WAR NOTES.
(mini AX "I OKAS" IN HOLI.AXD. A British i-(nv< in Amsterdam writes us follows of tin' activities of Von I'apeu, wlio, aft or liis expulsion from America, went to Holland on a 'general spying" mission:—Complete failure lias attended the activities of Captain von I'apen in Holland. Von Papon is not only .si|uaderiug good Herman money which could be used to better advantage elsewhere, but lie wholly ninler-rates the Dutch sympathy for tlic Kntonte. What is known of liis dealings wen in quarters in sympathy with '"kultur" sliows that he is handling liis nauseous business witli a truly Herman ignorance of conditions and ciniraeter in the Netherlands. He started in great style. He brought uiucli inoney from Berlin, and many "ideas." The money is gone, tile "ideas'' have faded away, and *ll lirat is left of the whole scheme is its ridicule and its all-round ineptitude. Tlie Dutch, like the Americans, will not be bullied, either by liermany or by any Herman. They 'resent von I'a pen's extravagant and, to a ceriain extent, criminal fabrication of a "British invasion'' scare, not so much because it caused uneasiness all over the cmintry, lint because the mere spri'iiiling of such lies i.- an open insult to Dutch intelligence and patriotism. That von Papon did not leave tlie country after his falsehood was exploded is comprehensible only to few people here; but the mere prudiug of that "news" almost cost their jobs to von Papon's ollicial henchmen, Herr von Kallmann, the Herman ter at I'ho Hague, and Herr von Humboldt, the Consul-General in Amsterdam. IK1! MAX SWA MP- ST HON HHO L DS. An American newspaper gives ail account ol the means the Hermans have • taken to "dig themselves in" in the I'ripet swamps, to the south of which tlie Russians are now "driving" the Aiistrians. Tt instances the Dardancllen Stcllung, or "Dardanelles position," a mud island, some oilft long by ;«)ft at the widest diameter. The Bavarians had fortified it with four squatty blockhouses, each about IS ft. square. The blockhouses were -heathod on the outside witli tar-roofing paper to keep out rain, snow and roid. I hey had further lortiliod it by "digging a moat" around the island, which meant by blasting and otherwise removing the ice for :10ft all around. They had further fortified it by ten girldos of barbed-wire under water, the other hair projecting above the ice. .Machine-guns added to the finishing touch. There wore hundreds of similar island-strongiiolds scattered through the I'ripot swamps. AH were connected by telephone and footbridges, but which could be quickly isolated by knocking out a section of foot-bridge'or choking it with "Spanish riders," as portable sectional barbed-wire entanglements are called by the Hermans. Rickety planks, supported by slender piles driven into the ooze connected the strongholds iu the chain.
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Taranaki Daily News, 15 July 1916, Page 10
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468WAR NOTES. Taranaki Daily News, 15 July 1916, Page 10
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