Notes

New Zealand Tablet, 5 August 1915, Page 35

Notes

Who Held Him ? As wo have already pointed out, America's first Note to Germany on the sinking of (he Lusitania was the firmest, strongest, and most straightforward of all the multitudinous Notes delivered by President Wilson. Bead this to him, and leave a cony ’ — were Mr. Bryan’s -instructions to (he United States Ambassador in Berlin when sending this Note to Germany. Apropos of which, the ]iu<(nn Trim script wants to know 'who held the German Minister of Foreign Affairs while Mr. Gerard, the American Ambassador, read Mr. Brvan's Note to'hiin.’ What Russia is Going At the moment of writing, Warsaw has not vet been evacuated, though the Busman retirement seems to be only a matter of time. Some idea of tin; signal service which Russia’ has been rendering to the cause of the Allies in her stubborn resistance mav be gathered from statements made some few weeks ago bv the Retrograd correspondent of the London Trinjrmjih . Reflecting public opinion in the Russian capital, this writer says that it is only now that the stupendous nature of the plan of the Austro Germans to paralyse the military power of Russia, and so leave themselves free to deal with the Allies in (he West is realised. In the opinion of competent military personages, the present battle, both in the strength of the forces engaged and in that vital particular,..the expenditure of ammunition, exceeds all other features of this war. On the main section, from the Vistula to the Rukovina alone, the enemy is believed to have deployed a million and a half of men, while his total present strength on this front is estimated at double that number. Merely in the Galicia advance he brought with him 4000 guns. With these in the course of only a few days he discharged something like 3,000,000 shells. If Russia had not kept this huge force employed, it is easy to understand that very difficult conditions might have been created for the Allies in Flanders and France, especially having regard to their defective equipment in the matter of high explosives.