AUSTRO-GERMANY.

Taranaki Daily News, 31 January 1918, Page 5

AUSTRO-GERMANY.

BELGIUM AS A SUBMARINE BASE. GERMAN PLANS EXPOUNDED. Received Jan. 30, 0.40 p.m. Amsterdam, Jan. 29. Admiral von Tirpitj:, in a newspaper interview, nays that. Germany requires the military occupation of Belgium for submarine bases there, and thus prevent the English and Americans from renewing attacks upon the world. The future would 'be divided between continental Europe in one camp and England and America in tiic - opposing camp. "We must force England to give us what we need. We can hold out longer than England and her friends." STRIKES IN GERMANY. GREAT WORKS AFFECTED. Received Jan. 30, 9.40 p.m. Amsterdam, Jan. 29. The strikers at JJcrlin number a' hundred thousand, including many women. The German Electric Company's mainmoth works are closed. Strikes occurred also at Krupp's coal mines, the Bochun torpedo factory, and at the Kiel and Germania shipyards. Admiral von Capelle has gone to Willielmshaven to urge the workers at thej naval yards to remain at work; otherwise they will be guilty of treason.

GERMANY'S AFTER-WAR ARMY. IN THE EVENT OF INCONCLUSIVE PEACE. A despatch from Paris to the New York Times states:—An inconclusive peace would mean that Germany would, in fifteen years, 'be aWe to put into the field an army of 8,010,000 men against a total French Army of 3,332,000, according to figures compiled by Andre Lefsvrc, Deputy from Aix, and former MiniatT of Finance. M. Lefevre estimates the number of survivors at 23 years of age in the two countries, out of 100,000 male births, at 72,050 for France, and 70,605 for Germany. In spite of the greater wastage in Germany, the relatively smaller birthrate in France would reduce the lutter's military strength to only a little, over 40 per cent, that of her neighbor in 1933.