WAR NEWS.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 August 1915, Page 6

WAR NEWS.

GERMANS DECEIVED. "We expected that British India would rise when the first shot was fired in Europe," said Dcr Tag, "but in reality thousands of Indians came to fight with the British against U3. We anticipated that the whole British Empire would be torn to pieces, but the colonics appear to be closer than ever united with the Mother Country. We expected a triumphant rebellion in South Africa, but it turned out nothing but a failure. We expected trouble in Ireland, but instead she sent her best soldiers against us. We expected that the party of 'peace at any price' would be dominant in England, but it melted away in the ardour to •ght against Germany. We reckoned that England was degenerate and incapable of placing any weight in the scale, yet she seems to be our principal enemy." The lamentations of Der Tag and the fuJminationS of the Hamburg journal show that if the war has brought some military success to Germany it has also brought some striking disillusionments.

THE COMICAL DARE-DEVIL. "There is a, type of colonial who is a real dare-devil, (writes a chaplain with the New Zealand Forces at Gallipeli). He makes sport of death and fears nothing. One day last week a party of Australians was working in a sap, one being detailed to watch for hand-grenades and deal with them in the interest of the workers, the most effective method being —failing a catch and a hot return to the enemy, which often takes place—to throw.an overcoat or,a blanket on them« On'this particular morning, the bombs were conspicuous by their absence, and the watcher, being a bit of a grafter, began to help by filling and handing up the sandbags for the top of the trench. Just as he was in the act of handing up a bag a bomb hopped over into the trench, and, quick as lightning, he dropped the sand bag on top of it! But not content with that, he sat upon the sandbag, and, needless to say, was shot several feet into the air by the force of the explosion, yet, strangely enough without any injury. He grumbled audibly all the afternoon at the headache the bomb had given him!

SPIRIT OP FRANCE. Although the Germans are near enough to throw shells into the forest of Complcgne which is about as near Paris as Tunbridge Wells is to London, no one in this city seems to mind. I have given up being astonished at French imperturbability. Their writers for that matter are very encouraging. The Matin for example has very carefully gone into the question of German and Austrian losses, and concludes that out of 8,590,000 German soldiers the total in dead, wounded, and prisoners is 4,200,000 men; that out of 4,500,000 mobilised Austro-Hungari-ans, similar losses amount to 2,526,000 men. Then a military expert in another paper who writes anonymously, after explaining the situation, adds: "Se that by July 1 the Allies will still hav" a dozen millions of combatants against six millions of tho enemy. Net only is our superiority incontrovertible, but it will go on increasing. Another encouraging facter, as far as the French arc concerned, is that ten months' training in the tranches has made the troops "develish tough." They form wne grande Armee never dreamed of. So far from being extenuated, discouraged, worn out, i hoy are hardened to war, ripe in experience, and deadly in purpose. I read so many soldiers' letters from the front that I cannot be mistaken as to the spirit that reigns there.

"UNBROKEN INFANTRY." «''The Russians have probably far more to teach the world about the art of war than ever the Germans had," says the Morning Post's correspondent. "The very use of the term 'unbroken infantry' in the above dictum implies acceptance of the fundamentally fatal principle of line defences and line attacks. The Russians in history have at various periods adhered to and abandoned this principle, which rules, and always has ruled, all ideas of Western Europe about war. Happily, the Russians are now once more, as rtiey wero in Peter the Great's days and in the days of the Napoleonic invasion, in a period of abandonment of this fundamental error. Probably their present attitude towards this principle explains all their successes against the German war loi'ds. Worship of this precious, principle of the line leads to defence of frontiers and other demarcations of nafere space, which, after all, is only one Of the factors in every strategic problem. In a war like the present, which is one of life and death among nations, this factor is certainly the least important of all. Napoleon somewhere says that the army which manoeuvres is the army that wins victories. Germany has manoeuvred with exceeding freedom. So has Russia. Germany holds to the principle of the line, like the other nations of the West. Russia does not," •THE SECRET OP GERMANY'S STRENGTH.

There 13 an article in the "Nineteenth Century"—it isj written by Mr. J. Ellis Darker, who knows his Germany as few men do—which helps us to understand the spirit of modern Germany and the secret of her strength. Germany's great military ae.hicvmcnts, her vast industrial and financial' resources, the foresight and ability of her administrators and the unity and the unflinching devotion of her people in field and factory, have amazed even the best informed. The perfect discipliue of the German army has surprised us. At the word of command, German .soldiers will perform the greatest deeds of_ valour or commit the most shocking crimes. That perfect discipline, says Mr. Barker, the discipline which makes men machines in time of war, was created by Frederick William the First, and was recommended as indispensible by Frederick the Great, Germany owes her efficiency not to the greater ability of the Germans themselves, but to the political system which these two great men created; to the fact that a single will animates the whole administration of the State, that the whole nation acts like a single man, and that every other consideration is subordinated to the national j interest, while in democracies parties and, people are squabbling, and the depart-! menls of the State are aimlessly pulling' in different directions. The whole German nation has been made a gigantic machine for carrying out the sovereign's will in war and in peace. Organisation must be met by organisation, absolutism, by absolutism. Only a system conferring' absoluto power for the'duration of the war can organjso the forces of the United Kingdom and of the Empire as a whole, a system which will compel those who ought to fight to join the army, and those who ought to work to labour to the tart 9! their, ability, V|