The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 5, 1916. HUN PIRACY AND MURDER.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 January 1916, Page 4

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 5, 1916. HUN PIRACY AND MURDER.

The sinking of the P. and 0. liner Pt on Thursday last affords another i] tration of the policy of frightfu' which the Austro-Germans have ado and is the worst tragedy of Hun p since the sinking of the Lusitania is passing strange that these demo destruction, who can boast so blat of the glorious success of their millions, can yet find a fiendish d in the murder of defenceless womc children by air raids, and commi piratical atrocities as the Binki large passenger ships. The yeai will ever be specially memorable count of two great tragedies sea—the sinking of the Lusitan of the Persia. To designate sui rors as acts of civilised warfari place cold-blooded murderers < same, footing at high ariaefekd s

What sort of beings can these Huns be who delight in the shrieks and cries of peaceful travellers sent to their doom without a moment's warning? Such monstrous atrocities, as the London 'Daily Telegraph rightly says, remind humanity for what Germany standi, and what their success in the war would mean. All tvue civilisation will stand aghast at this further act of barbaric cruelty, which cannot fail to deepen the loathing with which Germany and Austria are regarded outside their own domains. Apart from the loss of such a fine ship, which money can replace, there is approximately three hundred and ninety of the pasengers and crew officially set down as missing, but there is little hope of their having escaped death' by drowning, and no compensation can recall these valuable lives. That such a frightful act should have been perpetrated in the closing hours of the year seems to point to a desire on the part of the Huns to make their record of atrocities for the year 11315 as heavy as possible, and lliey have succeeded only too well; but the blood of women and children ruthlessly slaughtered will cry aloud for vengeance when the day of reckoning arrives, an'the response must be full and adequate. Words fail to fully express the horror felt at such acts of callous brutality. The effect of deeds like the sinking of the Lusitania and Persia on the manhood of the British Empire should show itself in galvanising them into intense activity, and should arouse even the most pronounced shirker to a sense of his duty in assisting to crush the nations which adopt tactics of this kind. More than ever is it imperative that these powers for evil must be overthrown. We know that in the end the cause of right will prevail over the tyranny of might, and this very knowledge imposes on the Allies the duty of inflicting a crushing defeat on their enemies, for not until then can we livii in safety from outrages in which the Huns express their rage at being thwarted in their evil designs. Let, then, the whole manhood of the Empire arise and gird on armor, so as to assist in ridding civilisatibn of its present foul brood of callous murderers of 'nt men, women and children.