NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16665, 25 September 1914, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The regular supply of war news is supplemented this morning by a long and most interesting message from the High Commissioner, covering the operations of the British Expeditionary Force up to the end of last week. The Force was fighting on the Aisne, and the message gives a vivid account of

the struggle, leaving out, of course, tho details without which no account of a battle ca.n be quite adequate. In the main tho fighting last week was artillery work, but thero were incidents every day in which the infantry had to bo advanced to gain ground, while occasionally tho Germans retaliated with counter-attacks. Tho impression left by the story is that the characteristics of tho British troops are their cheerfulness under all conditions and their fine tenacity. A touch of colour is lent to the message by the transcription of a French General Order and of a German soldier's letter. There have been more exciting stories from Europe,' but in sustained interest, though not, of course, in. importance, this message is comparable with Sir John French's report on tho retreat from Mons.

" The reticence of thoso New Zealand newspapers which endeavour loyally to carry out the request of the Imperial Government and the Now Zealand Government, to observe strict secrecy regarding tho movements of troopships," says the local organ of Reform, "is being nullified by the fact that some journals—fortunately only one or two—persist in publishing such information regardless of consequences." The journal which makes this complaint, and incidentally bids for a little party kudos over the matter, published on Wednesday Mr Massey's announcement that tho troops were going to receive " a send-off" in Wellington and in Auckland on tho following day. Yesterday it printed a telegram from its Dunedin correspondent, indicating the date of ■ departure of the first batch of reinforcements, which will consist of 39 officers and 1489 men from the various arms." As a matter of fact, the Opposition newspapers have revealed no secrets. It was Mr Massey himself who made public all that is know or that can bo surmised as to the date of embarkation, by his statement in Parliament and his arrangements for speech-making. Ho may have done just the right thing, as the Reformers say he always docs, and always say he does, and we certainly impute no blame to him. But lie alone is responsible for the breakdown of the policy of secrecy he asked the Press to observe.

A petition on the subject of military training, which is being signed by the North Auckland Maoris for presentation to Parliament, deserves (lie close and sympathetic attention of tho Legislature. The Ngapuhi and their kindred tribes remind the Government of their services to tho State at a time when they were more numerous and powerful than they are to-day. They ask that they should now be placed on an equal footing with their European fellow-citizens in tho matter of defence, and that instructors should be sent to drill their young men, and so qualify them for a share in soldierly duties against the common enemy. It is a pity, for more reasons than one, that the Government has so long neglected the duty of training the Maori youth as the pakeha youth is trained in tho use of arms." One difficulty, no doubt, lies in the scattered character of native settlements and the remoteness of many from convenient drill centres. But the natural enthusiasm of the Maori in military work would overcome many obstacles, and there would be very few shirkers. In these stormy days there is need for all the available man power of the Dominion, and the untrained section of the country's able-bodied youth is so much muscle and brain run to waste. Had the native race been properly provided for in the defence scheme thero would now be at' least two Maori regiments, one from tho Auckland province and one from tho East and West Coasts of the North Island, available for service, trained and armed, surely a useful addition to the Dominion's citizen army. '

The magnitude of the military operations on the Continent is having one rather curious effect. In past times, evon when comparatively huge armies were engaged, it has been possible-to designate the important fights by tho name of some town or village in the vicinity of which the battles occurred. But trio battles of this war aro too big almost to be given names. The smaller actions in Belgium were localised, but even so the conflict that preceded tho retreat of the Allies will probably be known in history by tho namo of the river along which a portion of tho armies were fighting. The stand of the British at Mons may be singled out for special treatment, but tho whole struggle will have to be described as the Battle of the Sambre. From the Sambre tho Allies retreated to the line of the Sommo, and tho Battle of the Somme is therefore the convenient namo for the next clash. Then came the retreat to Paris, followed by the Battle of the Marne, in which the Germans were driven back to the Aisne. At least their right rested on the Aisne, and in British history, at all events, the Battle of the Aisne will doubtless be the description of the struggle that has been raging for so many days past. When the opposing fronts are a hundred miles* and more in length it is obvious that no single town can properly lend its name to the battle, though Soissons and Rheims, as centres of particularly fierce fighting, may have their names attached to special phases of the grand conflict.

Ponape, tho capital of the Caroline Islands, where the Australian fleet has destroyed the Germans' powerful wireless station, thus depriving the enemy of the lasb of their land stations in the Pacific, has for many years been one of Germany's principal coaling ports in this ocean. Vessels have frequently loaded Westport coal for the Carolines, as well as for the Marshall Islands, more to the eastward, for the use of the German men-of-war on the Pacific station, and there must have been considerable stores of coal at both places. Not much is heard of Ponape in this part of the world, except the fact, now and again mentioned by travellers, that it is one of the Pacific islands on which the ancient ruins of massive forts and towns of stone are found, ruins of a long-vanished civilisation as mysterious and unknown as that which produced the famous stone figures on Easter Island. Mr F. WChristian, tho pioneer of exploration amongst these immeasurably ancient island Venices, describes the Carolines as "an enchanted region of archeology." Since the Carolines passed from Snanish to German possession in 1889 for a consideration of £840,000, the Kaiser's officials and the large trading and planting companies have been doing much to develop the practical usefulness of the Carolines, and Ponape in particular they have found a promising field. Although it is but a dot on the map, Ponape—also chart-named Ascension Island—has an area of 3-40 square miles, the largest in a great archipelago of some two hundred islands. It is a beautiful place, with a mountain ridge in the centro and numerous valleys and flats of the most fertile soil, producing every imaginable kind of tropic plant. Its forests, covering some thousands of acres, contain timbers of exceptional value, like those of its neighbour Kusaio or Strong's Island, from whioh cargoes of piles have been obtained for wharves and dry docks at Shanghai and other Chinese ports.

Unlike many other Pacific islands otherwise bountifully endowed by Nature, Ponape is a land of running water. It has many large streams coursing down from the mountains, with cascades for the turning of millwheels and for the generation of electric power, and in the valleys below of

sufficient volume and depth for the floatage of rafts and the navigation of large boats. The interior is almost uninhabited, and although German enterprise has been turning some of tb e dense forest to account, settlement l les chiefly on the sea front, where there are numerous villages on the sheltered beaches, protected from tho ocean by the encircling islet-studded coral reef, which encloses a calm lagoon over a mile in width. A large trade is done in copra, tho Pacific Islands' great stand-by, but a great deal of pearlshell, tortoise-shell, beche-de-mer and vegetable ivory is exported from Ponape. which is the commercial gatheringplace and clearing-station for many cores of islands, large and small.

Should it happen that the British authorities followed up the . Commonwealth's coup do main by placing the Carolines under tho British flag, it is not likely that the native inhabitants would offer any objection to the change ii government. The three thousand people who live on Ponape, like the others in the group, do not seem to have much love for German rule. More than one insurrection has occurred- during tho quarter of a century since the islands passed out of Spanish hands. As recently as 1910 there was a revolt which is believed to have been brought ibout by the system of compulsory labour which is enforced in some German possessions. A district magistrate and several other officials were massacred, and as there were no troops in Ponape at the time the rebellious section of the Natives had things their own way until help came from New Britain, far to the south. The Acting-Governor of the Bismarck Archipelago, Dr Osswald, commanded a punitive expedition which exacted terrible ve'ngeance. Peaco was thus secured on Ponape, but it does not follow that it brought with it contentment with German rule.