NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16009, 30 August 1915, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

FRANCE AND THE WAR.

WnrriNr; in ; . tho newspaper Lo v Matin recently, the eminent Belgian publicist, % L. Dumont-Wildcn, while by no means under-estimating tho work of tho other allied Powers, launches out in vehement praise of France and of tho paramount share which France is taking in the war. " Wo must never forget it," ho declares solemnly. "At tho Marno it was sho who dealt the first, blow W German! military strength. Her purse is opened wide for her allies. Sho has given, without counting her men, her guns, her shells, * her money, her credit. . She is in sober truth the very head and front of the coalition, and her gigantic effort has been all the more admirable inasmuch as before the war the outsider, oven the friendly outsider, would have doubted her." The morale of Franco, a country whose frivolity, in certain countries, had passed into a proverb, is, ho continues, one of tho most striking features in the spectacle which France presents to the world. Paris, which yesterday seemed ( to have taken for • her motto, "Seriousness to-morrow!" now lives in an atmosphere of the most profound seriousness. But tho most astounding thing of all V tho way in which the French people has subordinated itself to discipline—a people which, before the war, was looked .upon as the most difficult of all peoples to govern. They, who have of all peoples alone made wars and revolution for tho sake of their ideas, have consented' to hold no ideas at all save those of the authorities which the fortuitousness of Parliamentary change has set over them. "This nation of ever-restless, over-un-satisfied citizens has become a nation of soldiers, resigned to the moral discipline, which was for them the hardest of all. France, dealt a more deadly blow than any other nation by the Avar—always ex cepting Belgium remains the very tower of strength to the entire coalition." ENEMY'S SIEGE GUNS. Besides their field armament proper, the Germans use a certain number of howitzers and mortars and long-range guns. The guns are 10cm. and 13cm. 3.937 in and 5.118 in in calibre, and their range is respectively 10km. and 13km., 6.2 and 8.1 miles. These have played an important part in the campaign. Tho. German weapons for high angle firing are, in the first place, a 15cm., 5.905 in, heavy howitzer, which corresponds to the French 155 mm., 6.102 in, quick-firing short gun, Eimailho pun, but is a much less efficient weapon than the French one, and, secondly, a 28cm., 11.024 in, howitzer, the projectile of which, weighing 340 kg., 7491b. tired at a maximum velocity of 340 m., 1115 ft, per second, can have a range of 10km., 6.2 miles. This is tho large-calibre arm which the Germans use the most, and the one which has caused the greatest amount of damage to fortified towns in the course of the present war. On the Austrian side, the only, interesting long-range gun is tho 10.5 cm., 4.134 in, heavy gun, which fires a projectile weigh-; ing 18kg., 39.71b, at a range up to 12.5 km., 7.75 miles. The enemy have, moreover, used against forts special guns which have rendered them good • service. These are the German 42cm., 16.536 in, mortar arid 381 mm., loin, gun, and the Austrian 30.5 cm., 12in, gun. The 42cm. mortar fires a shell of 950 kg., 20941b, at a range of about 13km., 8.1 miles. It can only be transported and hauled on a railway track of normal gauge, and'for this 'purpose it is mounted on a.. platform : which 'rests on two ibogie; trucks, each truck being carried on six wheels. The. 381 mm. 'gun,, styled the " Dunkirk" gun, owing to its having been fired several times on that town from a distanco of 38km., 23.7 miles, is a naval gun, the mounting of which has been designed to allow an angle of elevation of over 40dflg, The projectile weighs 760kg.,j 16751b, the powder charge weighs 315 kg., 6941b, and the muzzle velocity is 940 m., 3084 ft, per second. This gun, which cannot fire morethan about 100 rounds in all, has had so far a moral rather than a destructive effect. A weapon which has played a much more important role, and has shared with the 28cm. howitzer tho greater part in. the destruction of forts, is the Austrian 30.5 cm., 12ih, automobile mortar, 1911 pattern. This gun can fire at a range of 9.6 km., 5.95 miles, a projectile weighing approximately 400 kg., 8811b. It fires with a sufficient degree of precision about 10 rounds per . hour. Its use is greatly facilitated by the fact that it forms, with its whole equipment fa complete traction get for transit on roadways. ... > "'

PROFITS OF SEA POWER

Tho control of tho sea which the British Navy lis exercising, 'in association with the French fleet, is proving a matter of considerable profit to some people.. An interesting sidelight "in the result produced in the Atlantic is recorded in the Canadian Gazette. Any day in the harbour of St. John, New Brunswick, it/is stated, may bo seen a number of the old square-rigged Canadian sailing vessels loading up for England. These relics of tho nautical past aro helping to fill tho gap made by "orders of the Admiralty." And there is money in tho business. British importers of Canadian timber, for instance, havo now to pay about £6 10s per standard of 165 cubic feet for freight from St. John to Old Country ports. Ono old vessel sold not long ago for £1600. In ono trip alone this ship is said to have cleaved £2400 profit, An iron sailing vessel that cost £5000 is said to havo made £7000 on its first trip across the Atlantic.

WAll TIME COOKERY

Special regulations for grants in aid ol instruction for housewives in economical cookery with special regard to the abnormal conditions arising out of the war havo been issued by the English Board of Education. The regulations sot forth that the instruction, which should throughout be as practical as possible, may deal with all or any of the following topics, and such other topics concerned with the economical provision of food in war time as circumstances may suggest:—1. The principal kinds of nourishing foods which may bo employed to supplement tho use of 'meat and fish. 2. The kinds of food specially suitable for children. 3. _ Tho employment of economical methods in the purchase, preparation, and cooking of meat, fish, and other nourishing foods. 4. The use of simple cooking equipment. apparatus, and utensils, with special regard to economy in the uso of fuel. Tho board will take instruction given under these regulations in a school receiving an inclusive annual grant into account in assessing the amount of that grant-

APPOINTMENT FORME. CHURCHILL

Mr. Churchill has, according to a London newspaper, been given tho nominal and unofficial post of Minister of Aviation. Ho hap, it is paid, been deputed by the Cabinet to euporvieo the organisation and development of the two wings of the Royal Flying Corps, and, as far as possible _ and expedient, to co-ordinate tho duties of the two separate establishments. Li this domain the cx-Firet Lord of tho Admiralty will b' e ' in his clement, for, whatever may have, been his other shortcomings, it cannot bo denied' that ho has rendered: splendid servico to 'the naval I wmg of the lloyal Flying Corns,