Nelson Evening Mail. SATURDAY, APRIL 3, 1909. WAR IN THE FUTURE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLIII, Issue XLIII, 3 April 1909, Page 2

Nelson Evening Mail. SATURDAY, APRIL 3, 1909. WAR IN THE FUTURE.

A MODERN "BATTLE OF DORKING."

SINCE "Tho Battle of Dorking" waa published many years ago many attempts have boen made iv Germany, Britain, tii-j United States, and France to fore-' '."fl.-i in _ romance tho probable course of the next great war. Tho object of thes. novels is to stimulate thought on a subject of 1h.3 utmost moment. Rut it is questionable whether a good deal of harm is not done by increasing local prejudices and stimulating international disrusi. In tho latest work of the kind, by Alau H. Burgoyne, a well-known writer ou military subjects, very little p?ffort is made to avoid btirring up such feelings, and it is difficult for anyono to read "The War Inevitable" without an increase of suspicion and animosity that" exist at present between many' Bri*ons and Germans. However, Mr Burgoyne is quite within his rights, as a Briton and a citizen, in striving to arouse his countrymen and their Government to a full sense of obe interna-

tional dangers by which they are surrounded, and though he may have erred in good taste, he does not pretend to handle his subject with kid gloves. . . • . .

For the purposes of the romance Mr Burgoyne imaginos a marriage between an English Princess and a young Prince belonging to the Prussian Koyal Family. The German Chancellor, Prince Buelow, who is mentioned by name, goes over to England to attend the wedding, nnil is jeered at by the London mob, whereupon he resolves to humiliate England in the dust, and, taking advantage of the illness of the German Emperor, devises a scheme for destroying the greater part of the British fleet by a torpedo attack while the ships are lying at anchor for a review off Portsmouth on the occasion of a visit from the Mikado , with a Japanese squadron. The ttck is successfully delivered, and the supremacy of the British navy destroyed at ono blow. Other Britisl. ships are hurried up from Gibraltar an.l elsewhere, and perform prodigious feats in attacking superior German forces, but an army of invasion Is landed at Worthing, and Portsmouth is captured by th* enemy. England obtains reinforcement* from her colonies and India, and eventually the foe is driven out by a mixed army of Japanese, Sikhs, and Goorkhas, and troops from the oversea dominions, acting in conjunction with the British military forces, Apparently the main purpose of the work ia to show that if a torpedo attack could be delivered successfully on the British battleship fleet while anchored for a review, the command of the sea would be lost to Britain, and that the horrors of invasion would follow inevitably. Mr Burgoyne does not take ono important factor into consideration, however, and that is the Naval Intelligence Department, whose work, under manoeuvres conditioas, at least, has been of the very best. Admiral von Tirpitz, the German Minister of Marine, is represented ac explaining to Prince von Buelow that the distance from Wilhelmshaven to Portsmouth is 440 nautical miles, which his flotilla ot 90 torpedo craft, escorted by two c rubers, would cover in 27i hours, They would leave Wilhelmshaven jusi afUi midnight, and deliver the attack at half-past 3 in the morning of the iollowiiiK day. Any British ships that they might meet during their clear day at, sea they would immediately sink. A contemporary, commenting on the supposed conditions here involved, says that the German plan sounds simple; but it takes no account of the huge daily traffic across the North Sea, an.l the wireless telegraph. From the novelist s po n of view, however, the account ol a Hett action between the Mediterranean squadron of six battleships, in command o Sir Percy Scott, and a German squadron of 15 battleships, I. ™ f written, and the description of the man"er In which the entire German torpedo flotilla is chased and wiped out ot existence by the British destroyers is a sop to the national vanity.. Mr Burgoyne's word-picture of an attack by British Dreadnoughts on G man ' battleships, acquired from Kussia by Germany just beto.o^ tie outbreak of hosl.luies, it a fair sample o hi* general style. Wo read - that when The' broadsides of the Dreadnoughts were fired "one hundred and thirty-two vast shells were can mi an awful ruin upon the two leading German ships. Of this number it has been expertly computed that at least 110 took effect on tho two m-sbcis. Their contour, a moment before clear against the dawning sky, Hod at a nod; a blurred hysteric rush of choking yellow vapour belching great gerbs of scarlet bloody tongues, groaning in travail as a mountain forge of Nature, rushed to the upper skies. Out of each a sweltering cauldron of boiling wated spread rain-wise with a fearful spurt. Below, the calm sea gurgled, sloughed, and flopped ; now roso .n goysers high as church-built spires, mountains of water, bubbling, churning, spluttering ; now fell again in ton weights, splashing the hidden decks, adding a watery inferno to a hell of ' fire, forcing new coils of stcnchful darting smoke far over the adjacent sea. Roar on roar in a sudden quick profusion came from the stricken masses ; 1 howling shrieks rose to God through the baneful fumes as a thousand suffering souls cursed out their lives to i n horror-struck Maker."

Tho foregoing is just "piffle/ and the attempt at lurid word-painting, with the use of coined words, mars the value of Mr Burgoyne's book. ThU |is a pity ; for Mr Burgoyne evidently | possesses a sound knowledge of naval matters, and he has some suggestive remarks to make about gunnery practice, mine laying, the u:-e of torpedoes in ujriexfxected emergencies, and other operations of modern naval warfare. His account of tho blocking of the Kiel Canal by n British naval officer is one of tho best things in the work, which, despite many a glaring fault, is a moderately valuable and certainly very timely contribution to "Dreadnought" literature at the present moment.