ESTABLISHED 1866. The Marlborough Express. PUBLISHED, EVERY EVENING. SATURDAY, JUNE 30, 1917. WAR NOTES.

Marlborough Express, Volume LI, Issue 153, 30 June 1917, Page 4

ESTABLISHED 1866. The Marlborough Express. PUBLISHED, EVERY EVENING. SATURDAY, JUNE 30, 1917. WAR NOTES.

It is a dreary, disagreeable -story of gro3s incompetence and almost incre3ible carelessness and folly which is unfolded in the report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Mesopotamian campaign. It is"'a story of bungling-and blundering, all round: blundering ■by the Indian Executive, by the Tndian Commander-in-Ohief, blundering -by the commander in Mesopotamia and by the SurgeonGeneral of the ; Expedition. If the Gallipoli Commission's report was a sensational exposure, this of the Mesopotamiari Commission is jsven more so. The British public must be thoroughly disgusted, and what must our. Allies think of such a state of affairs as that which is now shown to have existed? In otden days men who had been. guilty of such-glaring incompetence and folly as that now proved against certain of the persons named in this report would have been shot. To-day such a drastic measure is, we suppose, impossible; but public opinion in England and India willsurely insist upon each and every one of tlio.se.responsible for the ghastly, the positively criminal negligence and bungling exposed in this reDort being dismissed with ignominy from the positions they have so unworthily occupied . As .an example of "how not,to d6,.'it, ?> ■'■■ of official Impertinence in excekis, the conduct of Sir Bpauchainp Duff. Commander-in-Chief in India, is surely without parallel in latter-day British military history.

! The submarine toll is still very heavy, but the latest figures show [ some -slight, improvement upon last i week's returns. The number of vessel? over 1600 tons which have been sunk by the enemy has decreased by six, but there is an increase of two in the number of vessels under that tonnage. The position is still very I serums,' /for even taking the average (tonnage (in the "over 1600 ton" olaps) at 2000 we have a total of 42,----000 tons v and the probabilities oxp that several".of the vessels destroyed v.eve of \x much larger tonnage than 2000. The enemy has found his most formidable %capon in the submarine, and we can qiiite credit the report that he is straining every nerve to increase the. output of his U-boats. That ■he is extending the sphere of submarine operations is shown by A/tierican reports which allude to German submarines being known to be on +he western side of the Atlantic. The United States Navy is now on its mettle to hunt out and destroy these pests, and we shall be curious to see whether Uncle Sam can deal with the mischief any better than Great Britain has been able to do.

"The loss of the splendid P. and O. linpr, the Mongolia, is attributed to her having struck a mine, "off Bombay, ;> says the renort. How did the mine -rot there? Probably, so it is assumed, it was laid by a "neutral vessel, if it were not blown north from the Indian Ocean by the monsoon. The laying of "mines by neutral vessels—the rumor goes that such vessels fly the Swedish flag—has long bc ; en suspected, and no doubt all such, vessels are now being carefully examined whenever they put into the ports of the Allied countries. As to what will happen if any neutral vessel is caught at this dastardly business we cannot say; but if the commanders get their deserts they shoiTld be hanged straight away at the yardarms of their ships. They are ten Lime* more deserving of death than are even the submarine pirates themselves. For whereas the latter are obeying their instructions from Berlin or Kiel, or wherever the German Admiralty^ has its headquarters, the nentral mine-layer is merely a ]

sordid^of 'motives: If Swedish subr jeets have really been playing this dirty and criminal game, their country * should be made to pay heavy damages after the war. The Swedish Government has, it is much to be feared, been strongly pro-German right through the war. The excuse for this is Sweden's fear of Russia and pympafhy with the Finns. But Sweden has no cause for any quarrel with Great Britain, with which State in the past she was on peculiarly friendly terms. The Swedish meichant "marine, so it is well known, has been treated with tspecial consideration by the British Admiralty, particularly in connection with the blockade, and it is therefore a peculiarly despicable thing if-Swedish vessels are being used for mine-lay-ing in seas traversed by British shipping, an.d far distant from European waters-/

Straws show how the wind is blowing. A few months ago Germany would have treated with the most scornful contempt any complaints from The Hague about the destruction of Dutch, shipping. Her action, therefore, in agreeing to cede a number of German ships now interned in the Dxitch East Indies to a value equivalent to that of the Dutch vessels torpedoed in the North Sea in February last clearly indicates that the^ once quite openly avowed policy, cf the . Pan-Germans and -Teuton "Chauvinists generally that Holland should be forced into the war on the German side or suffer the fate of Belgium has now been recognised .at Berlin as being an empty dream. A week or so ago we drew attention,to the fact that the Dutch gunners hiid fired on the Zeppolin which was flying across Dutch territory on her way home from England, where a sister ship had been left in flames! -¥p to the present we havft read of no German protest or bullying Note upon this episode, whereas a year 'or so ago' such an incident would have.been followed by the wildest, threats ; of invasion and punishment. It is evident that the time has arrived when the mailed fist has no terrors for Holland, and when Germany recognises that she -would be playing a very dangerous gariie were she Jx> force* the Dutch into the arms of the AlKes. . .

How the racial tro"hles in Austria, especially the rebellious temper displayed by the Czechs, affects the Austrian armies in the field is testified to by the reports which come from the Galician front of many sanguinary quarrels between, the Austrians (the Czech and Slav "Austrians") and the German troops which have been included in the Austrian forces for '^stiffening" purposes. The. Czechs and Slavs are, racially, first cousins, as it' were, of the Russians, and their sympathy with the latter and loathing for the German elements in the army.." in which, they have been compelled to fight has found 'exposition in conduct' which' cannot' fail to assist the Russians. We read, for. instance., of Czech and Slav /.soldiers . giving warning to the Russians when the Germans would be relieving them i the trenches, and' of their indicating the whereabouts of a-German battalion. Sooner or later these Czech and Slnv regiments who have been "pressed,'' as it were, into the Austrian service, may bring about such a state of affairs as must materially affect Austria's: position in the war, and force her to conclude a separate peace. . ..-.:.,' ■/ ,