) 10,474 tons, reported (unconfirmed) sunk by Russians, November 28. Armored cruisers. Yorck, (1905), 9350 tons, sunk by British submarine in Jade Bay. Scharnhorst and Gneisenau (1908), 11,240 tons, sunk by British off Falkland Islands, December 5 or 8. Light Cruisers. Mainz (1910), 4232 tons; Koln (1910), 4280 tons. Ariadne (1901), 2618 tons, sunk off Heligoland, August 27, vrith two destroyers; over a thousand lives lost. Magdeburg (1912), 4500 tons, wrecked in the Gulf of Finland and destroyed by Russians, August 28. Hela (1896), 2004 tons, sunk by submarine, September 18; 178 lost. Cormoran (1893) 1040 tons, sunk by Japanese at Kaio-chau, October 7. Geier, (1896), 1776 tons, interned at Honolulu. Emden (1909), 3544 tons, defeated and wrecked by H.M.A.S. Sydney, November 0. Konigsberg (1907), 3350 tons, bottled up near Mafia Island, German Fast Africa, November 10. Hertha (1596), 5569 tons, reported (unconfirmed), sunk by Russians, November 28. Leipzig (1906), 3200 tons, sunk off Falkland*, December 5 or 8. Armed Liners. Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, 14,340 1 tons, sunk August 14, by Highflyer. Cap Trafalgar, 18,710 tons, sunk by Carmania. Berlin, 17,000 tons, interned at Trondhjem. THE GERMAN WAY. The ruthless manner in which the war is being waged by Germany is attributed to moral degeneracy brought about by the teaching of Trietschke, Nietzsche, and Bernhardi and the "blood and iron" doctrine of Bismarck. Commenting on this, a correspondent of the Spectator recalls a passage from Sir t Herbert Maxwell's "Life of Wellington." Writing to his mother in August, 1807, Wellesiey, after his operations against the Danisl. Army, and the failure of the , C-n:ian ai.Mngent to co-opc-r.no pcrly, goes on to say:—"l can, however, assure you that, from the G-nrral of the Germans ''.own to Ihe smallest drummer-boy In t i-iir legion, (he earth never groaned with such"a f-et ol murderous infamom villawi-J. They murdered," he says further on, "vnobed and ill-treated th? peasantry uhevtver they went." MECHANISM ')F WAR. The real and i»normou:, advantage of the Germans at fie tturt lay not in the organism, but in Hi.; mechanism of their armies. I; lay in the rronjerfiil completeness of their deliberate preparation for destroyed their neighbour's. Th-ir heavy u.r!.iilei'y, their machine guns, their tra:;i m negincs for ilijejin.-, trutches, their fire ladders for taking observations and gc/,'.ig a Ingl. mount for machine guns, their immense equipment fo" motor tru'i.jport, their purably centralised railway systeiji, the defiiiitericss and ruthlessness of their plan of* aggression--alI these made the lirst German sweep on the Allies in r.he west the most formidable onslaught that was evej attempted and beaten at the outset of the war. But the mechanism of . the German military system nils rapidly diminished in relative value compared with the better equipment and the new methods of the Alliles, while there are unmistakable signs that the vitality of the organism is lower. Far above all, the edge oi their tileories is turned against the Gentians. When they forc.'"2 entire world to arm for the war of whole nations they raised against themselves forces that their own can never conquer.—Observer. BLACK MAN WARFARE. Mr F. W. Hawkins, the foreign secretary of the London 'Missionary Society, has received from Dr H. E. Warcham, one of the Society's medical missionaries stationed at Kawimbc, Northern Rhodesia, two letters describing the situation ou the borders of German East Africa. Writing on August 2li, Dr Warcham said: "'The Germans aro now enrolling the Rugaruga—that old fighting and raiding people. The soldiers are as great a pack of scoundrels a,s one can meet, and now to these are added the Rugaruga. This is the message sent by the German commandant to the English commander: 'Remove all your Europeans, as my native soldiers will massacre, them all.' That's tile bright lot we have all over the border." Twelve days later Dr Warcham wrote: "Hell is let loose and no one can tell what is going to happen. When I wrote yon last we were about to leave Kawinibe. The German force was then about ten miles from Aberami, but was not expected to come on for some days. 'They took Chunga's village at Kalambe, killed seven people (defenceless), and captured eleven women whom they took to German East Africa. They imrned part of the village and took all the food. On Friday they and another band approached Abercorn and on Saturday attacked the place. They were driven ofl|, but they captured several more women and cruelly murdered two chil-