WAR NOTES.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 May 1916, Page 6

WAR NOTES.

PREPARED TO "DUMP.' ENEMV'S TiANS. The whole organisation of the German State and of German industrial science is being put into opera-ion in order to defeat the Allies' plan [.gainst German trade after the war. M. Hockskjold, a Danish business man who has been visiting Germany, gave a rough estimate of the & mount' of goods now stored and to lie stored, but warned him against accepting the figures literally, as they are based upon known figures of State and bank financing, and not on exact knowledge of the "goods actually in store. The "estimate is that special dumping store? ready on January 1 last were worth £300',000,000. A year before—i.e., five months after the war broke out, when tin- plan was in its infancy, the dumping store was worth £17,000,000. Neither fig-.ire includes the normal reserve of manufactured goods, but only goods whi'h for the time being were held for peace e\nort to pay for raw materials. If the war lasts for two years more, Germany may have something like one thousand million pounds' worth of "dumped goods." TERRIBLE WASTAGE OF WAR. How many young veterans there are in France it is impossible to say (writes a Paris correspondent;. The British army and navy are discharging men at the rate of 1000 a day as unfit material for the great war machine. The French army and navy must be leaviu* behind a much greater number, having been in action much longer and covering more ground, One set of figures shows that there are to-day no less than (!." 000 veterans of this war in France who have consumption to such an »xtpiil that they are practically beyond hope The number of those lightly affected is much greater. Those who have lost .nn arm or a leg, both arms or both less, an eye or both, or who have lost their hearing is legion. At every turning hern in Paris one meets mutilated soldiers, all young men in th?ir prime. The +ramcars, the subway, the trains are full of them. To see a pair of soldiers with one leg each or with one arm each is a common thing in Paris nowadays. Generally they have medals for bravery, but they cannot eat their medals. Who is going to feed them in the future ? It has been found that to a marvellous degree there young so'o'iers are able to adapt themselves to new occupations in which their misfortune will not hamper them so much. A one-Pegged man cannot be a farmer, but h • can support himself as a shoemaker, a tailor, a toymaker, ar as an office worker. All he needs is I a new education, and that is what the union of the Friends cf France plan to give to as many as possible. It is a work that those who have escaped the horrors of war owe to the common cause of humanity. INHABITANTS OF LOOS. The inhabitants of Loo«. who had lived a year under German rule is sight of the British lines the town was recaptured on September 20, have been transported to the Pvr<-n<>('s. to be sheltered there until their town, now under the continual fire of German batteries, becomes inhabitable again. They brought with them copies of p-.r.ers published by the German authorities in the French language in Belgium, and circulated in Northern France, in which there appears numerous advertisements that are occupying the attention of the French authorities, on the supposition that they refer to war booty ta l .«■, j„ France and Belgium and put on sal- by the Germans. One advertisement rvns: "A thousand second-hand electric motors and dynamos for sale."

Among the others arc the following: "Selling out, at factory prices, 500 pianos, first makes " "One bundled ard fifty thousand bottles of champagne for sale at prices that defy competition." The houses inserting these advertisements are said to be German firms that have established themselves in Brussels since the occupation. THE TURKISH STRENGTH. According to the information at our disposal—and the bust is had—the Turksmay have raised .. million men during the war, and of those some 300,000 must be deducted for cisualties. leaving probably not more than 700,000 remaining, observes the military correspondent of The Times. At the t-'n.e of our evacuation of the Gallipoli Peninsula there were probably 350,000 men of the Ist, 2nd, and sth Turkish Armies between Adrianonlo, Constantinople, and the Dardanelles, and Smyrna. There were some 130,000 on the Caucasus front. 50.000 in Mesopotamia, 00,000 in Syria, including the Arabian Corps, an 1 ! the remainder scattered in garrisons and along the coast lines. In view of the situation in the Balkans, and the continuing need to defend the capital against another attack from oversea, it is jos'sihle that not more than 150.000 m.in were set free by our evacuation of Onliipoli for service in Armenia. We dr uot yet know what reinforcements Jvve been sent. The Turks do not shift their armies Tcadily, and their poor comiuunirations do not allow the shuttle and loom play so dear to German strategists.

CONDITIONS IN SERBIA, - Major Graham Asphwl. who has just arrived in England from Serbia, where he was a prisoner in the Lands of the Anstrians since November. »i the course of an interview, said:—'Poetically none but women are left in the country, for the \ustrians have ea'loe' up all Serbian men from 17 to 50. an I have interned them in Austria. The population suffers no ill-treatment from ilie Austrians, hut the condition of the people is frightful. There is a growing dMiko of Germans on the part of the AiHiians. who tnke no pains to conceal their feelings of disgust at the overbearing conduct of their allies. In fact, the behaviour of the 'atter was always what is now regarded as characteristic of the German. The Austrians everywhere were gentlemanly, courteous, and anxious to assist us. Nowhere does one find evidence of hatred of the (Knglisf.i en the part of the Austrians, but rathe.- a general feeling of respect. At Vienna, on our way back, we were met by 11, • American Ambassador, who did everything possible for us. When we expressed our surprise that the men of our pnrty had been liberated, he said that lie also was surprised, but that he had been personally informed by the Austrian Minister for War that the Government wished to behave generously towards the British."