THE MYSTERY GUN

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 9999, 17 June 1918, Page 3

THE MYSTERY GUN

Writing ot ibo long range 'bombardment of Paris in Mn.rcb last Max Pemberton says in the London “Despatch”—

Napoleon said that the progress of artillery was the progress of civilisation —but Napoleon did not live in Fans when it happened to be bombarded by “tho gun.” Had he been among us in this year of grace 191 S he might well have amended his estimate and spoken of the devil.

It is odd indeed how this mystery gun, which is supposed to be throwing its 9.5inoh shells upon the French capital front a distance of 70 miles, has captured the imagination of other cities. The interludes of Armageddon permit us to speak of little else. Like the man who was to bo hanged, wo spend tragic moments drawing caricatures of the judge.

There .are hours when one cannon means more to us than 50,000 dead upon the fields of Flanders. Unlike Rochefoucauld, we do not bear our neighbours’ misfortunes lightly, and at the back of it all there may be that fellow feeling which makes us wondrous kind. It is Paris to-day, but may not it bo London to-morrow? So tho timid man thinks, even if his neighbour do not share his thoughts.

This, however, is ot the future; and sanity and even moderate courage will have nothing to do with it. . Of all tho groat people Sir George Geen,hill speaks perhaps with the moat authoritative voice. He says that tho thing is quite simple, and he tolls ns of our own experiments in long range firing at Shoebnryness in the Jubilee year. We then attained a range of 12 miles with a gun elevated to an angle of 40dcg.; the shell's calibre was exactly that which tho Hun is now employing, and it weighed 2831 b. All thcso are highly technical matters, and I don’t suppose that Paris—dodging beneath eaves - to avoid the splinters—cares very much for ballistics. The-jex-pert is a poor consoler wben ho speaks to you in tho darkness of collars of a cannon which is <35 feet long and of a phell which has throe inches of vanadium Steel on the outside of it. Your main desire is to get out of the way while your airmen search tor the magic wood and your bombers prepare to destroy it. You keop your tail up and your head down, as an Englishman recently returned from Paris remarked to me. Assuredly Paris has been doing this. Her courage throughout has been worthy the traditions of her people. Paris was bombarded in the year 1870, ami there are those who say that the new visitation resembles the old in many particulars. All who have motored through Paris to Versailles will remember a shell stuck in the wall of a house there and kept in its place by an owner who treasures a precious relic. I doubt if materially these new 9.5-in. shells, with their 30lb of T.N.T., do much more damage to buildings than those which Bismarck desired to see hurled in abundance upon the city of tho Third Napoleon. Tho mischief of them 1s thoir uncertainty. How can you stroll down n boulevard unconcerned when any moment there may bo a crash and a flastt and dead upon tho pavements about you. Set your watch to the quarters if you will—yet there may bo lio friendly door open when the moment comes, and you wait and listen, and, pray God, you do not see.

Small wonder that Paris toot 24 hours to find herself, that thoro were excited groups in every cafe, crowds in the Underground, and such a crying of questions as never was heard. Men spoke to strangers in the streets and asked—What is it? A gun beyond the French linos) Impossible. An aeroplane, then I No, there wore no aeroplanes in the sky* Had some miracle happened? Was old Jules Vorno justified after all? Vast woqdor and amazement were tho first emotions. Then men went back to then work, saying, like Thackeray’s Tim ins of his wife’s party, "D n the gun.” And next day Pans was laughing again though twins had appeared and two cannon%wcre now at the business. Meanwhile, though a certain number ol people have left the city, Paris maintains her sangfroid. She has a new sensation, that is all. Soon she may be wearing steel helmets and carrying splinter-proof umbrellas. Stranger thing? have happened.