WAR NOTES

Taranaki Daily News, 4 February 1916, Page 8

WAR NOTES

RUSSIAN AVALANCH^. GREAT PREPARATIONS FOR NEXT SPRING. Paris, November 27. A gentleman who has been travelling in Russia states that preparations are now being made in Russia for the next great offensive. Each depot is filled with recruits, who are being trained with the utmost speed. In the spring Russia hopes to be able to put in the field an army of seven millions, including one million cavalry, and 10,000 pieces of artillery. Japan, the United States and England are daily furnishing large quantities of rifles. The port of Archangel will be kept open all the winter, and a canal several miles long will lead from the port to the White Sea. One must see the tremendous amount of traffic on all the roads, railways, canals and rivers to comprehend the enormous efforts that are being Made. ' The war material now arriving includes heavy grenades, which are being manufactured in Korea and in all parts of Japan. A«y one who has visited Russia recently feels satisfied that whatever the German organisation and troops can do, they will not be able to withstand the Russian avalanche next spring, which will be irresistible.

THE DEATH WHISTLE. MORE GERMAX INHUMANITY. One of the most amazing parts of all the German equipment has just come to light'. Every German medical orderly carries a whistle with which he can summon help when he needs it for moving wounded men from the battlefields or trenches. The German whistle will whistle when blown upon, but that is not its chief use. It is really a singleshot pistol worked by compressed air. A powerful spring helps to drive the bullet out to do its ghastly work. And how ghastly, how awful the work that that pistol has done only the Germaris themselves know, for it is intended to kill their own wounded. When the doctors or medical orderlies are satisfied that a German soldier lying helpless and groaning in pain on the ground is not likely to recover, the death whistle is used to kill him. The German soldier is useless to the great German war machine unless he can fight. .There is practically no noise with this awful weapon, and the dreadful work is nearly always done at night. The death whistle is well known to the German soldier, and many a woundo/l man has been found by the soldiers of the Allies hidden in a cellar or barn where he has crawled to escape the eyeiof the German doctor.