REPRISALS.

Evening Star, Issue 15909, 15 September 1915, Page 8

REPRISALS.

QUESTION OF EXPEDIENCY. SECONDARY BATTERIES. HILLMEN IN ARMS. RUSSIANS FALLING BACK [By Criticus.] Count Reventlow. is in savage mood. He is delighted with the exploits of the Zeppelins in murdering a few civilians under cover of darkness and slinking away again before the light of - dawn should compel them to fight. He declines to argue that these outrages are perpetrated for moral effect—"to terrify the English." He rejoices in murder for its own sake, under the thinnest veil of pretence that "the object is to destroy whatever is useful in the prosecution of the war.'' The exploits of the Zeppelins, when considered from the military as distinct from the humanitarian point of view, are purely contemptible. And the condition of hysterical fun' into which Count. Reventlow has worked himself, is altogether to our advantage. The more excited he and his like become the more they can be trusted to •blunder in" matters of policy. It will be remembered that Count Reventlow has been the most furious advocate of the policy of dragging America into the war by complete recklessness in the matter of submarine attacks. The man has worked himself into a mental condition not far removed from insanity—a condition of sloppy, incohorent, sentimental savagery, which he mistakes, as is always the" case with people of his rudimentary critical abilities, for a state of cold intellectual lucidity. 'I his game of "rnthlessness" is, of course, one that two sides can play at—a consideration which never seems to rise above Count Reventlow's mental horizon. Without working ourselves up, into a state of excited vindictiveness, it is possible toconsider the question of reprisals on grounds of expediency. Much loose talk is indulged in by would-be strong men on the folly of .trying to make war "humane." No sane man copld hope to do" that; but it is quite possible to abstain from unnecessary and useless inhumanity. If one side resorts to certain brutal * expedients in order to gain its ends, and is promptly copied by the other side, it is obvious that neither side has gained by the process. The two factors balance each other, so far as the realisation of the aims of either side is concerned, but a substantial addition to the sum of useless misery is made. It is the gradual recognition of this fact which has led the nations to abstain by mutual agreement from certain brutalities which either side can indulge ; in, but from the practice of which neither side draws any real profit. But these considerations elude the mental <?rasp of savages, who, like Count Reventlow. masquerade under the garb of civilisation. When, however, one party adopts the forbidden practices, the other side may legitimately consider whether it will bo advisable to institute reprisals. In tho case under consideration we are under no obligation to put a premium upon German savagery by forbidding ourselves the one argument for abstaining from such methods which they would understand. To notify the enemy that every attack bv their Zeppelins upon undefended towns "will be followed by an attack of redoubled " ruthlessness" upon a selected German town would be perfectly legitimate policy, and would probably be effective. We are justified in taking measures for the defence of the civilian population of Britain. A FUTILE WEAPON. These Zeppelin attacks are no more than a nuisance, nor are they ever likely to hecorre so. Much of the apparently wanton brutality with which bombs axe fluno j among the civilian population is due to the I sheer futility oi the Zeppelin as a. weapon. The Germans would claim that these at- j tacks are made upon docks and arsenals and the like, and doubtless such is the aim. But they have so little confidence m the fighting, value of their airships that they dare not risk them among the British aeroplanes in the daytime. Hence the practice of stealing across at nijht, when they, find no distinct target to aim at, lose their bearings, and have to drop their bombs at random all over the place. | During the first .six months of the war | (the only period for which official figures are available) tho Zeppelins made 14 raids, in the course of which 160 persons were j killed and about 100 buildings destroyed. In' accomplishing this half a dozen of" the airships were annihilated, 60 of their crews taken prisoners, and 30 .killed. Any addition to the speed and carrying capacity _ of these vessels is necessarily accompanied by an increase in their "size and vulnerability. So that, apart from the humanitarian question, their activity can be viewed with contempt. SECONDARY BATTERIES.

Rear-admiral G. Goodrich, discussing the question of battleships and submarines, argues that as modern armor is impenetrable beyond a distance of seven miles, the armor carried by battleships should be thinner, and the weight thus saved put into battery power. This is sound policy. It has long been recognised by the clearer thinkers among tacticians that the best defence is an overwhelming attack. If the weight saved in armor be devoted to either big guns or increased speed, a tactical factor cf unquestionable value is secured by the sacrifice of a factor of vary doubtful value. t It has already been pointed out hero that tho swift ship with the big guns can neutralise its opponent's armor by standing off ;md firing from such a distance that its shells fall on the deck of_ its opponent.

Unfortunately, Admiral Goodrich, goes on to eulogise the eecondary batteries, and the cable does not make it clear if he proposes that the weiglit saved in armor should be devoted to strengthening tho secondary batteries or not. Such a. course would be a blunder. The Admiral declares that the secondary batteries are apt to be very effective in a running fight, but the cable gives no instance of this, and it is impossible to call to mind a fight during the present war which has not been won by the big guns. Off Coronel, where tho Germans destroyed Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock's squadron, the secondary armament of the British ships was useless. It was the concentration of the enemy's armament into a email number of big guns, thus enabling them to hit hard and accurately at long range, which gave them the victory. The tactical weakness of the secondary armament is exactly similar to that of the armor—it can be rendered useless by the swifter ship by the simple expedient of standing out of range. Nevertheless, a secondary armament is necessary in order to drive off destroyers and submarines, and the question arises: How powerful shall the secondary armament be-? The answer must be: Just powerful enough to accomplish its clearly-defined purpose of driving off the enemy's torpedo craft, and no more. Any tonnage devoted to secondary armament over and above the amount necessary for the accomplishment of that pur>pose is tonnage wasted from the point, of view of the battleship's supreme function —battle for the command of the sea against the capital ships of the enemv. BATTLE-CRUISERS. There is some reason to believe that the navy of the_ United States as at last to be equipped with battle-cruisers. The American 'Army and Navy Journal' announces that "it would not be surprising if six battle-cruisers were included in the naval programme which the General Board will recommend to the - Secretary early this fall." This will make the American naval men glisten, but whether thev will get them depends on Congress, and that body has hitherto declined to sanction the construction of more than two capital ships per annum. Thus far the American Navv has no battle-cruisers, and lack las been Beverelj felt and craa-

mented upon. During the last American naval manoeuvres the attacking side was theoreticallyequipped ■with battle-cruisers, while the defending side had none. As a result, the attackers were able to crush and drive in the scouting screen, of the defenders upon their main body, and to obtain full information as to their whereabouts ; whereas the defenders, powencss against the opposing screen, were kept wholly in the dark as to the whereabouts and intentions of the attackers. Hitherto the American Navy Board have argued that wars wit! be decided when the opposing fleets nieet in a decisive battle, and that only heavily-armored ships can "lie in line"With any hope of surviving an accurate gunfire of "the enemv. It will be observed that this opinion faijs to take account of the .fact set forth abov.e : that the swift battle-cruiser can render the heavy side armor of its antagonist of no account by standing off to the range whicli Causes its shells to fall on its opponent's decks..As the .British ships in the Dogger Bank fight repeatedly landed on their opponents at such a "range, sending their shells crashing through the decks of the enemy into their vitals, there is no reason why this should not be done again. It may bo argued that such shooting.is only possible in very clear weather. Perhaps so; but- the swift ship has the option of declining to" ■ fight except under circumstances which are. favorable to itself. MOIIMANDS OUT. Tliat troublesome Indian hill tribe the Mohmands, of- the jiorth-west frontier, are up in arm:;, raiding and burning villages. On September 5, however, they were lured from their trenches, then "penned into a bunch, upon, which the British poured a converging' fire from rifles and artillery. The tribesmen axe stated to j have lost 1.200 killed and wounded in six hours''fighting. If they were really caught in a. tisjht position- by- modem quick-firing artillery, they would certainly cet a mauling. A* curious feature of the fighting was'that the tribesmen are alleged to have shown disciplined formations when fighting. If this is true, it means that some power has been at work behind the scenes, preparing the rising. It is known that missions have been sent I by the Young Turks to the Ameer of Afghanistan, in order to persuade him to make war upon India. The Ameer draws a. substantial pension from the Indian Government, but the Afghan mirid is so ignorant snd incoherent that its workings cannot bo eounted upon. It is quite possible that he may have connived at the intrigues of Turkish agents among the tribesmen. Not that it matters mucin The tribal levies can only give, trouble among the hills. If they venture into the plain they will be annihilated. THE MIDDLE EAST. Wild Teports of an impending Turkish collapse are etill coming through, but no basis for them is apparent. ' The Times's' Mitylene correspondent detects further signs of internal discord among the Turks, and 6tates that the recall of the Turkish Ambassador at Berlin was duo to a peremptory demand of the Kaiser as a consequence of a confidential report of the Ambassador to the Porte that Germany and Austria are in the last stages of exhaustion. It is altogether improbable that he made so foolish a report. Athens is at its best with a -statement that Focha. in Asia Minor, is in flames, and that the Turks are destroying the coast towns preparatory to retreating into tho interior on the 'fall of the Dardanelles. It will probably be many months before the Turks are under the necessity of abandoning the Dardanelles. The Turkish batteries at Kum Kale, on the Asiatic shore, have been bombarded and silenced. These batteries have been a thorn in the side of the right flank of the Allies on the Gallipoli Peninsula from the first, particularly of the French, whose position they could shell from a range of about five miles. The hope is expressed that they are finally done with, but they are sure to be repaired unless an axmv is landed on the Asiatic shore. A dubious report of the sinking of a German submarine "between Tene'dos and Mitvlene comes from Athens. RUSSIANS GIVING WAY. TheAustro-Germans are making general progress except on the extreme southern flank. Hindenburg has scored some successes between Friedrichstadt and Jaeobstadt, on the Duna, to the south-east of Riga. Between Dvinsk and Vilna the enemy have cut the railway: and the Russians are admittedly falling back. Further south, Petrograd reports that the enemy have been strongly reinforced in the Slddel region, while along the line from Volkowysk to Kartusske-Beresa (on the Brest-Litovsk-Minsk railway), or the line of the Zelvianka River, the enemy claim to have broken the Russian resist- ] ance. As the Russians admit that the enemy aTe slowly advancing in this quarter, there is probably a certain amount of truth' in the claim. In the Rovno district nothing remarkable is reported save a .vague Austrian claim to have reached the railway to the east of Dubno. In the Taraopol district the German communique of September 13 claims ithat the Russian attacks were repulsed a.nd that the Germans are advancing. But a Russian communique of a day later asserts that the Germans are retiring northwards in that district. Along the Sereth neither side seems to be gaining ground.