WAR NOTES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17267, 7 September 1916, Page 2

WAR NOTES.

GOLD DEAID FOR WOUNDED. An Army order dated July 6 says: “ The following distinctions in dress will l>e worn on the service dress jacket by all officers and soldiers who have been wounded in any of the campaigns since August 4, 1914: —Strips of gold Russia braid, No. 1,2 in in length, sewn perpendicularly on the left sleeve of the jacket to mark each occasion on which wounded. In tho case of officers, the lower end of tho first strip if gold' braid will, bo immediately above the upper point of the flap on cuff. Warrant officers, non-commissioned officers and men will wear the gold braid on tho left sleeve, tho lower, edge of the braid to bo 3in from the bottom of. the sleeve. Tho' additional strips of gold braid, marking each subsequent occasion on which wounded,'will be placed on either side of the original one at half-inch interval.” WAR POSTAL STATISTICS. Some interesting statistics have recently been furnished by the British Postmaster-General. It seems that seven and a half million letters are written to men at the front every week, and 700,000 parcels packed for them. In exchange, the friends and relatives of soldiers receive weekly five million letters post free. The Post Office has also, since August, 1914, distributed six- and a half million books or magazines. uduly enough, the quantity of mail matte- delivered to prisoners of war in Germany oi- England is about the same — wo hold 40,821 German sailors, soldiers and civilians, and Germany detains 25,621 soldiers, 10S9 sailors and 4000 civilians who are .British subjects. We send our people in Germany 58,000 letters a week, and deliver to Germans prisoners hero 55,000 foreign letters. Tho average sum per head remitted to prisoners is. 16s for Germans and 11s 5d for British. The Post Office was, of course, a fine recruiting ground, and it yielded 56,000 out of a possible 90,000 men of military age. The remainder who were fit for service attested under Lord Derby’s scheme, except 4600 men. who, -of course, now come under the Military Service Act. Up to .Tunc 3 the Post Office staff had lost 2226 killed in action, that is, about 4 per cent of the Lotal number serving in all capacities.

DILUTED FIGHTING SERVICES. Mr Fred Wile, tho author of “ Who’s Who in Hunland,” keeps a watchful eye upon the Gorman newspapers, and, in reference to the June casualty lists, writes in the “ Daily Mail ” : “ Striking proof of the havoc wrought in tho corps of ‘ active ’ Prussian officers is supplied by the now numerous losses of ‘ reserve ’ officers. They are a quite conspicuous feature of tho latest lists. Tho death notice columns of newspapers in cities like Hamburg, Frankfort* aud Berlin are croiUled with obituaries of lawyers, engineers, merchants, works superintendents and others who have recently fallen in action with the rank of * reserve officers.” Without disputing the facts of the case, wo may point out (says the “Broad Arrow”) that after nearly two years of war the principle of “ diluted labour ” must be applied in the fighting services, if nowhere else, and that all national armies are at this moment in the same dilemma; their trained officers in active units did their devoir at the outset in gaining time and postponing disaster, and those professional officers who remain fit for service to-day are needed for the superior direction and instruction of their successors in regimental work, and that is why their names do not figure in recent casualty lists. ADMIRAL CRADOCK. It was very fitting that the ceremony of unveiling tho memorial erected iii York Minster to the lato RearAdmiral Sir Christopher Cradock should take on a wider form than that of a tribute by his friends and Yorkshire neighbours (remarks the “Army and Navy Gazette "). Mr Balfour, who attended, as he said, as the representative of “ that groat Naval Service which never stood Higher either in the trust or in the affection of the people, or in the confidence which it inspires among our Allies,” delivered a most inspiring address, lofty in tone, and in every way worthy of the occasion. His summing up of the circumstances of the action off Coronel, and of the motives which animated Admiral Cradock in attacking a superior force, was an illuminating one, and by most people will have been received as very fair and impartial. Coming from such a quarter, it is the more valuable. At the same time thero is a good deal more to be said in regard to this battle when fuller information concerning the events and plans which led up to it is available. Epigrams are often misleading, and one statement of tho First Lord nas a disquieting ring “Thero is not one person whom I am now addressing,” lie said, “ who would not infinitely prefer a man who too littlo and dares too much to a man who dares too little and calculates too much.” Applying this dictum to naval warfare, we should say that neither of these men is to bo preferred to the' other, for neither would have the qualities essential to victory. Daring and calculation must go hand in hand. As has beru said of Nelson, he was rash at tim~-s, but he knew when to be rash and how to bo rash —his considered rashness was really the height of prudence. Had he not been constantly studying his enemy, he could never have delivered those brilliant and successful strokes which gained him immortal fame. The salient facts of Coronel are that Cradock, who was much weaker than his opponent and knew it, deliberately attacked, in the hope, no doubt, of crippling von Spec’s power for damage, even if lie could not defeat him. This decision to seek action at ail costs, moreover, was in accordance with the best traditions of tho Naval Service. HOW FORT VAUX FELL. Surrounded a s armies are to-day with every comfort and not a few luxuries—compared, of course, with the. armies of the nineteenth century—it is startling to hear that Die want of drinking water was one of tho causes of the fall of Fort Vans- Including 400 men who had taken refuge in the fort, 650 persons had to bo supplied daily, and nothing could be sent in from outside after June 2, when the Germans seized tho only route from the fort to the French lines. Ever since March about 8000 heavy shells a day had fallen in the vicinity, and Major Ravnall’s little force hold only the ruins of the original work. Tho enemy got on the higher ground, and once let down at flic end of a cord a basket of grenades When tho basket reached the level or tho windows of a building occupied by the garrison the Germans dropped into it a orenade with time fuse attached, swinging the basket into the building to explode inside. lo Major Rajnal one of the few courtesies wo have hoard of during the war was extended by lus captors, who added to their personal congratulations a formal presentation to Die Crown Prince.

GLASSES IX THE AH MY. •\ very interesting lecture was delivered by Dr Ernest- Clarke, at the Royal Institution, recently, on “Eyesight and tlie Mur.” He told us one reason why the "War Office would never have a spectacled soldier, and it was a good one. In the old days our small Expeditionary Force for the most part served oversea, and lost- or broken glasses could not easily be replaced. But good oculists were, available for the Army now, so that every military centre could have its oculist. The learned

doctor further said that the weaving of glasses being permitted a better choice of men was possible when the size of the Army was small, nnd when a large Army was required, as at present, numbers could bo obtained more easily than under the existing restrictions. The War Office was, therefore, advised to revise them. On tho effect of explosives on tho eyes the lecturer had much to say that was new as well as interesting. Ho gave a remarkable illustration of one point A soldier, while lying down in a dug-out in Gallipoli, was rendered unconscious by ft sandbag falling upon him. He suffered constantly afterwards with headache and giddiness, nn<j was unable to walk, stand, read or face the light. Soon after ho was given glasses for a slight astigmatism all his ailments began to disappear, and ho could -walk and read ar well as anyone. Evidently his nerves bad been affected by the fall of the sandbag upon him, and wearing glasses soothed them. Dr Clarke says that many soldiers and civilians who suffer from strain at this timo would be sensibly relieved by the same remedy. DEMANDS ON THE DOCTORS. As is well known, the Faculty have been hard hit by reason of the numbers they have 6uppliel to meet the evergrowing needs of the Army. Many are doing double woTk in the absence of partners gone off to one of the various fronts, and all are feeling tho pineli of the situation. Tt is not surprising therefore (says “Broad Arrow”), that a further call upon them to “ mobilise ’’ in aid of the R.A.M.C. has aroused some measure of protest. It will doubtless bo patriotically met, as every demand upon their services has been: but so far as figures can satisfactorily prove anything, the remonstrants present a case deserving of attention. Thero were apparently 15fl£) doctors _ in the R.A.M.C?., 11,000 civil practitioners are assisting them, and 4000 more are wanted. The total represents 16,500 required to attend upon 4,000,000 men The Huns manage to get along with 14,000 doctors for 11,000,000 men. Meanwhile the home population is 11.000,000; it yields an average of 500,000 casualties, and 15,000 doctors are left to cope with them. Which, sounds eloquent on the face of it. Alternative suggestions are accordingly made for a re-shuffling of the R.A.M.C. that should enable it to economise the diplomaed forces already at its command. They seem excellent; but unhappily trouble is imminent, and it is questionable how far they could be carried ofat in the face of enemy. SWISS WELCOME BRITISH PRISONERS. Not so long ago Mr Tennant as good as told tho House of Commons that our prisoners in Germany were properly fed. A. month later he had to apologise for his mistake. But a fact which was unknown to the British Under-Secre-tary of State for War appears to have been known to tho Swiss people, who have given a welcome to our . men on their way to Chateau d’Oex so enthusiastic that our Minister at Berne, although for twenty-eight years he has been ‘' present at every kind of func-

tion in half the capitals of Europe,” has never seen one like it. If they had been national heroes, instead of men in the most unfortunate position soldiers can find themselves, they could not have been g/veil a more triumphal progress. It was not ceremonial; therefore it waa not arranged. It was the spontaneous expression of a whole people’s sympathy. Its significance could not be mistaken, for the cheering began directly our men crossed the frontier, and so within hearing of the German sentries. To Switzerland, of the neutral Powers, then, must be given the credit of having made the first general demonstration against German, brutality. That it was also a’' demonstration in favour of the Allies few can doubt. But the dominant feeling was tho desire to welcome men who had, as one man put it, come out of hell. Nothing so vividly illustrates tho warmth of tho Swiss reception and tho horrors from which the prisoners have been rescued as the fact that many of them cried from emotion and others fainted. That the Hun may break, bub never bend, ouras. men received ‘fresh proof in a little incident which happened at Constance. With German cruelty, one hundred of them had been brought there only to be rejected. “On leaving to return to the prison camp they went away singing.”:.THE NAVAL BATTLE. An evening contemporary remarks that one thing has been definitely accomplished by tho despatch of Sir John Jellicoe—it has given the quietus to the name of “ Horn Reef.” We should hardly like to be bo 6ure about such a matter, < because names once used have a tendency to stick (says the “Army and Navy Gazette”). Moreover, if “Horn Reef” has received its - quietus, apd definitely at that, it is'difficult to discover what has taken its place. Sir John Jellicoe does not adopt any on« description beyond that contained in his 'opening sentence that the German High Sea Fleet was brought to action “ to the westward of the Jutland Bank, off the coast of Denmark.” In the appreciation by “a competent authority ” which was placed at the disposal of the Press, the action was referred to in one part as “the Battle off Jutland.” “The Times,” which is followed by many other journals, has apparently adopted the title of “ The Battle of Jutland Bank,” which does not seem to be any more appropriate than the original name adopted by our contemporary of “ the Battle of Horn Reef,” or that used by the Germans, “the Battle of the Skagger Rak.” In point of fact, a largo part of the battle seems to have been contested in the neighbourhood of the Little Fisher Bank, but it is conceivable that the authorities saw objections to tho adoption of this name in reference to the engagement. What the battle will be called in days to come it is useless to speculate now. The historian will probably recognise that, as we pointed out a few weeks back, there are reasons against calling it the Battle of Jutland, because Jutland has an eastern as well as a western seaboard and is a largo province, so that the description is not. very apt. If the Trafalgar precedent was followed, the action would bo called after a capo or other geographical point, but there is, of course, the difficulty that this fight covered such ,a, wide area. It seems, in fact, to have begun almost as near to the Naze, the southernmost point of Norway, as to the Jutland Bank. Probably, like many other encounter"-, it will be given various names. The last groat naval fight, it is to be remembered, although called in this country the Battle of Tsushima, is known to the victors as the Battle of the Sea of Japan. THE TWELFTH DIVISION. In the “Daily Telegraph” recently there was a line appreciation of the men of this division trom Die pen of ■Mr Philip Gibbs, who has given many graphic pictures of the war. Here, at last,-.is a man who ventures to sing the praises of English, not British, soldiers. , In doing honour to Scots, Irish, Welsh, Australasians, Canadians and Indians, the ’fact that it is the blood of England that has been poured out most upon Die battlefield of Flanders is, forgotten. The bulk of Dio Twelfth Division, somo of whose deeds Mr Gibbs relates, is of true English stock—stout yeoman lighters 1 from the homo counties, tough men from the north, and as gallant and sure as any lads from the west. “It was,” he' says, “the very ancestors of these men who fought with Harry at Agincourt, a few fields away from” where he wrote his tribute to tho fighting quality of their descendants. In a vivid little touch he shows that “ this was uot easy ‘ in tho new army* . . but very quickly they shaped into soldiers nnd hardened.” By September of last year, indeed, they wore considered good enough to put into one of the hottest parts of the line, relieving the cavalry and the Guards in the Chalk Pit by Locs. In December they moved on to Givenchy, and in February to the Ho--1 honzollorn Redoubt, where they have been-, on and off, ever sinco. The very names call up memories of somo of the , uost desperate fighDng of tho war. i Every inch of the ground has been held where weaker men would have given way, and every inch has been soaked again and again with good English blood. To realise the height to which the courage of English soldiers can go,' one should read Mr Gibbs’s article. For superhuman endurance, valour, cheeriness, coolness and steadiness it- would, for instance, 'in hard to boat the record of Corporal Cotter, of the Buffs, and a. man of Kent. In the Twelfth Division there are many such as he. “ They belong to the heart of Englandj the old Eng- . land, with its old fighting pride and fighting instincts, which somehow hav« not died, in spite of onr changes of thought and habit. They are still th< backbone of the armies which are Eng lish as well as British.”