WAR BY PLAGUE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 276, 1 May 1915, Page 5

WAR BY PLAGUE.

HUNS' THREAT-TO ENGLAND. "SMILER" HALES' WARNING. London, March 10. ' ,■ We have had proof upon proof that neither the laws of God or man have .. been respected by the Germans during ■ the present war. We know that every form of pillage, arson, and outrage ho* . been part of the Germans' military and naval plan of campaign; we know how ' cities and villages have been sacked and. looted, inoffensive peasants brutally murdered, women and children degraded; We know how our own undefended coast - towns were shelled, our women and children done to death. Never a day passe* but we, hear of unprotected merchant - vettefc being piratically attacked by German forces. Knowing these things, is there any - fom» of devilry in which we can be sure Hie Germans will not indulge if they pefteivc in it a means of punishing their' ett*my? A year ago the man who. suggested 1 - that any civilised Power would wage' watf" By deliberately spreading a foul and' devastating disease would have been set dbwn as possessing a diseased - brain, but to-day ? Mr. "Smile*" Halesy the well knowa Australian witter, is now assuring us ■ that if Germany cannot get the .better, of her enemies' in any other way she intends—when tile worst comes to the worst—to maker w<ar on England by Jetting loose upon Great Britain hordes uf • black rats doliberattoiy infected with tne plague. "In the"courts of an article i« .'-, "John Bull" this wees, Mr. Hales tcltaua" that the terms Germans believe the Allies would impose cm Hie Fatherland ', in event of victory would' be such as tomean practically nation*! 1 extinction, fo : prevent this, he whole nation, male and female, have been sedulously educated in the belief that any means, however terrible, wliieh might bo - adopted to obviate such'' m catastrophe, :. would be justifiable in thfe eyes of God and man, and from this belief asroso the ■ cult of the 'Black Rat.' . . ; Whilst . the Fatherland has been, training her sons to arms until ten milfibn Boldiers . ■ were ready to march under her banners; a school of scientists was being' evolved -■ to form Germany's last line of "defence in ease of imminent defeat.' Neither money, time, travel, nor labor"was spared in the evolution of this body" of men to whom all Germans look to save them from the last humiliation when tlteir armies are fleeing and their fleet hi at the bottom of the sea. What thtfawnie* and navy fail to do in open warfare, the ■» scientists will attempt to achieve" Before their military and naval power"isc completely crushed, and their land' stand* naked to its foes. To these men the gospel of the 'Black,Rat,' with all' the terrors it conveys, is a commonp&Hß, thing." Mr. Hales points out that nearly every great plague thai has been known 1 to modern times has been spread by migrating black rats, which arc mainly indigenous to Russia and East Prussia. Toe • grey or brown rat will not, he alleges, carry the plague; if these rodents are artificially inoculated or naturally infected by a plague, they will cither die off immediately or throw it off; they d*no*.carry it onwards. The black rat wilt not succumb to the pestilence, but will carry and spread it wherever it travels. The Australian writer adds:—*E*periments on an extensive scale to thi» end have been carried out by the best scientifically equipped brains in the land of 'kultur' and refinement;' these m*« are the skull-and-crossbones contingent of the Kaiser's varied forces; nothing that hell has spawned or criminal iinajfination conceived can outdistance or-ont-reach this phase of 'kulturcd' abomiim; tion, and it might be hard to belicveflkfl* • even the Kaiser's council would sanction such devilish designs if we had not the evidence before us which this war has graven on the pages of hisCbry t<JO;id*epljr for time to obliterate."

So, according to Mr. Hales, if gets the worst of the struggle sb>mea«i to fight Britain with the plague. I»fected rats are to be introduced! to all our seaport towns in order -tdi destroy our trade' and commerce with'- all neutrals, for, of course, no nation would trade with plague-smitten porta/ Can we afford to laugh' at -Mr. Hales* statements! We know what; the Germans did when their armies- were sweeping through Belgium and.'the North of France. If they could be .guilty of such "frightfulness" "in the- days wiicn things seemed to he going weU'With'tHcm, what may they not attempt in the hour of desperation? We c*n only judga people by what they havodAnc, and tho Germans have already outraged th» world's sense of decency to such an extent as to make it posnible for us t* believe' that they are quite* capable of putting the de'vilidf sdkmie against which Mr. Hales warns us- into operation against our country. -. This was written bi-fdre the Germans

used the asphjyxiating Bases, which but for the heroic work of the Canadians may have enabled' th"eu» to break the Allies' line. Avpoopkr who will resort to this form of frigjrtfu-mess would pro- ' pagate plaguq by medium of rats or perpetrate any other foms of iniquity and infamy.