BRITISH GOVERNMENTS' DESTRUCTIVE SECRET.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXV, Issue 202, 24 August 1904, Page 2

BRITISH GOVERNMENTS' DESTRUCTIVE SECRET.

A REMARKABLE STORY. In their reorganisation of the War Office the new root and branch officials must discover in some most secret pigeonhole the particulars of the most mysterious and terrible plan of waging war on land or sea. Were this plan known to the Japanese they could by its application reduce Pprt Arthur at one blow, and sweep the Russian Army off the face of Manchuria. The overwhelming and irresistible nature of this plan has been admitted by successive generations of British military experts. In the language of. its inventor "no Power on earth could stand against this attack,"' aud it is* this very terror and annihilation of the scheme which has prevented its use by Great Britain on more than one occasion. The hostilities between Russia . and Japan lend a preseut interest to this secret, for were it known and exercised by either

of the combatants, the war would be ended by one catastrophic action. This plan for attacking and destroying an enemy's fleet, and for other irresistible warlike operations, was propounded by the famous Admiral Cochrane, afterwards Lord Dundonald, in 1811. He snbmitted it to the Government, who referred it to a secret committee to report on the advisability of its use against Napoleon. The committee consisted at the Duke of York. Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Admirals Lord Keith and Lord Exmouth, and the brothers Congreve of the Ordinance. They found the scheme to be all that Drndonald claimed for it. It provided an irresistible and infallible meaus of attack, bnt with so devastating awfalness- that they declared it inhuman. Still, the Government proposed to put a portion of the scheme into operation against the foitress and fleet of Toulon. Dundonald refused to undertake it on the ground that to tost only a part of his scheme was unfair, and, moreover, that this minor experiment would reveal the whole plan for use by other countries Ou the other hand, Dundonald offered to leduce Flushing at one blew, if he were allowed a free hand for the operation of his scheme. The Government hesitated to employ so annihilating a form of warfare, and finally refused. But when Dundonald entered the service of Chill In ISI7, he was required to pledge hie word that he would not divulge his plan nor use it except on behalf of England. That promise IXmdonaM patriotically observed, and forfeited his pay from Chili, Brazil, and Peru rather than assent to their requests that he should use his overwhelming seciet to bring their struggle against Spain to an early and victorious termination. But in 1846. wTTen the action of Fiance raised alarm In England, Dundonald again urged bis plan upon the Government. Again tlie Admiralty appointed a secret committee of three offers to report upon it On January Hitn, 1547. they presented their report, declaring that Lord Dundonald's plan undoubtedly would destroy and sweep ont' of existence any hostile force, but that its first application -would rereal it to fbe world. In addition, the terrible destiuc-

tion effected b/the operation opposed to the prtadpiTofe' oo, * b « fare. Twice during tL C h * a * Dnndonald put forward This 7* *" tie first occasion he ** ground that his proposa , s W <* the even for war. a year l»tl terribl * Sebastopol and "•» *ntake-n, Dundonald stUl and guaranteed his ability to redrt °** T - fortress. The Government sion dallied with the propos £ requested Dundonald to toetrnct"£* ; neer officers ta the applfcaflS? $I?*' ) tack agamst Sebastopol. But hi "* I tely refused to entrust it t<, and asked to be allowed to i person. , * ute * H i e

Thus with the concision of th» n,'i untried In the archives T £ '•Had it," declared known to the rebels in the i t , have escaped." Again | B hls *JJ graphy he wrote: -I repeat-and the ZT tion will one day bo eoafinned-tL? plans afford the infallible means rt IT mg at one blow onr maritime and of thereafter maintaining ThT* P«o!tr-Hrf at once conunenc n " «\ minatine a war by one con<JJ£ 2' ■ toty." That these loud d«ta»g?jj*j not he mere vainglorious outpourlj J I he inventor is shO wn by. ' large experience of war, and the Ine", dent opinion of two commissions of ™m tary experts, who reportea "J scheme at an interval of nearly ■ J2l years Both committees reported S the plan was feasible, infallible, and-lm-' tible, confirming Dundonald's own docl»» tion that uo fleet, fortress, or arm*.emu* withstand the attack. Only the amalßA. devastation of the scheme prevented S 7 a operation by the Government against k! poleon. and against Russi. a generatim later in the Crimea. With this hnm™ squeamlshnees was coupled the, consider* tion that its first operation would ««*i the secret to the world and enable anl country to employ it against Britain. But these two were the etrongest reason, nrged by Dundonald for the operation oi his scheme. The very inhumanity the remorseless devastation, and utter anni hilattou produced by its first u se Woul j make war in the future humanly i mpos . Bible, and terrorise the nations Into a bond of universal peace. How far, if at all modern invention, by changing the i m ' pleinents of war, has stultified' Dnndonaid's. scLtine cannot be said, for it re. mains to-aay, as ever, an inviolate secret of mysterious power and vague terror.-, '"Tiie Glebe." "~"