WAR NEWS BY MAIL.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 May 1916, Page 6

WAR NEWS BY MAIL.

GERMANS REALISE THEY MAY iOSE.

San Francisco, March 21. To use an Americanism, Germans are at last "getting wise," and are realising that they cannot win in the European war. This state of affairs may be surmised from a special cablegram sent from Rotterdam to San Francisco on March *2O in the following terms:—"l learn on the best authority that Grand Admiral von Tirpitz would have disappeared months ago but for his popularity with the general public, which knows him as the creator of the German fleet, and those who regarded the fleet as the only instrument which could break the power of England, and so end the war «• Germany's favor. Hence the extremists view his retirement as a'defeat of their policy and the general public as the first indication of naval impotence. "The German people liave suddenly awakened to the knowledge, heretofore a tragic secret in the breast of the Government. that they may lose the war. Following the failure of the Verdun operations there is a complete change in the atmosphere in Rerlin, One neutral traveller says: 'The bulletins spoke cf victory, but the faces of everybody I saw were eloquent of defeat.'

DREADNOUGHTS TO ABOVE WAVES. San Francisco, March 21. Dreadnoughts will soon skim over the waves like hydroplanes, in the opinion ot Dr. Alexander Graham 8011, who. in a statement at Boston, said that Secretary Daniels, of the United States Navy, is much interested in the experiments he is making along such lines. i F. W. Baldwin, a' Canadian inventor, has built at my laboratory at Nova Scotia a strange craft that we cail a hydroplane boat," said Dr. Bell. "It makes 50.6 knots an hour with a 100-horsc-power motor, and draws only qn inch or two of water . It is about" 32ft long. When the craft has gone along a short distance there comes a time when the hull is completely out of the water, and is supported bv the steel-bladod ladders. At this point the speed rapidly increases, and little by fittle the plane's rise out of the water one by one until the boat is supported by the lowest piane on the ladders. These pianos act as sort of water runners. I am certain that this idea which we have applied to a small craft can he applied to a torpedo boat, and even to au armoreu ship."

FROM RUSSIA FOR VEliDun. Rome, March „ Germany has withdrawn four more army corps from the Russian front to fill up the gaps created at Verdun. VERDUN'S EFFECTO~N NEUTRALS.

Athens, February 2!!. Ihe locai public is following wiili great interest the fighting round about V erdun, and cablegrams are impaticntlv awaited. The Press gives up the greater part of its space in commenting upon the operations. The result of the attack U expected to have a great inllnence upon neutral States. The Venezelist Press declares its sympathies for the French in the struggle.'

SOFIA'S'WAR-CRY: "PREAD AND PEACE.' J'ari3, February 28, The special correspondent of the 'Petit Parisien at Salonika telegraphs that very significant news is bein" received from Bulgaria. At Sofia" he says, the people held ;;iectings in the streets. The soldier.! refused to disperse them, and the police were powerless.

At some of the?e meetings the speakers went so far as to demand the abdication of King Ferdinand, the enthroning of the Crown Prince, and the withdrawal of the German troops. The present Bulgarian motto would appear to be "bread and peace."

1,200,000 MUNITION 1 WORKERS,

Paris, March 1. Senator Charles Humbert, in an article in the Journal on the of keeping up the supply of guns and munitions. says:—

"Krupjis employed 42,000 hands at Essen before the war. This figure now reaches 115,000, but Essen is only the principal factory. "At other works the number of workers has risen from G,OOO to 15,000; from 14,000 to .10,000; from (i.OOO to .10 000from !),000 to 27,000; whilst the Boc'hum and Gclsenkirclien works now employ 25,000 hands instead of 10,000 as in time of peace.

"There, also exists in Germany two other enterprises exclusively devoted to the making of artillery—namely, Thyssens, which employ fiO.OOO men," and the F.hrardt works, which employ 100,000, instead of 30,000 and 40,000 formerly. "Thus over -120,000 men on the other side of the Rhine are turning out war material, without counting the innumerable accessory workshops employing more than double that number in the manufacture of rifles, cartridges, shells, explosives, and asphyxiating gas—or a total of over 1,200,000 men employed in various war industries without including men who work in factories for the production of the raw material.

FORMIDABLE SALONIKA, Salonika, March ]. General Moscopoulis, commanding the Third Army Corps here, who recently visited the Allied lines defending Salonika, has made an interesting statement regarding the military position created by the French and British.

"The fortified works made by the English and French," he declares, "a're magnificent and astonishing. The engineers have accomplished marvels, and the defences thrown up round Salonika in three months look more like the work of a year. I know the fortified region well, and I can say that Salonika to-day is safe from invasion.

"If the Germans and Bulgars undertake an attack against Salonika they will come up against a rampart of iron. The fortifications have been carried out according to the latest strategic principles. The work is going on, and in n little while the fortified camp at Salonika will become one of the most formidable Tn the world."

The General expresses his satisfaction that Greek relations with the Allies are becoming more cordial. He declared, in conclusion, that the King had ordered him by telegram to accord all facilities to the Allies for the of troops, provision and munitions. That message had been aonveyed to the Commander of the Allies, together with, the General laid, an offer of his co-opei(iti<%