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Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16271, 23 July 1918, Page 6

The Flood, as Mr Edmund Candler remarks, is a story oasily credible in Mesopotamia, where the British force has for some three years struggled with inundations, alternating with torrid heat. It should not bo difficult, also, to credit thore the story of tue Tower of Babel, for the "confusion of tongues," consequent on the presence in the native population of large numbers of British is heard there in full operation. "X new tongue, com-

pact of Arabic, English, French,. and the Arabic version of the two latter « / languages, is growing into use. Thus an Arab asked Mr Candler where the new "Shenim duffer" (Chemin de fer) was going to be, the men of the desert speak of motor-cars as "torumbills" (? automobiles), "antica" is the accepted term for the curio, faked or otherwise—most of them are faked — which the native trios to sell to the newcomers at Babylon, and "finish" has caught tho fancy of the remotest villages of the plain. The Mesopotamia Arabs do not yet seem to havo followed the example of those of Aden, who have coined from an English expression the weird verb "to damful," but. like the younger residents of some French villages, they have, no doubt, brought into common, and quito mis.placed use, many of the choicest expressions of the British Tommy. The new "lingua Franca" of the East will for many years to come preserve strango memories of the great war. Of Ludendorff, whose latest offensive has been so speedily checked, if not altogether broken, Mr Frederick W. "Wile, for a long time before the war the "Daily Mail's" correspondent in Berlin, says that ho is unmistakeably one of the ablest soldiers tho Teuton war system has produced. Yet when Mr Wile, in tho year before the war was writing his book "Men Around the Kaiser," and canvassing all his German acquaintances to learn who was thought to typify the modern- German Army, nobody, he says, "ever even remotely suggested Hindenburg—whoso name I never once heard during thirteen'years' residence in Germany—and certainly no one dreamed of suggesting Ludendorff, whose identity, I suppose, was not known to one man out of 100,000 in the entire country." j "Little Ludendorff," as he was called when a subaltern, was 53 in April. His father was a small landed proprietor in 'Posea, who sent all his sons into tho army. The present head of the German army showed unusual ability in the earlier part of his career, specialising particularly and with success in the problems of supply and transport and mobilisation, and ho has more than onco given proof of his skill in these respects. AH accounts, remarks Mr Wile, agree that ho is a ravenous worker, and a master of the tedious art of taking pains. He is a "stick-at-nothing," "victory at all costs" general, with a ruthless disregard for expenditure of human life. After tho March offensive ho was raised almost to the height of a demi-god in German opinion. But, as Mr Wile remarks, in war it is tho last phase that fixes a soldier's place in history, and the last phase of Ludendorff's career during this war will assuredly give him a place in German opinion in which his faults and his eventual failure will be clearly seen.

Some interesting particulars of the construction of the first "fabricated" cargo vessel launched in America are .printed in the New York papers. This particular vessel, the Awagam, will have a displacement of 7800 tons, and a deadweight carrying capacity of 5500. tons. She is 343 feet long, draws 23 feet, and will steam 10£ knots. The launching of the Awagam wns regarded as a very important event, for the vessel is the first to he constructed of structural steel plates and shapes heretofore used only in tho crection of buildings and bridges. The various party of the hull and superstructure were fabricated as completely as possible in structural steel mills and shops throughout tho country, and then assembled at the yard at Port Newark, in New Jersey. There ore 150 vessels sinrlar to tho Awagam in process of construction, and the parts are being made by 27 steel mills, 5G fabricating plants, and 200 foundries and shops of various kinds. So effective is this new'method of building ships that as soon as the Port Newark yard 13 in full operation, three ships per week will be iaunched there. '