WARNING OF A RAID.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16032, 25 September 1915, Page 2 (Supplement)

WARNING OF A RAID.

PLOT IN ASIATIC TURRET, A plan* for an attack on the Suez Canal is said by the French Ministry of Marino to have been detected and thwarted. Announcement was made in the following statement :— On August 12, after warning had been given to the Governor of Jaffa and tiro* given for the evacuation of the vicinity, a French cruiser bombarded and destroyed the principal building of the shops of the German Wagner, which were making arms and munitions and constructing boats destined for an attack on the Suez Canal. The houses in the vicinity were not damaged. Jaffa, in Southern Palestine, Asiatic Turkey, is about 150 miles north-east of Port Said, at the Mediterranean end of the Suez Canal. In Jaffa if. a Urge foundry owned by Wagner Brothers. The French Marine Ministry's conlmunication leaves in doubt the nature of the expedition said to have been planned against the canal. It would be obviously impossible to construct at Jaffa a naval force of sufficient strength to cops with the warships of Great Britain and France in those waters, and it might be inferred that small vessels were being built for a raid, depending upon secrecy and speed for the success of the adventure. The Suez Canal was the object of attacks by the Turks earlier in the war. An army was sent to Egypt last winter, and in February there was some figtting near the canal. The main forces of the Turks, however, did not reach their goal.