THE “WILLIES.”

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume VI, Issue 272, 2 November 1916, Page 2

THE “WILLIES.”

JUGGERNAUTS OF IRON. WILL WAR DESTROY WAR. London, Sept. 16. Will war itself, which hitherto has resisted the efforts of twenty millions of men on all fronts to bring it to an end, which has withstood ail the physical forces of incalculable masses of munitions, as well as the economic strain of unparalleled national debts and the mighty pressure of the normal sense of the world, be terminated at last by its own terrors? asks Hall Caine in an American exchange. The dispatch yesterday from British headquarters says : “Our troops have won from 2.000 to 3.000 yards at various places. . . . In this attack we employed for the first time a new type of heavy armoured car.” What does this mean.’ Does it mean that this new type of heavy armoured car has accomplished the astonishing results described? If so, what is this new and terrible weapon of war ? For weeks past I have been hearing whispers of a new arm which would shortly be launched on the battlefields which would drive everything before it. SECRET GUARDED BY ARMED MEN.

News of it was a secret not to be revealed until the dgy it came into action. Nobody’ yvas to know where or how it was made and where it was. The men who manufactured it were bound by oath not to say anythinag about it. To make assurance then sure they were interned within a vast area whose boundaries were guarded by armed men every hundred yards. Once within ‘ they were never allowed out. Notices posted at the entrances warned intending intruders that they would be shot at sight. Then 1 heard that the new weapon had already reached the scene of operations in large numbers and that yet greater numbers were to follow. If the enemy was to hear anything about it at all they must hear now. In a few days more it would be in action. The results which might be* expected would be stupendous. GIANT JUGGERNAUT CARRYING DEATH. It was impossible not to be stirred by the mystery that surrounded the new arm and by the* confident faith of those who knew of its irresistible power. It was a gigantic car, a colossal juggernaut, a moving arsenal of unimaginable driving force. Nothing could stand before it. It would pass over trenches like flat ground, climb out of beds of rivers and walk over houses as over anthills. Ip the inferno of. its interior the men who worked it, nearly nude, would be safe from almost any force known to military science except that of the unconquerable monster they controlled. Such was the story which spread during the past weeks to those who could be trusted to keep the secret until the day came to reveal it. Has the secret been revealed in Sir Douglas Haig’s dispatch yesterday ? If so, we may perhaps look for still greater, more momentous results. COULD CRUSH THE FLATIRON BUILDING. If what is said of the new armoured car be true, it may prove to be the mightiest argument for a speedy termination of the war that has yet been heard of in this bloodstained continent. 1 am told the power, of this new juggernaut is such that if it rolled up Broadway (which God forbid) and was directed at the Flatiron building (Which also God forbid) it would bring it down and roll out at the other' side almost as rapidly as I tell the tale. I am also told if we had 3000 new juggernauts they would end the war in a month. It sounds like a dream. Some will surely say it hounds like madness, but few’ or none can be so sceptical of this tremendous story as not at least to hope for the Sake of humanity and future world peace that, please God, it may be true. War. the accursed, has stalked oyer the earth since the earlier days of man, feeding on its own entrails and growing by that it has fed on. WILL WAR DEMON DESTROY WAR.

It has withstood the battery of religion, morality' and civilization and derision launched at it by' common sense. It has even, by "frightful irony' of devilish fascination, turned these adversaries into its apologists and advocates. Will it not be a divine triumph if the monster should now destroy' itself ? Some of us have long been praying for the consummation that war by its own malign developments might yet make war unthinkable, impossible. Is this far off event nearer than we thought One almost is afraid to hope—almost fearful of trusting predictions of enthusiasts.

But let us go on hoping. If not this time, perhaps next time it may come to pass. Humanity has far nobler wars before it than those it makes against itself—wars against ignorance, disease and the elements, which it is the duty of men to wage.

The San Francisco correspondent to the “Otago Daily’ Times” says that twenty-seven caterpillar tractors, similar to those converted into “land dreadnought tanks” by' the British in Northern France, will soon be a part of the United States’ army’s w;ar paraphernalia. The same Peoria (111.) firm which supplied the British with the engines for the armoured fighting monsters has contracted to build " the huge tractors for ftis Government.' They are to ba delivered within 90 days. The tractors will weigh between 13,000 ami 14,0001 b. This is considerably below the weight of the tractors furnished for Great Britain. Their price will be 4775 dollars each. It will cost 1000 dollars additional for encasing them in armour