THINGS IN GENERAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16011, 1 September 1915, Page 10

THINGS IN GENERAL.

THE UNITED STATES NAVY. This tendency, which has become pronounced of late, "of speaking slightingly of the American -Navy, is one. that is liable to lead the man in the street into erroneous ways of thought. It is difficult to estimate the fighting value of the navy of the United States, for it has had only one experience of modern war. That was in the war against Spain in 1898. and at iSantiae© the -gunnery of the fleet was appallingly inefficient, yet it is doubtful -whether the gunners of any other navy, had they been tested at that date, would have done any better. As a matter of fact, the gunners of the British Navy [wera not tested at sea ; they were tested M-'tiea the Powerful's 4,7's were sent to defend Ladysmith in the Boer war. As all the world knows, it was on the China Station, and after the Boer war that Sir Percy Scott, still in command of the Powerful, worked out with his torpedolieutenant, the late Captain Frederick ' 'gilvy, the mechanical device# for training men to keep their guns steadily '.aid v Li] a the ship was rolling. Lieutenant Sims, of the American Navy, was on the China Station at the time, and a friendship sprang up between him ami Sir Percy Scott. A mutual interest in the problem of gun-laying may have led to an exchange tit" opinion. At. any rate, it was not long before the skill of the United States gunners 'was reported to be quite equal to that ot the British. The two navies have kept step in both gun-laying and tire • o-itiol. ana it is quite possible that there is not a great deal to choose between iliem. THE PERIODIC SUBMARINE.

A noticeable feature of the Ori man j Rubin campaign has been 'he manner j in which it has been conducted as regard? frequency. For a short period of time, great activity has been shown, then would come a lull, during which no ships would be interfered with. It has been suggested that these pauses have been due to the submarines being recalled to till up with stores, fuel and torpedoes. But if this were so, there would be no need to recall < ail the boats at one time. It a special i effort had been made, as in the case of ' the Lusitania. to capture a particular j snip, the more submarines employed the : cotter. But if it is simply a question of | running amok, the submarines can work ! totter singly. Another reason offered is 1 That the submarines have beer, recalled to J discharge their true naval duties, which 1 is to attack the units of the British battle- i licet, and to protect, their own fleet in its occasional parades in the North Sea. In 1 going into the North Sea, the Geuuan fleet > takes a spoiling 'hanee raid it would not : do this were it not guarded by minefields. ! Zeppelins, destroyers and submarines, j Possibly the pauses in the submarines' j activity is due o the -diplomatists at Her- ; lin holding the sailors back while they | endeavour to make use of the terror « hicii j neutrals are, by the Germans, believed ' to suffer from, after each display of Hun- j nish fiightfuluuss. Practically no ship ; has been attacked in the English Channel : that - is between' a line drawn from \ Portland to the Channel Islands and the west of the Sliuits of Doversince the second week iu April. In this limited area, therefore, the. defensive measures

taken by the Admiralty seem to have been perfectly successful- Just what these measures are cannot be stated but the 51]ipotency of the submarine was brought homo during the bombardment r.i ,he Belgian seaboard when first occupied by the Germans. Nome of the oldest ships of the British Navy were delegated to this duty yet, despite their slowness, not One foil a victim to the German submarines which swarmed in the vicinity. Should details of the manner in which

the submarines' work was checked be .vouchsafed - after ' the war. a wonderful story of ingenuity and fertility in invention will be enfolded. It is the perfection of these devices which induced Mr. Churchill to remark that the submarine menace had been fixed within definite limits.

A GERMAN PLAGIARIST. j , Tho German people have become reowned as imitators and plagiarists of the ideas of inen o£ other countries. But if j a story •which is current in London is i true, the high-water mark of cool, insolent plagiarism has been reached by no less an eminent person than Ernst Lissauer. the author of the famous Hymn of Hate. The point raised is that he has not only set the Prussians singing an old song, but one •which formerly indicted themselves. The Hymn of Hate is nothing but a hold re-using of a song-, composed 70 years ago j by Georg Herwegh, a stubborn Geuian revolutionary, who addressed it to Prussia j and the Prussian tyranny of 1841. In its j original form one' line read,. " We have ;■ only one common foe —Prussia- " Lissauer i merely substituted England for Prussia, j and there you are— first-class Hymn of j Hate, made in Germany, and ready for j use, -whilo its composer proudly wears the ! Iron Cross for his cleverness, and has his | " poem" printed in the German school ; books. ! ~ i SAVING WAR HORSES j I Of the unexpected, and unprecedented j revelations which the world war has | brought forth, none is more arresting than j the work carried 011 by the Royal \ eterin- j arv Corps, with the assistance of tin* Royal 1 Society for the Prevention of Crueltv to ' Animals, in -;t\ ing horses wounded or taken sick in the war and" in relieving their sufferings- No less than 1,000 horses have passed through their hands since the battle of the Marne, and of these 47,000 have been sent back to rejoin the forces, while 13,000 more will soon be ready to foe released from hospital. Only,a soldier, ■who knows how recklessly horses have been wasted in previous wars, can see the extraordinary saving shown by these figures. Alter the horses have been treated and rested on the con\alescent fft'.ms, which sti'ctcli for about- 20- miles in a beautiful French countryside, it is difficult to realise that they have been ill. Some of the town horses, when first turned out in the paddocks of the convalescent farms, hardly know what to make of it: and some of the Indian horses have to become used to it before they will eat. la the hospitals there are medical wards and surgical wards, operating theatres, pharmacies, and isolation wards. Each ! ward takes 50 horses. 'Hie trains i ■which go to the fighting line with ammunition and fodder bring I 250 sick horses back. Many marvel- I lous cures have been effected and wonder- ! ful operations carried out. The operating ! theatres have floors whiih are covered -with bags stuffed with hay. over which sailcloth is laid. The horse is led in. the anassthetic is given, and the animal -ink* quietly down. Local anesthetics are also used in subsequent dressings, if thev ire painful. The Army Veterinary Corns lias done wonders since the w al began, and feM> Wy justified the privileges given to Jt by the Army Council

INDUSTRIAL SERVICE CORPS. ] Lord Derby's khaki battalion of workers has been called the Dock Battalion, Liverpool Regiment The men are attested exactly as are regular soldiers, and are subject to the same discipline if they disobey orders. They must not smoke or drink during working hours. At the same time every man must bo a member of the National Cnion of Dock Labourers, so that the organisation does not in any sense try to supplant legitimate labour or to beat down wages. A company sergeant receives 4s a day, corporals Is Sd. and privates Is- In addition. each man is guaranteed a minimum wage of £2 2s, including his pay for work done. If he is able to earn more it is paid in full. One of the chief tasks of the corps is the loading and unloading of meat-ships. This entails heavy bursts of work, and it is difficult to avoid long hours, night shifts, and Saturday afternoon and Sunday labour. Otherwise every effort is being made to regulate the hours. The men wear uniforms. For parade purposes they are dressed as soldiers. But they have an easy fitting dungaree for use in working hours. They are bound by oath to obey the orders of all official rallies. Also, they salute officers of commissioned rank. When the battalion began operations it Humbertci 550 men. That number has since been doubled. Various shipping lines are forming their own companies of men, and the dock world of Liverpool is rapidly approximating to the guild system of the Middle Ages, whereby both masters mi men were members of the same industrial fiatemitv. The methods of worK are orderly, the men working in sections and platoons under sergeants r.nd corporals. Men arc liable to be put to work either as pollers or as shipmen. as convenience demands, and they have to parade when required. All this involves a degree of self-sacrifice on the part of the men. But experience has proved that the status of i; private in a King's uniform, with trade union rates of pay, is agreeable to the labourer. —THE General.