THE GREAT WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 October 1917, Page 7

THE GREAT WAR.

To the Editor. Sir, —The following remarkable speech was stated by a correspondent of the 'Daily Mail of August 25, lil 11, to have been made by the great Japanese soldier General Nogi at the time of the seige of Port Arthur: — "I believe that the worTI will witness a great war, which will have all Europe for it? battleground, and will settle the Franco-German question and the AngloGerman rivalry. France and Germany will meet in this last decisive conflict on the Belgian plains, probably near I Waterloo, the only spot which will admit of the evolutions of the immense armies which will face each other. At. the present time the French and German fron- ■ tiers are too strongly fortified for either j people to force its way through. I have little doubt as to the results of this : war. France will beat Germany on land and England will crush Germany at sea. il This war will be the last in Europe, for ; many a day, perhaps for ever; the fier- ■ man States w'll emerge from this war so terrified and exhausted, that they will have no other object than to form some I sort of condition that may in the future \ obviate the recurrence of any such catas- ! trophe." I The Germans forced a way into France, | but the famous Japanese strategist did I not count upon the unscrupulous violation' of Belgian neutrality, and the subsequent demonstration of the powers of the British, on land.. Otherwise the surivivors of the great war shall have an ■ opportunity of seeing how nearly tiener- , al Nogi's prophecy arrived at fulfilment. . Recent events on the Western front and ' in the South of Europe point to an ultimate decisive defeat Of the Prussians 'and their dream of world sovereignity, but the end is not yet in view. It is ' curious to note how prominent churchnen are strongly opposing aerial repris Is, and protesting that we are not ■caging war on German women and children. Where con thev find in scripture •history any argument to back up their contention that such reprisals should not be made? On the contrary we reaii that God commanded his generals to destroy every man, woman, and child of certain tribes of evildoers, sad to leave no one alive to pcrpe<(rice their race. Tt would i bo hard + -> imagine that any one of those jancie-jt tribes could have ont-Tlcrodr-d in ! awful ferocity the crimes i which we know have been committed at ;,the bidding of the despotic Kaiser and •Jliis Ministers! Every student of history |'knows, or should know, that the Prus-.-siaiis occupy, and are. probably. the lineal descendants of the vandals who in the fifth century raided Gaul end .Spain and penetrated far into Africa, leaving n track of ruin and desolation behind them and committing horrible excesses which, in multiplicity and variety, have •probably found :no parallel until the : present day when their descendants are I showing that the instinct to do abominI able deeds is not wholly extinct if it has ' lain, apparently, dormant for fourteen hundred years. And this is the race for which some of the more notable of the clergy are making intercession while the innocent women and children of England ( .are being sacrificed by the malignancy j«f those Prussian fiends because they ;'belong to the nation which has thwnrt'•cd the Kaiser's deep-laid scheme of world /conquest! Tt would be v, ell if our clergv • would restrict their .duties to attention to the spiritual welfare of their respective flocks and leave the corporal requirements of the Prussian soldiery and their connections to the- care of the brave men who are risking all in the national defence.

Wo have been promised that aerial reprisals will take place in the earlv spring, and every care should he tak.'n ; that the proposed raid on the Prussian towns will be arranged and carried out ni, the stated time, and in a thorough manner. Jt is a far cry from h<-iv tp London but an expression of opinion from Die little colony which lnw already done so lmfch may not be without weight. I have advisedly avoided the iib« of the word "German" as much as nossible because, I think, we everyone recognise that we are at war with Prussian military aggressiveness, and I hope in the near future to see an attempt made by those within the limits of the German Empire to break loose from their bondage. They are held in iron fetters, however, ami the effort shall have to be a brave and powerful one.-—I am, etc., J.R.S. Nw - ——' ■