WAR NOTES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 240, 19 March 1915, Page 6

WAR NOTES.

LET AMERICA SPEAK OUT

A CALL TO ARMS. ;xi'U]:Msiii<:i) poem i;v tea'nyson. The London Spectator pr.nts the fob ■ Aving hitherto unpublished poem bv vliVed !.o:'d Tenuyr.'.n, which bad been forwarded to the editor by the 'present Lord Tennyson, who recently ijnoted one of the three stanzas in the runve of A speech. A. the editor of the Spectator remarks, the poem seem-; almost as if it were written for the present crisis:

O where b, he, tile.simple fool, Who says thai war-i are over? What bloody pwideiit Ihishcs there Across the Straits of Dover': Nine hundred thousand slaves in arms -May seek to bring ns under; lint, Kngiand live- 1 , and still will live, For we'll cru.di the despot yonder. 'Are we read\' t Britons ail, To lurwei* foes with thunder? Arm," aim, arm!

0 shame on selfish -patronage— It is tile country's ruinCome, put the man in his place, Ami up now and be doin^ r ! •() gather, gallant volunteers In every town am 1 village. For tliere are i '.yr. 1 --—fiends not menMay vio'nte_ burn anil pillajje! Art; ynii ready, Britons nil To aiisv.cr I'oes ivitli tlmnder? Arm, arm, arm!

I"]) stont limbed ynemeii, leave awhile The fattening of your rattle— And. i-; indeed_ yon v.'ish for peace, lie ready for the battle! To (il''ll 11 ■c* bailie ~f (he world, Of progress ami hrmanity, Tn sfiife of his ciprht million lies And bastard Christianity! Are vo re;>'!v. liristons all To answer foes with thunder? Arm, arm arm!

—Tennyson. .rrxnrs xutk« o\ xkws. (By Cynic. Tie rews I hat |i!l i.nr daily files hreii! '-oe'.iai correspondents—miles IVhiml 1!■ e front -pe,'chance Tl:e ?v:ir!'\ bat 11-c •••cptiis rih's The n'ews from Itott- or Amst-erdam Has fiernian powder in its jam. The news from when tinft .>!:! lar; e 't.'s \vi 'er to decline Without tile Craed Hal-'e's ooiHitei'sirrii

The Tvussian. newr-, that coincs from Kome N romantic a-; a ]>oine. The news that comes from Austrian sources Munchausen's f'hade alone endorses. The news fi • -:i Xish upon Vienna Acts somewhat like the tea of senna. News from Vienna, wakes in \i«h The e\chunat : on "Tush," or "Pish." Dn Turkish telegrams qua fiction, We may bestow our benediction: That match (their humor is so tireless) The exploits of the Cerman wireless. Tn fine, the cautious tvpe eschews, As wholly prejudicial To lfs enlightenment, all news Save the Allies' official. 110W TO CilAliGE. A London solicitor, who had joined the First Sportsman's Battalion of Boval Fusilier.s i received the following congratulatory message from an old client:-' ''Accept my congratulations on your gallantry ill joining the Sportsman's Battalion. Any way, roil know how t.l charge."

PLOW CP lIELICOLAXU. Mr G. 11. Powell, protesting against the idea of taking Heligoland from the Hermans, suggests in the llilihert Journal, '-a, more practicable aiul perfectly practicable suggestion—that the smail and geographically perishable islet on which tiermany lias spent so much should he destroyed, blown up, as one burns a dangerous toy injudiciously entrusted to a mischievous infant.' WHAT WILL IIE BECOME'! The letter from a Westminster .Magistrate which appears in the Daily Telegraph upon the happy results of drafting young men and lads into the Army or Navy under the Probation of Oll'enders Act makes very agreeable reading (says the I 'all Mali Cazctte). Out of !> .-iicli 'probationers from the Westminster Police Court alone, now serving King and country, two hold commissions, seventeen are non-commissioned ollicers three have been mentioned in Sir John' trench's dispatches, and one was noticed for meritorious services in the d.-fence of Antwerp. When we think of n :at the tut lire of these young men might have heen, and of what the Act so°recentlv passed has enabled them to he, we mav well applaud the wisdom that placed the Probation of Offenders Act upon the Statute Rook.

Mr Aiu'ed Noyes. the English poet, Whose work is much admired in America, gave the London manager of the tinted Press a statement regarding the war which was widely published iu the I iiited States. M|- Noyes, who makes an appeal to America to put an end to the slaughter in Europe, says: '■< Inly the truth ,an end this war «ud the l-nited States can end it bv telling that truth to Ocrmanv. The' (,'erimins are not only losing their lives ll,ev are iosmg their minds and their souls in this conflict, (hough the end is not doubtI'd. r l he senseless welter of the bloodied prepared 111 secret, and begun bv tl'e brutal am! wholesale slaughter of miantird cifizens in a small nation, wlio-e omy ermte was innocence, threatens to become a war of extermination, and develop into the most appalling disaster ha-i ever befallen hiimanih-, It h I"' ,"»ty »f every neutral country now l<> "i',ve the truth into them, and the

(lerinan people will themselves end the war, and with it they will end the exited forgers of telegrams, the crowned thieves, and the lying diplomatists who 'til! ueerive them. Tin 1 I'nited States, liy making a very insignificant effort can confer this blessing on future ages. Let her speak as Lincoln spoke, and lilt up the torch of liberty to the millions of men who are even now l.eing prepared like sheep for slaughter. Let her speak, and ail humanity will bless her to the end of time."

TOBPKDO ATTACKS OX HAITI.!--ships. A writer in Cassier's Kngineering Vonthly (January) quotes the action oi t.ie American Navv Department in laving down more battleships of the larg,st t - v l ll ' proof of the contention that, nothing has yet-happened which should cause us to lose faith in tile large surface ship ov heavy gun power ami hkdi speed, - -Reference is made (o a remarkable article which was published more thai) four years ago in the I'nited States ■Magazine over the signature of '■. Master Manner.' in (he course of his study, the writer controverted the opinion that it was impossible to produce a satisfactory form of external passive protection for a battleship against torpedo attack, lie reached tile com-lusioii that a torpedo-proof batik-ship could '"'signed. The innovations m-ccssarv to 'provide a ship with a complete and 'cut lorm of external dcfcn--e torpedoes, cot,ien.!r,l. y.onhl no! p,. '"lvc l)V any means so drast : c a chaise the alterations whevhy the Horn! ■ ■oyereign was converted from an nniiroicctcrl carrying <>»<• lmn-'-llns - int o an armorrj sli<»i:»r o nf turret sin,) carryin- n-,; v

nwrth<.li.«s, • (hat half-me-i*. "I'i's wouhl he misfak,.. a ,„| no rangeinent of net;; dangling from (j, ( , .(■nils of swimming booms would a advance. Imwcv-r great i>n improwmmt on our equipment - ,oint lo '«• wiiw.i <s that to n fiord „ real ami ditrab'e protectum urnler all conditio..... ai , nai v.-nuM have to ( ; ,l;e 01 •" sm<l "ermaiii'Dt '"'-''Hon to <!>«• stlnii. Tf w.. are pr ... j'"''" 1 to »W|>t ill., ('run-. flu-1 linri«lii-a'jis if would imp,, , l"f ' 11.■ sake ol t:ip iinnii'i)',. boon t-cni'i i--1"I_ Ml other directinns f|. ( . provi-on of a deloncc offers no !:i-• t il,! ( . A stood of steel plaice, slats, ni hais answering the purp.i.'e could I ■ <<'VM"l without call in,'/ for any ewitionn! effort of eon si riietive wnins, .111.1 file wwrity 'provided by s onie arrangement would very amply countorlahinco file disadvantages" inseparable , ™"V ," se - 1^' ilh our i(! ' ""'lolly or 11,1,1,1 shaped by constant association ui.li the s:lnps of tlic present day it is perhaps dilTicnlt for ly to assimila'e the of !i «''i P witli such an cicmnftranco surrounding her. Tint, in truth 111,- .. f Fort of imagination required j, ""I mig to t:l:at which the sailor of'the w'i n 7 centurv ?■ , hn ™ h <™ ™n..rl upon to exevt "V" a