GERMANY'S STRATEGIC RAILWAYS.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 July 1915, Page 4

GERMANY'S STRATEGIC RAILWAYS.

'Hie most important factor operating in Germany's favor in the war, as fought near her own borders, has been her marvellous system of strategic railways, Without it, the forces of Germany would have been overcome within a few weeks. A map of these railways is a revelation. Nearly all the tracks are double and very often there are four tracks laid parallel. The total length of railway is 37,000 mika and the system is mucb more <xtensive than the French system. From east to west, fourteen lines of fails crosa the Rhine, between IBasle, on the Swiss frontier, and Wesel, jiear Holland. On either bank the river two parallel roads follow its courts faithfully, and on the eastern side numerous lines, which terminate at the Rhine. provide railways that are of secondary importance compared with the river routes. Troops may be sent from one frontier to the other in ten hours if necessary, though thirty-six hours is usually required to transport an army corps across Germany. German prisoners who had fought in Belgium in August and then seat to fight the Russian* .were afterwards returned to France, where they were captured in September in the battlc_ of the Aisne. Such mobility would have been Impossible without the wonderful military railway system of Germany. Its' perfection and elaborateness is but another example of Germany's steady preparation for the present war and her determination to win world supremacy whatever the cost might be, BULGARIA AND ENTENTE DIPLOMACY. Dr. E. J. Dillon writes in the Fortnightly Review on "Bulgaria and Entente Diplomacy." Bulgaria is to-day, he says, the least formidable in military respects of all the Peninsula States, with the sole exception otf Montenegro. .For many years past, almost since the accession of the Coburg Prince, Bulgaria ha* been the handmaid of Austria and Germany. One of the far-resonant effects of this subserviency was the proclamation of her independence at the sam? time r,H Austria's annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. But there is a fly in the ointment, and, strangely enough, it is connected with the very loan from Germany which many regarded as a sign that Bulgaria would fight, if she foi.ght lit all, against the Entente Powers. There was a clause in the agreement by which it was stipulated that, in case, of war, Germany would have the option of postponing the loan of £20,000,000 which was to have been placed on the market last August, but that this delay would not be deemed a valid ground for a breach of the contract by Bulgaria, In other words, Bulgaria's hands woui'l be tied by the war, but those of Germany would be free. And that is what happened. The concession of the coal mines at Terink, the construction of Port Lagos on the Aegean Sea, and tho building of a railroad connecting tho sea with the Bulgarian railway system were part of the price paid by the Bulgars /or the loan. Altogether it was a one-sided arrangement, and it has aroused discontent' among the Bulgars. MERCIFUL BULLETS. The slight nature, of the wounds often inflicted by the modern rifle bullet as •omparcd with those caused by the oldfashioned big projectile are borne outill an Australian officer's letter to a Sydney newspaper. The writer, Lieu-tenant-Colonel Nash, states that several thousand Australian soldiers are in 'Egypt, "knocked out temporarily" by Turkish or German bullets or pieces of shell, and that most of the bullet wounds are such as to give hopes of a very .-peedy return of the men to the tiling line. "The rilie bullet used by the enemy," he writes, "is tho most humane projectile I have seen. It is pointed like a pencil point, well-coated with nickel, and below O.:|OM in diameter at any level. The grooves are numerous and deep. All these characters make it pierce soft tissues, hones and clothing cleanly, and with high velocity, the consequence being that a small clean puncture represents the inlet, outlet and the track from one to the other. In many eases a lung or two lungs lias or have been completely passed through, yet uninterrupted recovery has ensued in the course of two weeks. Such could hardly follow after .being struck with a round shot, a Martini, or any large ed missile." This should bring some comfort to those New Zealand parents and wives who receive the much-dread-ed casualty telegrams telling them of wounds received by their fighting men at the Dardanelles.