THE WAR

Evening Post, Volume XCI, Issue 98, 26 April 1916, Page 6

THE WAR

The German battle-cruiser squadron has repeated former raids on the British coast Such actions do not affect the question of supremacy at sea. They are raids pure and simple, the voyage to the objective being effected under cover of night;". then a few shells are fired at dawn, and the fast battle-cruisers make haste for home. It is likely that three times out of four the German battlecruiser squadron could do this without encountering the British battle-cruiser squadron. But in the three months November-January (1914-15) the Germans had the bad luck to encounter our battlecruisers at their third attempt. It was then (24th January, 1915) that the Blucher was sunk, and the Moltke, Derfflinger, and Seydlitz (particularly the last two) were badly damaged. The British battle-cruiser squadron—the Lion, Tiger, Princess Royal, New Zealand, and Indomitable—broke off ' the action "because the enemy, after abandoning their wounded consort, the Blucher, made good their escape into waters infested by their submarines and mines." The disablement of the leading British ship, the Lion, at a critical stage of the fight, "deprived our ships of a greater victory." It is possible that the present raid on Lowestdft will be followed by a similar running fight. ' The official message ends with the words "we are chasing" ; and at time of writing it is an open question whether there is 'to be a sequel oi' not.

The first German naval raid by battlecruisers and cruisers took, place on 3rd November, 1914, at Yarmouth, 'the second on 16th December of the same year at Scarborough. Both places were unfortified; in both cases the Germans got away, though the armoured cruiser Yorck was sunk by a mine on her return to German waters after the Yarmouth raid. The third raid on 24th January was, as usual, carried out under cover of night, but at daylight the German battle-cruisers sighted not the English coast, but some-British light cruisers. This was bad luck for the Germans. It was worse luck for them that the British battle-cruiser squadron happened to be patrolling at the time with, in sound of the guns. Will history repeat itself in connection with this Easter raid on Lowestoft?

Later advices state that, after twenty minutes' firing off Lowestoft (where a man and a woman were killed), the enemy fleet (a cruiser squadron, with light cruisers -and destroyers) left for Germany, chased by British light cruisers and. destroyers. Two of the British light .craft were hit, but none was sunk. Among the shore people the casualty list is small compared with that of the Scarborough raid. The military value of both of them is the same; that is to say, nil.

More1 aerial raids—by aeroplane and by Zeppelin—figure in the recent cablegrams, and it is evident that Germany is trying desperately to get in a blow— any sort of blow—at Britain in order to reduce the insular people to a peacemaking frame of mind. Germany no longer hopes to conquer Britain with raids, but thinks to. impress the British people. With Germany the war is now a war of salvage, and Britain is the main obstacle to the sort of peace Germany wants.

With the same object Germany is trying to carry the war into Ireland. Sir Roger Casement is the sort of renegade whom they despise, but whom they are willing to make use of. They provided him with a. German ship (a naval auxiliary) and a submarine escort and sent him to the Irish coast. The British authorities were awake, and the result was that the submarine took to flight, the auxiliary ship was sent to the bottom, and Sir Roger has been sent to gaol.

Meanwhile, lie and the Germans had builded sufficiently well to be able to cause in Ireland what the Chief Secre- ; ta-ry for Ireland (Mr. Birrell) calls "a grave disturbance." There were riots in Dublin, and twelve people were killed, but "the situation is now in hand." Sinn Fein and Syndicalist doctrines in Ireland have fostered a certain' amount of sedition, but no country should be judged by the sayings and doings of its Syndicalists. This city has seen in its own experience how formidable-looking riots can be worked up, and how soon they melt before disciplined force. In the case of Ireland, there is an irreconcilable section that foments trouble, and there is a Germany and a Casement that promise them arms. gunrunning faihu-e forecasts the collapse of the whole conspiracy.

In these unfortunate circumstances sympathy will be felt for Mr. John Redmond and the constitutional Nationalist leaders who have appealed, and not in vain, to Irish patriotism. Mr. Redmond's .visit to the French front was followed by a message to Ireland ringing with the true note. He has navigated Ireland, after many years, right to the threshold of Home Rule, and to him the seditious movement might mean the wrecking of a life's work. In the Oversea Dominions of the Empire the Irish cause lias always had warm support. Anything that' would chill that feeling would be an Imperial misfortune. It is to be hoped that ninetenths of Ireland will rise like one man to repudiate- the Dublin riots and to take an equal place with England, Scotland, and Wales in military service.

On the northernmost of the three routes from Syria over the Sinai to the Suez Canal—that is to say, on the Kan-tara-El Arish route—there has been sharp fighting with the Turks. Bir-el-Duweidar is an oasis on this route, about fifteen miles eastward of Kantara; another ten or. twelve miles brings the traveller to Katia. A British force, including some English and some Australian units, pushed forward towards Katia. leaving a garrison at Duweidar. The Turks at Katia, in a brisk action, lost 70 killed and 28 wounded and a quantity of material, and their camp was destroyed by aeroplanes. Meanwhile another force of Turks, seeking to interfere with the British communications, attacked the Dmwidar garrison, and suffered still more heavily, losing 100 killed, also prisoners. Then came an opportunity for the Australian Horse, who by energetic' pursuit added to the enemy's casualties. In February of 1915 the retreating Turks who had failed a-t the Suez Cana! were allowed by the British command to fall back almost unmolested. Evidently this mistake is not going to be repeated

The British fleet has again bombarded Zeebrugge and other points on the Belgian coast. This coast has received similay attentions at intervals ever sinca November, 1914, when Admirt) Hft?d'»

flotilla, including monitors, opened the ba.ll. One of the main ideas has been to make Zeebrugge useless as a naval base. The fleet has also, from time to time, acted as artillery support for the left of the Belgian army. General Smuts, who is invading German East Africa from British East Africa, reports that the Germans are retiring in the direction of the central railway. In German East Africa there are two railways that count. One is the Tanga railway; the other is the central railway from Dar-es-Salaam to Lake Tanganyika. The latter is a- great trunk line, rivalling British ' East Africa's Uganda railway, which runs from Mombasa to Lake Victoria. The German central railway is well removed from the boundaries of German East Africa, but the Uganda, railway (on the British side) and the Tanga railway (on the German side) are both within striking distance of the British-German frontier. Consequently they ha.ye played a big part in the fighting. Britain's first effort to seize Tanga with an Anglo-Indian force was a failure, but General Smuts has gone to work much more systematically, and it appears now that the Tanga railway, if riot Tanga itself, has been wrested from the Germans. This represents for them a serious loss. Their retirement to their central railway would mark the second phase of the East African campaign.