THE FRENCH AIR RAID.

Gisborne Times, Volume XLV, Issue 4155, 4 February 1916, Page 5

THE FRENCH AIR RAID.

PARIS PRESS DEMANDS.

HUNDREDS MORE AEROPLANES WANTED.

(Times and .Sydney Sun Services.) PARIS, Feb. 2. The Paris press scorns the raids and points out tile lesson that thirty aeroplanes are needed to down a monstrous Zeppelin. The “Paris Journal” says the defenders’ a <uk was hard because the night was dark and the sky vast. The “Paris Journal,” “Petit Journal,” “Gaulois,” and “Figaro” demand hundreds more aeroplanes and have started a campaign against the apaches of the air. Experts point out that anti-Zeppe-tin aerial response is restricted to machine-guns and bombs, because the new gunplanes, owing to their weight, cannot rise to the altitude the Zeppelins can. Guns on land are useless ivhen a Zeppelin is hidden behind the mists. The rooting out of Zeppelins from hangars in Germany is the only effective means of defence. The “Petit Parisian” graphically describes the chase of the raiders, which used new incendiary bullets. These fell round the pursuers- like a stream of light. " An aviator chased Saturday’s raider for fifty minutes and peppered it with bullets. A defect of the motor compelled him to land. The Zeppelin flew at the rate of one hundred kilometres an hour.

PRESS URGES REPRISALS.

“TEACH THE GERMANS TO

THINK.”

(Times and Sydney Sun Services.) (Received Feb. 3. 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, Feb. 3.

The “Daily Mail” urges the Government to acquire 25,000 aeroplanes to raid Cologne, Dusseldorf, Berlin. Essen and Kiel. The paper says the enemy would think twice before making barbarous attacks if they _ knew that for every bomb dropped in the London district two would follow in a German city.

GERMANY EXULTANT.

“PUNISHMENT FOR THE

ALLIES!”

(Received Feb. 3. 10.15 p.m.) AMSTERDAM. Feb. 3

The Germans exult in the air raids, declaring that they are a punishment to France and England and a reprisal for the Baralong case. The “Cologne Gazette” glories in the fact that Zeppelins are Germany’s monopoly, and that England is forced to admit that she has np defence. The paper adds: “We experience a certain grim satisfaction, notwithstanding that our troops are not before Paris and London that our arm reaches far enough to bring home to these, socalled civilised nations the tricks they have played on us.”

A ZEPPELIN ASTRAY. (Received Feb. 3, 10.5 p.m.) AMSTERDAM, Feb. 3. A Zeppelin which had evidently become lost in a fog was discovered over Ameland flying low. The coastguards fired sixty shots, some of which hit the Zeppelin, which disappeared.

THE GERMAN NAVY.

PABULUM FOR AMERICANS

(Times and Sydney Sun Services.) " LONDON, Feb. 2.

A German wireless has issued an interview, intended for American consumption,' with the Admiralty Chief of Staff, Holtzendorff. English submarines, he said, had been unsuccessful for four weeks in the Baltic, The German navy would never be in danger of England. She fears trade rivalry, our inactive merchant marine, and also the growing American navy. He denied that fifty submarines have been lost, saying not one half of that number liacl gone. Replying to a question as to a big naval battle, he replied: “The decision does not rest with us. We are always prepared.” The blockade is causing anxiety in Germany, because Holtzendorff says much about- the sufferings of women and children, but his remarks are not attached to this portion of the interview.