SIGNS FROM THE SMOKE

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 62, 13 March 1915, Page 13

SIGNS FROM THE SMOKE

(Bfc ALBERT DOEEINGTON.); ,

LONDON, January 45. ;- FIVE MONTHS OF THBQ.LS. . If life is purely a question of thrills and emotions, then Europe jnar be said -to be enjoying both—with a voltmeter attached to her neck. "We live within . -.sign* of the gun-flash; we see thekhaki- | dad squadrons pass to the ■ big-beamed .transports at. the quay-side, but" we do ■' not see them return. At midnight, in jthe blinding rain, I lrave watched endless /troops file up the steep gang- . ways, when there was no one near but the sullen-browed sentries at the dockyard gates. We have borne this thrill on ■ the neck for five long months. More than .once'rumour has destroyed our Fleet " »nd left us at the mercy of the Hun. Rumour his made the British fat man palpitate and perspire; it has sent the young mother quivering and white-lipped Hto her baby's sidr. ''We know what those beasts will do if once they come!" One hears the cry at all hours of the "night, when the watchers of the sea and . sky pretend to hear the roar of the coming Zeppi'ins, or the blind, mad rush of the Kaiser's hordes down the streets of the East Coast towns. TRAGEDY OF JOHN SUMMERS. A soft-voiced army chaplain has been, fcOkted in my house. Last night, at 11.30, he went out in a squall of wind and sleet, to find, among thirty thousand troops, private John Summers, whose mfc had died somewhere in the North of England, leaving eight children to the care, of nobody in particular. John was I booked for the Front. He was to have left Southampton in a few days. But .".... the chaplain is moving earth and heaven to get him transferred to the Citizen Guard of his native town. The inny chaplain has his uses. •AMERICAN NEUTRALITY. In his dignified reply to the Kaiser, Wilson said "that history would pass judgment on the true authors of the war." In his "Silent Neutrals," Sir John Macdonnel adds, "That history will not be wholly silent as to the bystanders." £ It is asserted on every hand that Americans have witnessed, unmoved, the crucifixion of Belgium, the killing of I non-combatant men, women and children, ; the destruction of private property, and the Btrewing- of the open seas with long- . lived floating mines, all involving enormous sacrifices of life and wealth withont commensurate military advantage. ; Some American journals state that England is angry because the United States las not sent an army to help her in Ranee. To which the "Spectator" • torts by saying that the American army, as at present constituted, would be of no service to anyone. All that I Britain demanded was "spiritual sympathy," or some kind of rebuke to the ' German atrocities in Belgium and Prance. America sprang only into the arena with a protest relating to trade. Now, if. Wpfon bad, protested against the violation." of treaties and the principles of civilised warfare, he could ihave protested with vastly greater effect . against_.arbitrary..and possibly indefensible . interferences -with '.' American cargoes. . In conclusion, it is asked here how the United States can hope to help herself by making war on the Allies, for that is really what is threatened at the present moment. Such a war would • close the markets of rhe whole British Empire, including India, and also those of Japan a and France, to American commerce. So much for the economical result. The moral result would be an ineffiectual attempt to help Germany to brutalise Belgium. BRITAIN'S DRY CHMATE. Since October last it has rained without ceasing. People who believe that heavy gunfire causes precipitation will lave further proof of their theory. The I present rain has beaten all records for I thirty years. The wet has come upon us in slopes and cloudbursts, and the fierce winds have rent and cleaved for miles the cliffs of the English coast. I live in a seaside resort, where every effort is made to keep down the wet records. The rich woman with the seven fat dogs would never trust herself in a place where the moisture came down and smothered people in the streets. An English watering-place has got to be trid and free from the unsightly green moss that grows in your boots after eight months of slush. My- wateringplace is advertised as possessing a soil and climate equal to that of Algeria. | Last night, in response to an impnlse to test the Algerian theory of <iryness, I placed an ordinary pail in I the centre of the garden, and" went to : bed. Next morning it was full to the hrim. Incidentally the local paper re-! torded half an inch of rain. 1 entered that newspaper office indisnantly, and asked a flabby assistant (he had j mould in his boots from the continued rain) what they meant by their halfineh when my bucket recorded about fifteen for the last twenty-four hours. Tien I asked him if his boots came . torn Algiers. /Without answering my question he ttnt for the wet-reporter, who pointed out that a pail placed in a garden was not a fair gauge. He proved by diagrams and chalk lines on the office counter that my pail was a fool-contrivance and a-libel on the town. He further intimated that the peculiar sub-soil, upon which our town was built, made heavy ; precipitation impossible, and retired to Ms den to commiserate the rival water-ing-place along the coast on the awful g avalanches of moisture they were sub* jected to -on account of their unfortunate geographical location. THE FRIENDLY ENEMY. HI We hear of the Germans trying to fraternise wdth our troops at every con'eeivable opportunity. They tell Tommy that they will fire over V« head in the § trenches if he will promise a like favour. '~ At night they sing "Home, Sweet ..■- Home" in English, and we have it on I excellent authority that the singing is immense. Many a case-hardened Tommy has beeD s».en to dash away a tear as he crouches low m hie dugout and waits - for the breaking of another grey day. Some English papers are inclined to emticisp. these growing friendships, and to blame the officers for allowing the I men to swap cigarettes and chocolates the enemy. One wonders what *ould really happen if the men of various armies "do»vned tools" and went, peacefully home. What a -'debacle" for "tte war-mongers, the Fotedammers and -■■- .the Grand Dukes,!