GERMANS ON "TANKS"

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2971, 8 January 1917, Page 8

GERMANS ON "TANKS"

In public the Germans have spoken with two voices about the British Tanks (says the London "Daily Telegraph")- 'With ono they say that the Tanks are so useful to us .that it is not fair of us to use them. That was the ollicial voice just after the Tanks lirst came into action. They were called "as cruel as effective," and it was urged that their use ought to he barred aa inhuman. With its second voice, the less official voice which it uses through the mp.gapb.ouo of the German Press, the German General Staff said that the Tanks were a failure and need not bo minded. What the- German commands really think about the Tanks may bo gathered from a battalion order recently issued in the sector south of tho Anero, "in view of tho danger of attacks by the English Tanks." It gives detailed directions for defensive measures, to be taken before half-past seven the next morning. All roads leading from British to German positions and not actually "sod for the passago of German artillery and transport arc to be "obstructed so as to render traffic, except the passage of material, impossible." They are also to bo "out for ii width of four to six metres (13 to 20 feet), and a depth of one and ;i half to two metres (five to six and a half feet), a narrow way being left for the passage of infantry and material." Gorman complaints of tho "cruelty" of Tanks have, on the whole, subsided. Coming from the original patentees of asphyxiating gas and liquid fire, they were too ludicrous to be kept np. Even the imperfect German sense of humour must havo felt their absurdity. On second thoughts it has been deemed wiser to give out, for neutral consumption thai the military value of Tanks is negligible. The order quoted shows that this is by no means the view of those who havo to meet them in the field.