LIFE IN SALONIKA.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 65, 16 March 1916, Page 7

LIFE IN SALONIKA.

SEIZURE OF THE COrteULS. A CANDID GERMAN XADY. BOMBS, RIFLES AND DYNAMITE FORMIDABLE DEFEfirVE WORKS. SOME HUMOSOUS BOMB INCIIM£>fTS. (Special to "Auckland Star.") S/iLONIKA, January 11. THE CONSULATES This is not so much a serious tale of war as a nefcord of alarums and incursions. The. unheralded raid by which the French secured the enemy Consuls in Salonika, and their bag and baggagefeminine and otherwise—seems to have included some very interesting corre-spo-ndenue. "L'Opinion." which is the French organ here, and possibly not of entirety unimpeachable veracity, published., among other things, a very frank I lettw from the wife of the German Consul to a dear friend in the Fatherland. Th's ingenuous person expressed the coafident hope that her countrymen would be in Salonika by Christmas. '£he port, she said, would make an admirable naval station for Germany. In this, no doubt, she was repeating the sort of conversation that she heard about her. An excellent naval station I should just think it would make (but what a thorn in the side of Britain, which would have to still further increase her* navy to protect Egypt and her Eastern tritde routes). Greeks' rights this correspondent dimissed contemptuously. "Why should Germany consider the cannaille Greeks, who vacillated and were too craven to adopt a definite policy?" A STARTLING DISCOVERY. While madame's views—and we may take it that they are at least fairly representative of those of the governing class in Germany—are instructive, almost of more interest to those whose lot is cast in this strangest of cities were the disclosures at the Austrian Consulate. Here were found cases of bombs, rifles, revolvers, and dynamite. Hundreds of brassarts there were, and, presumably, the assassins to wear them had been, to a large extent, recruited. Briefly, it is suspected that these formed p.irt of a plot to collect a band of Turks and Bulgarian comitarjis, arm them, and, to the accompaniment of incendiar-1 ism in various parts of the town, mas-j sacre all the Entente officials who had i landed. I think that the plan was perhaps quite feasible in the earlier stages of the Anglo-French Balkan expedition, the one restraining influence at that time being the number of warships in harbour. Possibly, too, it was difficult to raise a requisite number of trusted' assassins. To-day the hour for so! knavish and dastardly a plan has passed. I To launch such a project would be to invite a dreadful retribution, which would dye the, streets of Salonika with | blood, and in which the innocent would i suffer alike with the guilty. Such plots in a place les3 complex and primitive than Salonika would be scouted as the imaginings of a disordered intellect, Jμ]t that here they do not transcend the bounds, of possibility I am personally satisfied; and that they are alien to the methods of our barbaric opponents anyone who has studied the history of the past eighteen months has no reason to presume. IMPREGNABLE DEFENSIVE WORKS. When I say that the day of small massacres anil their utility here has passed, I speak advisedly: The AngloFrench expedition based on this centre is already a factor in the world war, and it is steadily expanding. At present it is defensive in object as far as the observation of the outsider is able to judge, but the potentialities of a transition from the defensive to the offensive accumulate. Writing of the defensive, I had an interesting visit to the front the other day—l mean to the line of prepared defences that, in the event of the Germans and their dupc3 ■undertaking an attack —will make Salonika a huge fortified camp. Not a fortress in the old acceptance of the term, but a really great fortress in the light of the practise of warfare as evolved since the commencement of this war. We skirted the base of a mountain the locality of which I may not indicate beyond stating that it is one of a chain rising in pa-rts to a height of ■ eight or nine hundred feet. Barren of j vegetation, with the exception of a few patches of vine and orchard on its lower slope, and a desolate-looking dwarf scrub, it was scarred by frequent water-worn gullies, and rose a forbidding rampart to the plain. At a slight elevation passing above the plain ran the continuous first line of trench. Cut for the most part in a solid clay, to the depth of a very tall man's height, it was bolstered where the. ground became more friable with bags filled with the soil of the locality, and where the ground hardened to a shale-like rock it blasted its way through, only deviating to adapt itself to the unevenness of the hill-side, to more readily excavated soil. At intervals, in well hidden positions, narrow tunnels struck underground to open out into chambers dimly illumined by the light through slits. Looking out through these openings, one commanded an extensive prospect of the unbroken plain to the range of lesser hills that shut it in five ntile3 away. These caves are tho homes of the death-dealing machine guns.. Down in front ran the twelve-foot-wide ribbon of wire entanglement, a fantastic tangle of rusty barb-wire securely fastened to square four-inch posts. 'Further back up the hill were similar lines of reserve trenches, and cunningly devised positions for artillery. No concrete anywhere, just the ground adapted to the purposes of modern warfare. By such lines, based at either end on the >nilf. Salonika is girdled at vary- j ing distances from the city. Tlie ranges over the landscape, as far as can be seen,! are carefully taken, not only by observa- j tion, but also by actual experiment. In ; the event of an attack these trenches are manned, and not only the guns that lookout on the scene of action come into j play, but those huge pieces that have: been a new feature as mobile ordnance > in this war bellow with deep-throated range from behind the hills far removed , from tlie sight and even the sound oil the email arms that the puny humans. , I manning the trenches discharge feve/>- ---. ishly at the oncoming foe. .

NOKiIAX AXGELL AND HIS THEORIES. The most inventive brains of the age have been employed in perfecting weaJ a pons of destruction, and no method has been discarded by tile Boches because of its inhumanity. War is conducted without pomp, sordidly and brutally—its aim and object the killing and maiming of as many of the opposing force as possible. Where is Xornian Anjjell to-day, witli E his theories of the impossibility of war with modern weapons of destruction? Guns have been evolved of a power that will shatter any fortress that human in- °- gemiity may devise, but men now burrow into the earth, and though artillery and mines and smaller weapons of precision taUo their dreadful toll, there is still work for cold steel and the clubbed weapon which man used thousands of years ago. TOMMY AXD THE CHAPLAINS. I conceived this letter in lighter vein, nut 1 am executing it with a bludgeon, and yet there is a great deal of harmless humour in the grisly business—a peneg tration of the veneer of modern society land a display of kindlier humanity. A ,E Tommy wns struck with one phase of it •- when, after observing a chaplain and a ]t padre, walking along arm in arm, he wrote: "The Ministers have given up religion and become brothers." ~ ANOTHER AIR RAID. There was another air raid here on c Friday, the 7th, the Greeks' Christmas Da}-. The base ordnance depot was 11 presumbaly the main object of attack, ')- but the Austro-Huns were again Hying klvery high, and it was an exhibition ot i- poor m.irksnianship that they made, for 1. it was on the outskirts of three hospitals c that a large proportion of the bombs n dropped, and adjacent to a camp a little 3. to the south of them. A gun or two I- had in the interval since the "first visitan tion been placed on the hills at tne c back, and the marksmanship was much d improved, the white pulls of bursting n shrapnel appearing to he quite close to t the marauders. A story gained curi, rency that one, or even two of the uni- "welcome visitors had been brought down, d but here I fancy the wish was father s to the thought. A French 'plane usceni- ded. and there was a short and lively i- duel. The rat-tat-tat -of the quick-firers '- was quite distinct in the clear air from a the noise of the engine exhaust, reduced by the great altitude from a sharp staccato to a cile.idy drone.- Whether the Taubes -were driven off by the grcatlv ;_ increased—and, 1 expect, unanticipated—■ ' warmth of their reception, or whether = they simply departed having ridded themjj selves of their consignments, I cannot g say; but they disappeared into the etheral blue whence they had emerged. f SOME A-MUSINO INCIDENTS. The attitude of the individual when ' under such a bombardment varies eonI siderably. As a general rule the novelty of the proceeding arouses a curiosity that predominates over any feeling ot personal danger. At the hospitals yes'jterday immediately affected, convalescent patients and orderlies viewed the !j raid largely with equanimity, and after la bouib had hurst within a few hundred 3 feet there was a general t-cramble ti> secure fragments as souvenirs. Hut the t ' stoical—shall -we call it —or the ignorant t or the careless view is not universal. , and thereby hang two rather amusing , tales that" I wad told to-day. A corIporal supervising a fatigue party en(gaged in the very necessary, but unpleu- * sant duty of attending to the latrine?. x became suddenly alert to the fact, from ( the increased whining in the air above jjliini that a bomb was going to drop , in very unpleasant proximity. An air- . craft bomb, it may be as well to exs plain, has a little brass m:rew, to all intents and purposes like a toy proI pcller, at one end. Thin ensures the ' f missile landing on its head and opera--5 ting the percussion cap. Incidentally, as 3 tho rapidly increasing velocity of the j drop accelerates its revolutions, the j screw causes a noise that passes from a low whine to almost a shriek as the •bomb ncars the ground. But to return to our muttons, or our corporal, who might have become cold mutton, ns tlie 1 saying is, in a fraction of a second. ' His j presence of mind -was superb. "Men! - Throw yourselves on the ground," he 3 thundered. There was no hesitation in , obeying the order. The bomb landed - about thirty feet away and providen--3 tialiy discharged itself in a direction ; opposite to the fatigue party. 1 cay i providentially, for the corporal had en- ; tircly forgotten to follow his own ad--1 vice, and , was standing up when the > explosion occurred. Acting on the pre- ; cept "better late than never. ,, concurp. rent with the passing of the danger, he i hurriedly, and without due forethought, - precipitated himself on the earth so 1 forcibly that he hit a somewhat prom--2 ment nose, and made it spout crimson ; copiously. It was the only blood ehed 3 thereabouts. But when the party re--3 suened the perpendicular there was one - fat soldier who groaned and protested t that his hour had come, and that he ; should be permitted to die in peace, f They rolled him over with trepidation, f'fearful of disclosing some ghastly wound. r No sign of injury manifesting itself they s felt him —at first tenderly, and then f with some vigour. Finally the corporal t kicked him. but he persisted in his re- | - cumbent attitude. So they picked hin i t up and set him on his legs, and whrj, i he found that he could walk quite w f> n t he regained confidence. As a matter o f 3 fact, there was an explanation of bis, 00 . 5 haviour; a bullet-headed lrishmar 4) j n ; his laudable desire to obey prompt'^/ the f corporal's order, had butted the >,jureu - one an the small of the back w £ th the i force of a well-nourished billy /r oa t on i the war path, and the victim na( ] as . , cribed what had happened to J,i m to a - mortal injury by the bomb. ' THE lUAD OF A C'.VOK. ; The other story is the Tli:, d of a oook j He may even, for aught \ knOVJ _ be n . good cook. But his ner..7 es werp not , inured to bombs. Indeed ; thpy were far t from bomb-proof. So th $A when tho first , resonant explosion ocei ar od in his vfcin- ; ity he took to flight. n ow , ny nature ; he was not designed f or rap i d mot i O n. Five feet in height ar /] nearly as broad a s I long, his legs cony ,, VC( i the impression J of being hidicrouf short. But they , twinkled over tlv ~ landscape, and their j direction, whethp y~ intuitive or reasoned, was a well in ■ , little donga some ten y score yards r ,r.vay. Tlie goal nearly attained, tlie 'iiglit was abruptly arresty ed by a bom >, exploding nearly directly ahead. If t g c cook's advance had been I rapid, his i .ctreat was even more metejnric. Also, jt was evidently more un'.Btudicd, f n ho blundered into a barbwire '! fence, n momentarily lay stranded top wire. His legs frantically kickin , out behind, and his arms vainly c eplas' jvnjj the atmosphere ahead, he 5 ;look Ji\ like a beginner in the art of nata- ' i tio' j exercising on a wire. Extricating 3 , hi /nself with a rapidity that was d'euei- ' i ajus to his clothes, he resumed his (light I' /rir camp, and, very much blown and on " the verge of collapse, he fell over the. -new •■ Aldershot oven. Here w-.is tlie ideal f- I haven of refuge. A huge iron, oven, I covered with a thickness of three/feet of

puddled clay, is no mean bomb-proof shelter. Exhausted, he stumbled to the door, alas! only to find three other cooks sweltering in occupation. His massive shoulders and trunk he forced in, but those ludicrous little legs waved a frantic signal of distress to the blue vault of heaven. CURIOUS FACTS ABOUT BOMBS. The bomb, even dropped from a height of two miles, does not necessarily explode. Twenty feet away from a hospital kitchen a bomb plunged to earth. Passing at the moment of impact was a convalescent patient. He was not ten feet away. The bomb did not explode. He will never be nefcrer death and not cross the bourne, Again, clobc to an occupied guard tent a bomb struck a telegraph wire, tlie only solid elevated thing in a wide landscape. The slight resistance was sufiicient to alter its course of flight. It fell on its side, the percussion cap was unaffected, it did not [explode, and the occupant of the tent escaped miraculously certain death. Another case in the same locality was the passing through a tent of the shell of one of our own anti-aircraft guns. It splintered a bench on which half an hour later would have been seated a dozen nurses at their midday meiU. Some, of course, were not so fortunate, but the total human harvest of perhaps three dozen bombs was three serious casnalties. Today in the locality bomb-proof shelters were under construction, but what of the tented sick who cannot be removed to such protection? SERBIA'S DEPRECIATED COIXAGE. 1 enclose a nickel coin of Serbia that 1 picked up on a restaurant lloor. 1 tendered it, together with the customary tip, to the waiter. He contemptuously spurned it. Nominally of the value of one penny, to-day in Salonika it is wholly valueless. And yet, perhaps, not wholly, for the newspaper gamins of both 'sexes collect them and ingratiatingly insert them in their change while they smile and shrug, and, with the art inherited from 11 long line of ancestors, who knew not what honesty is, attempt to distract the victim's attention from the fraud. But reverse the position, and try to pass a Serbian coin on one of the very juvenile newspaper vendors, and there will immediately arise such an outcry as will call all the wide heavens (to say nothing of the immediate vicinity) to witness how you are endeavouring *to defraud a hard-working and honest orphan who is the sole support of a widowed mother and father and a string of even smaller juveniles. The street urchin of Salonika is preternaturally shrewd, but really you require both eyes, and preferably' both hands, on cither him or her while you transact business. A DANGEROUS SEARCH. Just a final little story about the bomb that -buried itself a few feet. away from a hospital kitchen. The! autlioritee, as is the custom in such cases, made arrangements to have it scientifically and harmlessly exploded. They were nearly anticipated, however, by a Tommy with the souvenir-hunting craze. An officer found him digging vigorously into the earth with a pick in search of the unexploded bomb. In hurried and trembling tones he bade him desist—in time. ATTITUDE OF ENEMY. Whether the Hermans advance against Salonika or not, on that point there is a very wide divergence of published opinion, both as to possibility and date. . While an offensive isVplaeed as near i.\ a week in some quarters, in others ,fc is believed that Austro-Ucrman pTopaintions for a serious attack could not s [)c perfected until March. It seems to mc that it is the German) game to tecp their opponents guessing, and that, they arc doing this very effectively. An expedition against Salonika, as it now been prepared for defence by t',m Allied forces, must, if it is to have a, jrhost of a chance of success, be on a -/cry considerable scale indeed, and '.here are a great variety of reasons v/h/,- Germans are heavily handicapped ip. launching such a project. NEW ZEALANDERS AT. SALONIKA. Of Aucklanders who L know I have only met here a son of V r. Benjamin, of Hayman's, a son of ?A,\ Sam HannaV, and a young Cooper, F/a a o f the chemist. They all look fit and. W ell, despite their very trying experier c . c \ n the sinking of the Marqnette, wl the hospital was transferred from / icxandria. The Aucklanders appear t j< have been peculiarly unlucky in the 'torpedoing of the transport, Rowley Benjamin telling mc that he lost all his, /particular friends. Dr. Ktout. a son of the Chief Justice, is at the New JfleaiVnd Hospital, and had also a most excif ing experience when the <v ent down. By the sinking of that yes ii;\ hospital equipments w-hicli had taker, months to collect were lost. I had for g o tten that there was anothar Aucklanr>. r h oro> y\ T p r ice, formerly sales rr-jrnager for Laidlaw Leeds. Ho if in large of the city store, which, althoi r h quite a small affair of a basement -.uh! ground floor, commands a rent °f £400 per annum, paid in advance. The Greeks may be suffering somewhat ' n fhe matter of their dignity and pride, °i y, they are reaping a rich harvest pecuniarily. Land that had never grown Anything within the memory of man "they started to plough up when they ' found that it would be required for the huge tented camps in which hospitals and troops are alike accommodated. You see, the compensation, or rent, for arable land is on a much higher ecale than for barren wastes, which, owing to the growth of a little native herbage >it certain seasons, might by a stretch of imagination be classed as arable. WEATHER CONDITIONS. The weather conditions here just now are extremely disagreeable. To-day a biting wind has bevn raging across the barren country, raising such clouds of duet on the over-crowded and trafficworn roads that for the greater part of the time the traffic is overwhelmed by a fog of driving dust, at times so thick that, it is almost necessary to come to a standstill. Unfortunately, so far as one is able to learn, this lasts intermittently until the end of February.