Feilding Star, Oroua and Kiwitea Counties' Gazette. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1914. Pass the Salt-cellar !

Feilding Star, Volume XI, Issue 2462, 2 October 1914, Page 2

Feilding Star, Oroua and Kiwitea Counties' Gazette. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1914. Pass the Salt-cellar !

The Times military correspondent states that good judges reckon the German casualties in France at 400,000. —Cable item from London.

Them are a number of astonishing features in the present war when it ia compared with other campaigns. First, in the multitude of men engaged. All other wars in the world's history fail by comparison. To-day millions are engaged where even Na-' poleon hed his tens or hundreds of thousands. Therefore, when we think in millions, we are apt to forget the salt-cellar when the cableman tells us that in a two-day battle the Crown Prince lost 20.000 men killed and 80,000 wounded. But did he, really ? And in the accounts of other battles we have been told how this, that, and the other regiment, horse and foot, was completely decimated by the deadly fire of the foe. Wβ must take these statements cum grano salic, and not be hypnotised by those millions. For we know, as an instance, for instance, that Tommy Atkins was not a regular competitor at Bisley— his shooting was not up to the mark. Therefore, we are to remember in this'war that not every bullet is finding its billet. In fact, the professional soldier the world over is notoriously a mighty bad shot. It must be granted, at the same time, that the artilleryman, being an expert with his weapon, is deadly. During the Franco-Prussian war, no fewer than 197,000 projectiles were thrown into Mezieres for a loss of 400 lives; but at Sedan the firing wae more deadly, for 9000 combatants perished from the 240,000 projectiles fired. j This was a far heavier mortality than that which attended the defending Spaniards at the landing of the American marines at Santiago. There, from a fusillade from machine-guns and rifles alone of 25,000 rounds, only 68 casualties resulted. The workmanship of the. Japanese in their war with China was by no means good, but in 1904, against the Russians, they showed far deadlier effectuality. British firing in the last Boer war was better than in former wars, but hardly a subject for boasting. Thanks be, all are not dead that are reported killed, else would the Germans have been in Paris to-day.