THE ZEPPELIN RAIDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16010, 31 August 1915, Page 8

THE ZEPPELIN RAIDS.

BRUTAL BUT INEFFECTIVE.

REASON FOR SILENCE. XO INFORMATION FOR ENEMY. London, \ugust 29. A correspondent wrote to Mr. A. J. Balfour, First Lord of the Admiralty, asking why the British reports of German air raids were so meagre, while the German narratives of the same events were rich in lurid details. The correspondent asserted that the German stories were widely believed by neutral nations, while the reticence of the censored reports in the British press caused an unpleasant suspicion that the truth was deliberately hidden from a nervous public. -.. Mr. Balfour, in his reply, quotes from the Admiralty's announcement of the air raid on the 9th of thus month, and compares it with the story appearing in the Deutsch Tages Zeitung, which claimed that extensive damage had Veen done to docks in the Thames and other places. " One story or the other is true," says Mr. Balfour, " You ask why not explain the discrepancy and tell the world where the Germans distort the facts. The reason is simple. The Zeppelins attack in the night time, when the landmarks are elusive and navigation is difficult. Errors are inevitable, and they are sometimes of surprising magnitude. The Germans constantly assert, and may sometimes believe, that they dropped bombs on places they never approached. Why make * their future voyages easier by explaining their blunders? Since their errors are our gain, why dissipate them? Let us learn what we can from the enemy .and teach him only what we must. This is the reticence of the judicious." It may still be asked whether this reticence is not merely used to embarrass the Germans, but also to unduly reassure the British. What have the Zeppelins done How ought we rate them as weapons of attack What can they do I cannot prophesy as to the future method of warfare, still in its infancy, but can say something of the past results. It is unhappily certain that they have caused much suffering to many innocent people, but even this result, with all its tragedy, has been magnified out of all proportion by' ill-informed rumour. The Home Office states that for the past year 71 adult civilians and 18 children were killed, and 189 adult civilians and 31 children injured. "Judged by numbers, the cumulative result of many successive crimes does not equal the single effort against the Lusitania. when a submarine, to the unconcealed pride of Germany and the horror of the rest of the world, sent 1198 unoffending civilians to the bottom. Yet the result of the air raids is bad enough, and we may well ask, what military advantage has been gained at the cost of so much innocent blood? No joldier or sailor has been killed or wounded, and only onro was damage inflicted which by any stretch of language could be described as of the smallest military importance. The Zeppelin raid; nave been brutal, and so far have not been effective, and have served no hostile purpose, moral or material.