THE ZEPPELINS.

Evening Star, Issue 15913, 20 September 1915, Page 3

THE ZEPPELINS.

WHAT LONDON THINKS AFTER SEVERAL RAJDS: A COMPLETE FAILURE. LONDON, September 17. _ The Press Bureau, at the request of Sir J. A. Simon, states how an impartial observer described the effects of the last Zeppelin raad in the London district. Sir J. A. Simon adds that the total casualties of air raids in all cases are. correctlv stated. The description carefully avoids details regarding route and places bombed, and states the experience last week combined with ill* German official reports upon the raid. It demonstrates that the commanders of the aircraft.were often grossly in error as to-their movements, and had no means whatever of estimating the effect of their promiscuous bombardment. Everywhere only private property suffered, in most cases of a small residential kind. Almost all the unfortunates killed were non-combatants hitherto exempt from attack in accordance with 'honorable practice in civilised warfare—that is, women, children, small shopkeepers, and working men. The futility of the_ raids can be imagined wnen-at is remembered that the London district is 700 square miles. The enemy professed to accomplish an important military purpose, hastily dropping explosives and incendiary material-at random over this enormous surface. In point of fact no public institution was hit It is true that two hospitals narrowly escaped but it is fair to say that the army which 'has done its best to destroy the cathedrals of Belgium and France succeeded in bitting only one church. ) From the standpoint of Berlin the effect is a.complete failure. If Count Zeppelin accompanied the raiders, as is reported', ihe must have been disappointed to learn that only a minority of the vast population of London was aware of the presence of 'the;airship. The • ieelinjzs of those who

heard the gunfire, and saw the Zeppelin were of interest and curiosity Tather than fear. In fact, the London suburbs faced calmly the murderous efforts of an Tinmitigated, callous, and purposeless brutality and the tragedies involved. Here are a few pictures of the effects of the London raid:— Outside 'a public-houso a man and a woman,were talking. The woman departed to buy some supper. A bomb fell at the man's feet, killing hira outright and blowing in the hotel front, reducing the stock to a mass of broken glass. The twisted iron of a bedstead injured a sleeping'woman upon it. How can this conceivably contribute to the progress of the war? A bomb was dropped in a block of workmen's dwellings which is nightly crowded with children to the topmost flat. Four children were sleeping, and two, who had surreptitiously risen up to make tea in an adjoining room., escaped miraculously. Th© sleeping children were killed instantly. That was what occurred when the captain of the Zeppelin professed to think that ho was visiting the docks and vitally damaging the port. A bomb dropped on a stable and set fire to a motor car. The stableman and his wife rescued 11 horses, a dog, and a cage-bird. The only casualty was" a bantam cock. The utility of such an attack is ridiculous. Elsewhere a bomb dropped squarely on a block of flats. Two girls who were sleeping vanished with their room, and their bodies were found two days later under the debris. The parents were sleeping when the partition wall was blown out, and searched for the remaining three children. An eight-year-old boy ran for safety to a staircase, which was demolished, and fell into the hole where his sisters were buried in the ruins. Two out of three children belonging to another family on the first floor were missing, and the bodies were recovered. The worst effect of the explosion was on the ground floor, where a widow, her daughter, and a lodger resided. Part of the lodger's body was found 150vds distant. A bomb dropped in a street and blew in a shop front, but spent its main force on a passing motor bus. Of the 20 people on board nine were killed and 11 injured. These incidents account for nearlv half the deaths, and suffice to show the real measure and nature of the raiders' success. The net results of the week's raids in life and limb in the London district was 38 people killed or died from wounds, and 124 injured. Two policemen and one army Fen-ice man were among the casualties ; otherwise there was nobody in uniform.

GERMAN SUBMARINES. GUESSES AT DISPOSITION. ( LONDON, September 19. The ‘Motor Boat’ newspaper estimates that 20 German submarines have been sunk, of which 15 were largo sea-going vessels. Germany commenced the war with 11 sea-going submarines and 16 unsuitable for voyages beyond the North Sea. Since then she ha-s added 18 sea-going vessels, two of which are known to be in the Mediterranean Sea, leaving 12 available for European waters. Four of these are always preparing, and thus Germany has eight submarines at work bevond the North Sea. OFFICIAL MURDERERS. LONDON, September 18. the financial News,’ quoting Mr Holmans recent speech, adds: “This is what ail are thinking. Woe betide anv British Ministry that in such an hour of victory fails to put the Kaiser, Admiral Von Tirpitz, a»d all the rest of the offal of ordinary felons in the dock and mete out to them the usual murderers’ fate.”