IN THE AIR.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 September 1915, Page 5

IN THE AIR.

RECENT RAID ON LONDON. THE RESULTS DESCRIBED. MURDER OF NON-COMBATANTS. Received Sept. 19, 2.30 p.m. London, Sept. 19. At the Press Bureau's request, Sir John Simon, an impartial observer has described the effects of the last' Zeppelin raid over London district. He adds that tiie total casualties of the air-raids has in all cases been correctly stated. His description carefully avoids details regarding the route and places bombed.

The description states that the experience of last week, combined with the German official reports thereon, demonstrates that the commanders of the aircraft are often grossly in error as to their movements, and have no means whatever of estimating the effects of a promiscuous bombardment everywhere. Only private property suffered, being in most cases of the. small residential kind, and almost all the unfortunates killed were non-combatants, hitherto exempt from an attack in accordance with the honorable practices of civilised warfare, that is, women and children, small shopkeepers, and work-ing-men.

Tlie futility of the raids can be imagined when it is remembered that London district is seven hundred miles square. The enemy professed to have accomplished an important military purpose by hastily dropping explosives of incendiary material at random in this enormous surface. In point of fact no public institution was hit. It is true that two hospitals narrowly escaped, but it is only fair to say that an army which has done its best to destroy cathedrals in Belgium and France only succeeded in hitting one church.

NO MORAL EFFECT. From Berlin's standpoint the moral effect has been a complete failure, ai\d if Count Zeppelin accompanied the raiders, as has 'been reported, he must be disappointed to learn that only a minority trf the vast population of London was aware of the presence of airships. The feelings of those who heard the gunfire and saw the Zeppelin were those of interest and curiosity, rather than fear. In fact, the people in the London suburbs faced calmly the murderous efforts, and the unmitigated, callous, and purposeless brutality of the- raids and the tragedies involved. TRAGIC FEATURES. 1

Here are a few pictures of the effects of the London raid. Outside a public-house a man and a woman were talking. The woman departed to buy her supper, and a bomb fell at the man's feet, killing him outright. It blew in the hotel front, reducing the stock to a mass of broken glass, and twisted an iron bedstead, injuring a sleeping woman. How, asks sir John Simon, can this conceivably contribute to the progress of the war"? Another bomb dropped on a block of workmen's dwellings which are nightly crowded with children. On the topmost flat four children were sleeping. Two who surreptitiously rose up to make tea in an adjoining room escaped miraculously, and the sleeping children were killed instantly. That is what occurred when the captain of the Zeppelin professed to think he was visit ing the docks and vitally damaging the port. FATE OF A FOWL. Another bomb dropped on a stable and fired a motor-car. The stalbleman and his wife rescued eleven horses, a dog, and a caged bird, the only casualty being a bantam cock, showing that the utility of the attack was ridiculous. SLEEPING CHILDREN KILLED. . Elsewhere there were tragic circumstances. A bomb dropped squarely on a blook of flats where two girls were sleeping. They vanished, with the room, and their bodies were found two days later under the debris. Their parents, who were asleep when the partition wall was blown out, searched for their remaining three children. An eight-year-old boy ran for safety to the staircase, which was demolished, and fell in the hole where his sisters were buried in the ruins. T).vo out of three children belonging to another family on the first floor were missing, and their bodies were recovered. The worst effect of the explosion was on the ground floor, where there were a widow, her daughter, and a lodger. Part of the lattcr's body was found 150 yards distant. IIOTOR-BI T S DESTROYED. A bomb that dropped in a street blew in a shop front and spent its main force on a passing motor-bus, which had twenty people a'board. Nine of these were killed, and the eleven others injured. TOTAL RESULTS CH? THE RAIDS. These incident? aeamnt for nearly ■half the deaths, and suffice to show the real measure and nature of the raiders' success. The net results of the week's raids on life and limb in London district were thirty-eight killed and died of wounds, and 120 injured. Two policemen and one Army Service man were among the casualties, otherwise there was nobody in uniform hurt.

ACTIVITY OF FRENCH AIRCRAFT.

BRISK WORK IN TILE ADRIATIC. Paris, Sept. 17. A communique states that a squadron of hydroplanes from Port Said bombarded Clieekaldere bridge, which constitutes an important passage. Elsewhere hydroplanes in the Adriatic have been engaged in combats with Austrian aeroplanes, supported by small boats. Despite gunfire from the boats the French aeroplanes always forced the Austrians to ret Teat.

FRENCH AVIATOR'S FEAT. GUNNING A TROOP TRAIN. Received Sept. 20, 12.10 a.m. Paris, Sept. IS. Telegrams from Switzerland state that two French aviators surprised a German troop train between Donaueschingen and Villigen. They swooped up and down the train on both Hides at an altitude of fifteen feet, firing ma-chine-guns. The Germans were without ammunition and many of them were killed. The attack ended at Marbach Junction, where the raiders fusiladed the troops on the platform, inflicting heavy losses,