WAR NEWS BY MAIL.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 64, 16 March 1915, Page 2

WAR NEWS BY MAIL.

GLORY OF THE TRENCHES. MAGNIFICENT ARMT. NOTHING LIKE OLDEN WAR. (Times and Sydney Sun Services.) LONDON, March 10. A "Times" correspondent who has made his first visit to the front writes:— "Never before has there been such fighting as that in which the British Army has played such a glorious part around Ypres. "Never before was an army worthier of its destiny of forging the history of the world. "It is not the old type of war of prancing steeds, leisurely sieges, and the suspension of operations in winter. It is dull, yet it is a more glorious war in the mud trenches, where a man not only has other men as foes, but Nature . herself. "With cold blasts, snow, rain-laden clouds turning the trenches into canals, and the countryside into a bog. Sir John French welcomed a party of six British correspondents. In the glad circumstances now made possible, journalists cam now see something of our armies in the field. "It is not spectacular work. Headquarters bears the same relation to the operations in the field as the deliberations of the boardroom to the clangor of the workshop. The staff includes every imaginable manifestation of human activity and intelligence—financiers, engineers, cartographers, flight experts, photographers, transport managers, Oxford dons, linguists, detectives, men from the diplomatic service, scientists, journalists, and historians. "I was particularly impressed by the success and thoroughness of the Royal Flying Corps, whose storehouses were filled with every imaginable spare part. Tailors, cross-legged, were stitching wing holes, electricians were fitting the wireless apparatus, and mechanics were adjusting the guns."