BACK FROM JAPAN.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 August 1915, Page 5

BACK FROM JAPAN.

WHAT OUR ALLIES ARE OOIJiUJ.. HELP TO RUSSIA. Christchureh, August 2. A well-known Christchureh merchant, who lias just returned from a. trip to Japan, a country that he knows very well, gave a reporter interesting inforaa* tion about the Japanese, their attitude towards the war, and what they aro doing- to help the Allies to win the war. "With the exception. of 200 or 300 doctors and some hundreds of nurses" he said, "there are no Japanese actually with the Allies, barring artillerist*, hut the doctors and nurses are doing • excellent work, fc'o many doctors have gone now that there Is a shortage* •in .fa pan—similar to what there is in New Zealand. So far as I was able to learn the Japanese are not building any ) fighting ships or submarines for the Allies. Their naval building programme seems to he solely for their own use, j> u t of courec an outsider trying to find out information, about Ja.po.ncßc naval matters soon finds himself up against a brick wall. I was told on eweHeftt authority that at the end of May the Japanese hod begun to take the big *un» —anany of them quite new—out of their fortifications and were sending thorn v ith all f,peod to the Russian front, vrith supplies of ammunition and trained engineers, Whether these guns will got to the front in time to assist in the defence of Warsaw I could not say but I know that transporting them is 'a rather slow 'business, and the big shells have to be handled most carefully, ono at n time.

'"The Japanese consider that the Russians have put up a very fine performance, and that their organisation and eo.uipment are very niuch better than during the Russo-Japanese war. If we had had to fight the Russia of to-day then we should have boon hopelessly beaten,' so say the Japanese. Russia Is invincible, and means to sec the Wtr through to the end. The Japanese ajl think tliat the war will last at leaot two years. They do not believe that the Allied forces will succeed in batteriag thrii way to Berlin, but they believe ia Lloyd George's silver bullet,' and think that in' about two years there will be an absolute financial collapse in G«rtiwiny. That is. why they are so keo*. to help Russia with the munitions she needs. 1 believe that Russia's determination is inflexible. She means to keep going. Already large fiOOO to 8000-ton ice-breakers have been sent to Vladivo*loci; to keep the port open for transporting munitions, and a significant • point also was the cargo of the St. Albans, the 'boat. I came back in. This vessel was to tale 2500 tons of Australian lead to Vladivoslook. and then wus> going back for two more such eargoes." ' '

A (leniian prii-oncr recently stated that 05 out of i. r )U British prisoners were killed in cold blood by their escort on' the. road to Lil'c in October, and that "the escort were praised for their conduct."

A l.'oiuloii paper gives an instance of two soldiers being hit by. one bullet. friends were together in a, trench, when a bullet knocked out some teeth mid then passed through the check of one of them, and lodged afterwards In the bead cf the other. The .former attended the funeral of the latlV..

■ Mr. (Jeorge Klhveud, the well-known musician, remrned to Chrislchuivh t'h« other day. tic went (o (Germany two weeks prior to the outbreak of war and was some months in Berlin. He states that when it bociime known that England had declared war (ienuany was depressed. There was never milch enthusiasm at any time, bill a great hatred of the British and a popular dread of the Cossacks won' the main features of life in the citv.

A New Zealand nurse, writing from %yjit. f»y»: "We met several doctors, and Millie told us liow we had misjudged l)i» Turks in juany ivaj-s. For instance, on (lie ground between the firing lines where they v j,m out to tend the wounded at nuiht many a hoy is found with his wounds bejufiluily dressed, get aside for his own men to Cud and take in. and always they had been <;iven a drink and a biecuit or something to eat. In many eases these dressings remain on for a day or two till they can be dhunged. so well a.re they done, THERE'S NO DANGER,