WAR IN HALF-AN-HOUR.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 88, 15 April 1899, Page 1 (Supplement)

WAR IN HALF-AN-HOUR.

HOW GERMANY WATCHES FRANCE,

As all the world knows, says the 'Daily Mail,' Metz and Strasburg, the outposts of the German army, face .watchfully towards the west., From the gates of Metz the roads to Paris taper through wall after wall of entrenchments, which end in the heights above the stricken field of Gravelotte.

Thence to the frontier of France is only a short walk across the grave covered

ground,

From Metz to France is just one long 'glacis' — unassailable by the invader. Above it rise the five great sentinel forts which surround Metz; and from the high ground on which these stand you may clearly see, fifteen mites to your west, Verdun, the nearest B'rench fortress—the threat of prance.

When you have been half an hour in Metz and Strasburg you se that you are in the entrenched camp of an army ready for war. Infantry, cavalry, artillery, and the rest of two complete army corps are all equipped as if for instant active service. What General Leboeuf untruthfully said of France in 1870 is true of Germany in IS99—

NOT A SHOE LACE IS WANTING.'

Touch the right button in Berlin, and in half an hour 30,000 men will be marching from Metz, and within 12 hours 100,000 men—thefrontier field force of AlsaceLorraine—will be crossing: the border; while the system in accordance with which the railroads tap all the great cantonments of Germany, and then converge on to., the frontier, will land half a million men near Metz in three days.

In a week two and a half million men will be on and beyond the. frontier; in a week four million Germans will be under arms.

In Metz and Strasburg stores and food and fodder lie ready in the magazines, the transport animals stand harnessed to the waggons. All the appliances and munitions of modern war are to hand, and would be on the road in a few minutes. When the troops go 'route marching' they carry with them three days' food and three days' ammunition; their clothes are' in their knapsacks. They can carry no more in war.

Metz and Strasburg are th> impregnable 'advanced bases' of the frontier force, which stands alert along the rim of France. Thence it can launch itself across the border, or stand and bar the

way to Germany,

The outside circle of defence at Metz is a chain of forts, some of them all but invisible. These are armed with none know how many heavy guns.for none mayenter but the Great Staff itself.

This circle is three miles from the city, its centre; the forte are about three miles apart, and so the fire from each would cover the space which lies between them.. That is to say, except you pass through the fire zone, or smash one of the links of the chain, you can assuredly not enter to attack Metz itself. Each fort stands on a hill sloping smoothly and gently downwards towards France.

No enemy can approach within four miles •of the city unless he first demolishes the forts—and as these are dug from the inside of the hills, and offer no broader target than the muzzles of their guns, you will conclude that Metz is practically impregnable. I approached one of these forts as close as a sentry would allow me. •' The; garrison of two regiments of infantry and one .regiment of artillery live.ln ." ■*■;• AN EXCAVATED BARRACK," " ; which is entirely underneath the surface of the ground, and completely hidden from view. As seen from the French side, nothing whatever shows except one long mound, from which protrude rows of loppholes of various sizes. Even as seen from the rear, you can get no more idea of what is within than you know what are' the contents of a coal mine when you have only stood above the shaft. ■

All I knew was that there, within the earthy were hidden nearly 3000 men, with three thousand rifles and about 100 heavy guns—not to speak of machine guns. All I saw were mounds of smooth green earth, but of which stuck the tips of the' muzzles of the guns pointing westwards, and outside wall upon wa4l of flanking entrenchments, to meet the emergency of the fort being turned, and in rear of each fort, magazine after magazine of shells, each magazine being cut out of the earth just like an. Egyptian tomb.

Supposing that you are '&n invader, and that you have passed this chain of forts, you find yourself in a space of

open ground some two, mates broad. Even then you are only on another glacis, for you are now within the fire zone of the batteries in the first line of the entrenched works, which immediately surround'the city itself. In the. front line of these works are, at . Strasburg, the heavy siege guns, I feared to ask how many; the gunners live within the earthworks themselves; while on either flank and immediately in rear are entrenchments and infantry lines; in Tear again, more entrenchments, and the lines of cavalry and field artillery. Close to each are their several magazines, which trdfttain all they nt&; while in rear of all are the engineers, with their depot and 'park,' the commissariat, the telegraph and hospital corps, with their depots;

INOFFENSIVE THOUGH EVER PRE-

SENT.

In Strasburg lie the stores and impedimenta of two army corps for two years.' '

And this, in the midst of the circle of rifles and cannon, the civilian elementconsiderable at Strasburg, small at Metz —pursues its life: the shopkeepers and merchants go about their work in thie old French cities as do the camp followers on our Indian and Egyptian frontiers. But if you among the shops of Strasburg are ever inclined to deny that you are in a camp of troops ready for instant war, then walk far enough in any one direction, and you will soon come up to the grey and blue circle of soldiers in which you are.

The German army is ready for defence.

But yet, in spits of all this, Metz'and Strasburg convey no threat: they seem merely to. be reminding their neighbour of what is past; they seem merely to be a recognition of French instability; they are just a proof that Germany cannot, forget Bismarck's maxim: 'Never trust France.'

The sword' hangs over France, but.it will be the fault of the French themselves alone if the thread which upholds it is cut.