"THE LANTERNS DIMLY BURNING.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16273, 5 January 1915, Page 6

"THE LANTERNS DIMLY BURNING.

FUNERAL WHILE THE GUNS ROARED. A distinguished ouicw <uid personal friend of the UiAj Major-general Jhaimlt/ou, in a letter home, doscriDcs now tho gulUHt otQcer met lihs death. iho major-general svas standing with a group 01 uuiei-s in a covered place when a snoa Durst aDout 100 yards oil, and he was tut 011 the temple by a budet u,nd killed on the spot. i\o one else was touched. "It was a line death,' n„us tile writer, "but I know how he wou.d ieei'tiiat lie was taken before Jais work was done. He was buried at night. It was a real soldier s iuneraL I shall never forget it xUI day we could not get near the place where he was lying owing to heavy sued lire, but at dusk we went out and carried him to a little church new by, and buried .him there. "Just as we got there the .attack began violently, 90 that wo could not liear the chaplain's voice for musketry and pom-pom lire close by. Flashes from the guns lit us up now and then, but there was no other light than a tiny torch for the parson to see to read by. lie was doing so splendidly that it was cruel luok that he should have been the one taken out of the group." This was the gallant major's military funeral. The body was subsequently brought over to Folkestone in charge of a guard of the London fc'eottish, and it was quietly interred at St. Martin's Church, Chcriton. The service was attended by his sister, the Dowager Lady AJlendalo, his brothers. Colonel Gilbert Hamilton and General Sir Bruce Hamilton, also by Colonel and Mrs H 13. Hamilton, and other members of the family. 'i hn grave was lined with moss, and there was a wealth of flowers. Many friends, incircling Earl Kitchener, sent wreaths. It was the special wish of Major-general Hamilton that the service should be simple, and without conventionality or gloom, and this wish was faithfully carried "cut. The grave is in a beautiful situation in the churchyard of the interesting old church, which looks down a glen over the Channel to the French coast beyond. Major-general Hamilton had seen fightin" in Burma, on the Nile, and iSouth Africa before the present campaign. Ho was military secretary to Viscount Kitchener in India, and was A.D.C. to Kinjr Kdivard. He was born in 1861. WAR LITERATURE. Wo have to acknowledge receipt of the following publications:— "Tho War: Its Causes and Its Message." Speeches delivered by the Prime Minister, August-October, 1914. London: Methveii and; Co. {3d net.}. "Tho Child's A.BC of the War," by Geoffrey Whitworth and Stanley North. 1/ondon: George Allen and IJnwin (cloth 2s, paper Is). "Active Service: The Share of the Non-C-om-batant," by W. R, Maltby. London: Humphrey Milford (2d). " The Decisive Hour: Is It Lost?" by J. H. Oldham, M.A. London: Humphrey Milford (2d). " Homo Life in Germany," by Mrs Alfred Sidgwick. Loixlon: Methven and Co (Is net). "Prize Court Practice and Procedure." b , R. J. Wickham Hxird. LL.B. London: Kirinsrham Wilson (Is 6d net). ■'The Kaiser's War," by Austin Harrison, willi an introduction bv Frederic Harrison. London: George Allen and Umvin (2s net). " Germany and tho Germans," by Prico Collier. I/ondon: Duckworth and Co. (2s net). We have received also, from Messrs Jarrold and Sons, the seo.rmd and third series of " Punch " wa.r cartonn post-cards and a booklet of marching songs for soldiers, set to -well-known air*.

ENGLAND AND THE WORLD WAR. By TitE lUv. \V. Sladk. (Specially written for the Otago Daily Times.) Tho stupendous conflagration which has swept over ICurope has been long foretold. Given a vast collection of highly combustible materials ami certain MX'kUwj ix-ople throwing tiro almut, no prophetic gilt is needed to foresee a great explosion. Wo knew it would come, few perJwps expected actually to set: it, aotaialiy to live and take aoiiiii share in the biggest crisis tin: world has ever seen. In the business of collecting the inflammabilities the chief agent has been Germany, and her hand set lire to the mass. She is probably sorry now, because the explosion has not pulverised Europe to the. extent that was exjiected. Indeed, up to date, tho greatest sufferer ha.-> been Germany. Think of it. A million and a-half of hor soldiers hois dc combat and ovorsea trade worth £700,000,000 per annum completely paralysed, and all her armies have acomplished has been the overrunning of little Belgium ami the destruction of a few cathedrals. And at this niomont her beat troops are being held as in a vice by tho Allies in Western Europe, while the Russians threaten the Prussian frontiers in the East. Into a conflict for world empire, including' the sovereignty of the seas, Great Britain had no choice but bo enter. The mask is off now; not France, not Russia, was the ultimate aim of Germany, but Britain, the proud mistress of tho seas. To humble her, wrest the trident from her hai-ds, to plant the flag of Germany in Egypt, India, Australia, Now Zealand, South Africa, these and a few others have been tho dreams of German ambition. There is no room to doubt that too much indulgence in die dream has made the Kaiser mad. The total obsession of the mind by one idea has often led to great crimes the perpetration of which has been marked by stupid blunders arising from the obfuscation of judgment caused by the obsession. Tho miscalculations of German statesmen, the amazing blunders of their diplomacy, show how the idea of securing world emp're by a rapid "tour de force ' occupied so much space in their minds that saner thoughtj had no room to act. But Great Britain, the mother of nations, threatened with destruction as a great Power, forced into a life and death struggle for which she had not really prepared, bocause in her easy going way she refused to road aright tho signs of the times, how has she comported herself during the hundred days of the war? It cannat be denied that at the first staggering news thai the stupendous stuggle had begun there was something much akin to panic, but moro the panic of surprise than fear. Nobody expected it except the few in high places, who knew how Germany waa bent on war. In July, and till the first days of August, all England was chiefly concerned in arranging where to spend the great August Bank Holiday, the greatest summer festival of tho year. From tho early days of spring all the newspapers were full of reports of polo contests, golf and cricket matches, tennis tournaments, race meetings, and the nightly entertainments of high society. One got the impression that sport had become tho principal occupation of England, that work and pleasure had changed places, pleasure filling up the hours and work the minutes of life. And sud denly, without warning, the war tempest broke over the world ! It seemed like a horriblo nightmare at first. People could not realise that the oft predicted Armageddon was upon them. The confusion into which the financial world was thrown increased the panic. The Germans had man • aged to draw fifty millions of gold out of England, leaving unmarketable stock in brokers' hands. The means taken to prevent the withdrawal of gold from England added to tho fears of the uninformed multitude. The rasing of the bank rate from 4 to 8 per cent., and then to 10 per cent., the closing of tho Stock Exchange, and the sudden scarcity of gold caused great alarm. Food was going to be scarce. Such daily necessaries as flour and sugar were eoon to be unbuyahle. Some strange incidents were witnessed. Well-to-do people were noticed going round tho grocers' shops buying at each 2lb of sugar, the maximum quantity sold to one customer in those early days, and swell motor cars carried home the sack of flour hastily secured in view of the threatened scarcity.

But the panic soon passed. It was more want of thought than real fear. The Government's wise action in preventing tho cornering of foodstuffs, in buying the whole output of several large sugar-producing countries, and its guarantee of marine insurances restored confidence. Now three months after the war began foodstuffs are little dearer than during peaoe. and the Englishman sits down to his breakfast— bacon and eggs, toast and ooffee—with as much complacency as ever, happy in tho knowledge that the German Grand Fleet is cultivating barnacles in tho Kiel Canal, varied by occasional excursions to the Baltic. Slince then the attitude of England has been marked by stoical calm. Of the final result John Bull has no shadow of doubt. The enemy's great efforts have failed, his plan of rapid advances and smashing victories has gone to pieces. His supposed invincib ! : ty has been rudely dispelled, and meanwhile the imperturable Mr Bull is collecting his vast resources in men and money to make the coming defeat final and complete. It is wonderful to watch the quiet fortitude with which the country hears of reverses. The Amphion strikes a mine and sinks off Harwich; three large cruisers are torpedoed off the coast of Holland; a couple of gunboats arc sunk in the Downs; two armoured cruisers are outclassed and sunk off Chili, but with the remark that "it can make no difference to the naval situation" or "they were old boats within measurable distance of being scrapped," the English public quietly continues the work of the day.

I happened to arrive in Yarmouth on the morning of the raid by German cruisers, described by German newspapers as the masterstroke of the bombardment of the English coast which filled England with dread and sent people sourrying inland for safety. The fact was that these English people hurried down to tho shore without waiting to dross fully that they might watch the shells buret in midair, and the same afternoon the jetties of Yarmouth were crowded with men, women, and children placidly fishing for whiting as if there were no such thing as a German cruiser. So, too, while London, according to the German press, is so afraid of raids that people are leaving the metropolis in shoals, the street® are as full as ever, and business proceeds in the normal way, the chief grumble being that so many motor 'buses have been commandeered for the front that it is not as easy as it was to get homo, nor possible to read the evening papers on tho way because the lights have been reduced in brilliancy and number. But if John_ Bull kecp6 calm in ihis stupendous crisis his heart remains as big as ever, and his generosity more lavish. Scores of thousands of Belgians aro homoless and destitute. " Come over here," 6ays John Bull, "I will give you homos and the" necessaries of life," and though the calls on his puree for his own noedy people are endless, he can spare many thousands of pounds for the distressed victims of tho Kaiser's brutality. The outflow of generosity is most impressive. _ The responses to the great funds for relief have risen to millions of pounds, but these represent only a part of the people's offerings. In every home wives and daughters aro knitting day after day to provide soldiers and sailors with woollen shirts, body belts, mufflers, and helmets for the cold weather. All tho larger churches have become responsible for maintaining refugee Belgian families. Many families are opening their homes to convalesoent wounded soldiers, British and Belgian. In some instances motor cars have been sold and luxuries dispensed with, tho money thus saved being sent to relief funds.

War in itsolf may be, and undoubtedly is. a hellish thing, justifying the dictum of an eminent Frenchman that "the man who caused this war lias the heart of a devil," but it is bringing out the finest qualities of the English people. For the feathered game, with which England abounds, this is almost a close season. Grouse, partridges. and pheasants may be seen from the trains feeding in unwonted immunity from danger, because the scions of noble and genteel families are at the front fighting with their less privileged brothers from factory and shops for the honour of England. With them, too, they suffer and die Most of the great families have already boen plunged into mourning. The King has lost a cousin in Prince Maurice of Battenburg; the Duke of Devonshire, the Duke of Richmond and Gordon, the Marquis of Lansdowno, the Earl of Cadogan, and many of equal rank though less famous, have lost brothers or sons; from palace to cottage precious lives have gone to an extent hitherto unknown in the annals of the United Kingdom. The. loss of officers continues to be out of all proportion to the losses of rank and file, which may be accounted for by the enemy's barbarous practise of appointing sharp-shooters to pick off the officers first. Bur, Englishmen road the long lists of the dead with grim equanimity, firm in their resolve to spend

Uie last life unrl the last shilling to prevent the enemy's oft-expressed purpose of nuking Kngland a German province. J'he price will he very heavy. We arc (at till.' Mine of writing) old) in the lifteelil.h week of the war, ami ainiwly all the hospitals are crowded with wournkxl; lurgi" pnvate mansions, freely I'-rri li.v tli' ir owners, are lull, and even Sunday uchool.i have been coniniumleenxl fur less serious en.-.i ■■■>. '!.<> quote from iVlr Lloyd G coi-go's lamous speech, England is indeed being scourged from the low lands of plea-sure, self-indul-gence, and luxury up So lite Mnn.ng liciglus of self-sacrifice. Sol yet, however, has the whole nation grasped the full meaning of tho situation, and much indignation is felt that young athletic null should devote their energies to foot,ball, while thousands of hardy spectators look on. It is, indeed, nothing short of shameful that, while our soldiers aro spending days and nights up to their knees ui water in the trenches and our sailors keep watch shivering, in the cold of North .Sea blizzards, Uie loofcb.ill associations persists in carrying out their programmes. The smug complacency of tii" the nation which led it to ignore tho warnings sounded out by Lord Roberts and others iin.s found the country ill-prepared for a great Continental war. Jf compulsory military training, with or without voluntary enlistment for scrvioe had been in force during tho last five years it is believed Germany would have hesitated to make war, or if she had dared to challenge Europe, a million British soldiers, ready for immediate action, would have seen both Franco and Belgium olear of the invader,and Germany now hard pressed on the Rhine.

As it is, Great Britain has had to enlist men while battles are raging and translorm tho rawest of raw materials into good soldiers, while the fate of nations has hung in the balanoe. In view of what is happening now somo of the anti-military resolutions of certain public bodies make strange reading. Just a week before the war storm broke the Wesley an Conference at Leeds passed, in its closing hours (always a dangerous time in such assemblies), a resolution solemnly advising its people to regard with distrust persons who were advocating an increase of armament. Most of those who voted for that resolution have since been very thankful that tho Government commandeered tho two super-Drcadnoughta which had just been completed for foreign Governments, and are watching with anxfous interest the progress of recruiting for the army; even the frequent booming of big guns being tested at Woolwich is musio in their ears. Of the final victorv of the Allies nobody has any doubt. All German . plans have failed, all her calculations have been falsified. The smashing victory over France, the rapid march on and capture of Paris, the rapid backward march to meet the Russian hosts, whose mobilisation was to be too slow to exert influence on the western campaign ; England taken by surprise, her ; fleet not mobilised, her shores attacked, and her mercantile marine ignobly hiding in neutral ports—not a single item of tho great scheme has been carried out. What we see ;s the German army unable to advance in France, and, it is believed, preparing lines of retreat; tho combined German and Austrian armies opposed by victorious Russians; the grand German fleet bottled up in Kiel; great German liners eating up their value in harbour dues in New York, and the German mercantile fleet swept of? the sea; and Great Britain preparing 2,000,000 of men to assist in the march to Berlin. The German gambler made his great throw and lost.

FINE STORY OF BRITISH PLUCK.

MERCHANT LINER AND GERMAN CRUISER.

An extraordinary story of British pluck and resource in difficult and dangerous circumstances wiis revealed on November 20, in a letter from the British Consul-general at Rio de Janeiro to Sir Edward Grey, which was sent to the London newspapers for publication by the Secretary of the Admiralty, together with a letter in which the Board of Admiralty commended tho conduct of a gallant merchant skipper—Captain Douglas Reid Kinneir—to the owners of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company's steamship Ortega, which he saved from capture by a German cruiser off the southern coast of South America. The letter is as follows:—

"British Consulate-general,

"Rio .de Janeiro, October 3, 1914,

"Sir, —The Pacific Steam Navigation Company's steamship Ortega arrived at Rio do Janeiro upon Octbbcr 1, The master, Douglas Reid Kinneir, in reply to my inquiry as to whether he had anything in particular to report, with respect to his voyage from Valparaiso, modestly gave me the following facts: — The Ortega sailed from Valparaiso with some 300 French reservists on board. When she had arrived close to the western entrance of the Straits of Magellan, a German cruiser of tho Dresden class suddenly appeared, and gave chase. Be it remarked that the normal speed of the Ortega is only some 14 knots per hour, whereas the speed of tho German cruiser was at least 21 knots per hour. Under those circumstances, the master of the Ortega took an heroic resolve. Ho called for volunteers to assist in stoking his vessel; that appeal met with hearty response; firemen, engineers, and volunteers, stripped to the waist, set to work with a will, and the master assured me that they actually succeeded in whacking the old ship (she was built in 1906) up to a good 18 knots.

The master headed his ehrp straight for the entrance of a passage known as Nelson's Strait, and he made for the Strait at full speed, hotly pursued by the German cruiser, which kept firing at him with two heavy bow guns. Luckily, none of the shots took effect, and the Ortega eucceedcd in entering Nelson's Strait, where the German cruiser did not dare to follow her. In order to realise the hardihood of this action upon tho part of the master of the Ortega, it must be remembered that Nelson's Sftrait is entirely uncharted, and that tho narrow, tortuous passage in question constitutes a veritable nightmare for navigators, bristling as it does with reefs and pinnacle rocks, swept by fierce currents and tide-rips, and with the cliffs on either side sheer-to, without any anchorage. I can speak from personal experience as to the terrifying nature of the navigation of Nelson's Strait, having once passed through it many years ago in a small sealing schooner.

Ho xever, the master of the Ortega managed to get his vessel safely through this dangerous passage, employing the device of sending boats ahead to sound every yard of the passage. Eventually, by a miracle of luck and good seamanship, ho worked hie way into Smyth's Channel without having sustained even a scratch to his plates, and finally brought his vessel to this port. When it is remembered tWt, as already stated, Nelson's Strait is absolutely uncharted, and that never before h-ad a vessel of any size attempted that most perilous passage, it will, I think, be admitted tliat the captain's action in taking an 800!}-ton steamer safely through that passage constitutes a most notable feat of pluck and skilful seamanship; and it is reassuring to know that the old spirit of daring and resourco is still alive in our mercantile marine. I have no doubt that Captain Douglas Reid Kinnoir's services will be fcdly appreciated. not only by the directors of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, for having thus saved the Ortega from capture by the enemy, but also by the French Government:, for having saved from capture the 300 French Reservists who happened to bo on board his vessel. (Signed) O'Sdlltvan* Beare, His Britannic Majesty's Consul. HFN KNIGHTLINESS. General Leman, the heroic defender of Liege, now a prisoner of war in the citadel of Magdeburg, having sought, permission to have his daughter keep him * company in captivity, has (Mr F. VV. Wale writes in the Daily Mail) received the following reply from tho German War Office:— "It is in keeping with the knightly traditions of the German Army to honour the gallant foe end to ameliorate the fate of imprisonment as far as possible. Under ordinary circumstances the War Office would be delighted to make an exception from the rules in the case of the commandant of Liege, and to accede to his request. If, however, this cannot be. General Leman may ascribe it singly and alone to the eonduct of his countrymen and their Allies. The Belgian population ha:; not only been guilty in numerous cases of misdeeds and oruelt:es against defenceless German wounded, in a manner which has hitherto not seemed possible among European nations, but the testimony of unprejudiced persons has also established unmistakably t-.hn.t- the treatment, of German prisoners, especially wounded, in Belgium and France has at many places not only been in violation of international agreements, but an outrage to every human susceptibility. As tho just- feelings of the German people, in the light of these facts, would be offended if any sort of concession were made to prisoners of war, the requested permission cannot be granted." A homily on th n sanctity of " international agreements." addressed to th" defender of Liege bv the Scrap of Paper Government., is, to date, the supreme piece of cheek of tho war.