The Daily News. MONDAY, APRIL 3, 1916. MORE GERMAN FRIGHTFULNESS.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 April 1916, Page 4

The Daily News. MONDAY, APRIL 3, 1916. MORE GERMAN FRIGHTFULNESS.

The Huns have not been long in giving a characteristic murderous reply to the British aerial attack on the German Zeppelin base. This morning's cables record a raid by squadrons of airships on the eastern counties of England, while a detached airship worked northeast. Once more there is a toll on the lives of peaceful citizens, twenty-eight being killed and forty-four injured. This indiscriminate murder is not war, it is brutal cowardly revenge, the stain of which can never be effaced; and yet there are men like Sir Wm. Lever (of Sunlight Soap fame) who can publicly advocate resuming friendly trade relations with Germany after the war. It is pleasing to learn that one at least of the raiding airships was destroyed, the officers and crew being captured A nice question now arises as to whether these men can be tried for murder, as, presumably, they were not acting under definite instructions to kill innocent citizens, but to raid and destroy military works and encampments, at least that U what the German authorities invariably proclaim to be the object of such raids. There is no doubt that the officers and men of these Zeppelins have ruthlessly murdered the victims of their dropped bombs, and are, therefore, responsible for the consequences, as are also the crews of the submarines causing loss of life. During this last raid there appears to have been seventy-six bombs dropped and seventy-two casualties, and though the captured men are most probably only responsible for a portion of the killed and wounded, yet the intent covers the whole of the victims, and it would seem to be only just that they should stand their trial for the capital offence. Apparently British anti-aircraft measures are not yet as efficient as could be desired. Considering that .the East Coast districts of Eng-

est towns to the German base, are continually being raided, and should long before this have received adequate protection. It would seem that the British air-aervice is sadly in need of expert direction, and it is to, be hoped that an impetus will be given to this department, the importance of which is increasingly evident. Another foul deed that swells the list of Teutonic barbarities is the torpedoing of the French hospital ship Portugal in the Black SeaJ with the result that there are 115 missing, including 15 Sisters of Charity, whose duty it is to nurse the patients. Hitherto, in warfare, the Red Cross and Hospital Ships have been regarded as safe from attack, but it has been left for the Huns to trample under foot the rules of the Geneva Convention, and to murder the s ick and wounded with the same callousness as they exhibit towards the women and children on land and sea. Their defiance of the laws of civilisation and humanity may gratify their vanity, but it certainly hardening the hearts of the Allies, and it completely justifies their determination to continue the war to the bitter end. Either the doctrines of civilisation and humanity or those of brute force and instincts must prevail. There is no longer any room for both to exist, so that it is the obvious duty of the Allies to so effectively crush the Teutonic power for evil that the present menace to the world may be entirely uprooted. Every outrage committed by the Huns should give an added impetus to the efforts of the Allies in the attainment of the object in view, while it should enlarge the sympathy of all right-minded people for the unfortunate victims of German Rightfulness.