CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 July 1915, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

THE ,REAL STOIIY OF THE WAR. Tho real stay of the war is being written not by the professional war coruespondent. with all his literary equipment and all the newspaper resources «tt his batok, but by the fighter h.ii»*lf in the firing line. The man in tlhe trenches geta his impressions at firsthand and his purple patches aro "the •real thing." And no professional coilre-'apondt-nt can outdo the simply-written StraigWoriward letters of the soldier to lira wife or his parents. These little 'epistles/ without -any striving after effect, convey perfect pictures of tire work in the battle-front. For instance, this passage from a letter written by Colonel J. Monasli, of the 4th Australian Infantry Brigade, to his wife in Melbourne id a YUlo Epic of the Bullet: "The bullet which passes clo.se by (say, within Klft or 20ft), lia.s a gentle, purring hum, like a low, caressing whistle, long-drawn-out. The bullet which passes well overhead, .especially if fired from a long range, has a sharp, sudden crack like a whip, and really feels as if it is very close. Our own rifle fire, listened to, bf course, fr;om ibehind the firing ]hi" or in it, sounds like, a low nimib!,- ,r growl; (iur machine guns are exact lv like fhe rattle of a. kettle-drum. The evening'* rifle and mauiiiine gun fire, o ji the other hand, sounds as if it were direct overhead, even though (he fire is actually coining from, the front, half-a-milo away." A* for the shrapnel, it '"■ sound's like a. gust of wind in a, wiuf.n gale. ~wishing .through tlic air and endin.; in si loud king ~,,,{ a ( ~|( )11(| (1 f smoke, when the shell burst*. Our u wn artillery is (he noisiest of all. both the discharge of the guns mid the bmstimr i-f the shell being ear-splitting, with a reverberating echo that lasts twentv or thirl y,seconds." ,\ii,l the same soldier, ,iy way oi giving some notion ol" the '■'olm <>f battle., says (hat during twentyfw<> days of continuous fighting, da'v "ml nig'h.l. -most of us think that the longest period which tl„.r„ was absolutely no MMind of gun or rille lire throughout, the whole of that lime was leu seconds." That (a.s the bvttclton Times says) will serve Letter than col-

"""'•• : '"' »'<,i'dy description to ennvev to our peaceful home-keeping .folk some nofion °' f <»<' ««'i,es and sounds amid "■hh-li New Zealand's young soldiers ar 6 fighting for their lives.

WATt AX]) DAX'Klll-l-Tl V. _ Unl l.orelmi-n ha.- just stated t'liat i! Kim.pc does not modify its pace it ml] end in 'European bankruptcy. Writing in tlie Human itc, \j. (Vnij)ei'e.Morel, ha.l in.-,' Jits .statements' on the Monk of famous economists, says it is admitted that the cost of tlie, nuaiintemunee of each soldier amounts to about 8s ftd. per day.

Great Britain, France and Russia, having 10,000,000 men under arms, he sa.vs,

and Germany a,nd Austria 10,0011,000, there is, therefore, a daily ci.f of £K,800.000. Adding to this sum ,IM()0.. 000 as tlhe cost of the Belgian, Serbian, Turkish and Japanese anuies i the daily total of is reached. This makes a total of ,€2,200,000,000 spent in eight months. With the addition of the material losses .su»ta<ined in llelgimn ami East Prussia, com.meivial and maritime losses, a nd the productive capacity of the men who have fallen oil the ■Hlcl'e'.V !■<> estimates, in conclusion, thai the war hail up to April cost ,«,8(}7.O0O,O00.

ITIIE NEW CULT. .Some of the most representative of the German papers have recently, with Teutonic! sconn, proclaimed that Gel' iinuiy is the only nation capable of truly hating. The, Englishman, with his mild and softened outlook, i.s not equal to such frenzy. As for the French, doubtless they are too polite; the Americans are too commercialised, and so 011 dowai the roll. Germany alone, being superior to all the others, i.s capable of gemimnc haite. The, facts seem to 'boar out this ibonst. The genuine hate—of course, that is, the pure ar-ticle—-admits of no palliaitivc. To hate is to he. emiel, to l>tim, torture, mutilate, violate,, rob, .strip, ravage, destroy without mercy. "VVlio is there who would dare dispute Germany's claim to this pre-eminence ?—Life. ROSSTA'S HTiMAN RESOUHCf^.

The conditions of the Russians are infinitely better tlia.n at amy time mikc the War started (assents a London Time'; correspondent at Warsaw, writing while the Russians were retreating in Cialicia.. Their 1015 levies which are just coming into the. field now in great blocks are about the finest raw fighting material tbat one. can find in Europe—great strapping, healthy, good-natured lads who look as though tihcy had never had a day's sicikmesi in their life. "I think I do not exaggerate when 1 say that T have, seen nearly 50.000 of these new levies, and X have yet to see a battalion that did not exude, high spirits and enthusiasm. They oome swinging through Warsaw, laughing and singing with a confidence and optimism which it is hard to believe possible when one considers (hat we are in the tenth month of the war. Surely if the Germans who are straining every effort now to raise, now troops could see these men that Russia is pouring into -tflio field they would lave a genuine qualm as to the. future. And these are but a drop in tih'e bucket to what is available in great Russia that lies at the back of us. Over here there, will never be any lack of men, and (he Tsar oa,n keep putti'ng troo|>s like these into tlic field .for as many more montihs or ycaais n« the war may la«t. After nearly a year on this side of the war one, jitst begins to appreciate the enormous human resources which Russia has at ih'er comiruajid in this <n-eat conflict. 1 '