GERMANY PREPARING FOR THE NEXT WAR

Waikato Times, Volume V, Issue 272, 7 February 1874, Page 3

GERMANY PREPARING FOR THE NEXT WAR

The Germans, it apre&rs, are hard tit work preparing for the next vf,ir with France. Their attention is at present directed chiefly to strengthening the fortified places — Metz, Strnbuix, and th« orher.«— on the frontier, says the Pall Mall Gazette :~ " Pinlsuurg n not destined to make any repetition of that twice-told tale of heroic resistance to inrading Teuton hordes on which MM Erckman-Chatnan have framed two of their best romances The process of its thorough demolition m a sti ong place is being carried <»• with the steady persistince c^ractetistic of the conquerors of Aliace, and contracts are oven being made for the removal of portions of the old masonry bodily to assist in rawing the new forts which are to reuder eitrasburg impregnable under its new ownership. A similar fate is befalling the less-known works of Scblettstadt, for this place has been condemned as unsuitable to plvy any worthy part in tne defensive front of the Gei man Empire and its bastions are already being levelled and their materials earned to Sttasuurg A special officer of Prussian engineers h?3 bern sent from Berlin to make the necessary contracts, aiid also to fix the compensations to be graut.ed to the various parishes, those round Strasburg especially, wbich *re atlectad bv these transfers At Metz the completion of th-» new works goes on with the utmost vigour, nearly 10,000 hands, chiefly civil workmen, being in daily employment. It is expected that Fort St Quentin, with its new western outwork commanding all the ground on that side to the gieat ravine behind the Held of Urnvelotte will be all but completed this year; while to the south of the city the large fort of St Priv'at (in no way eonnecTetl witb ftJt Pnvat-la Montagne, the scene of the elauglitei of the Guard), which was traced out nnd commencod by the French m 1870. is b j ing substantially finished in masonry On the east side, two new rodnnbts have been added to close the interval between Forts St Juhen and Quelen. which, covered the great French sortie oi the 31st at August, end their retfeat after Borney, so' effectually