THE ZEPPELIN RAIDS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16610, 5 February 1916, Page 6

THE ZEPPELIN RAIDS.

Germany will be deriving a large amount of satisfaction from the destruction of tlio lives of non-combatant British people and from the demolition of property that are the result of the visits of Zeppelins to Great Britain during the past few days. It is true that the losses have been inflicted by a course of action for which no sanction is provided in the international code that is supposed to regulate the conduct of war; but that is a circumstance which does not atfcct the German mind. The Germans have their own ideas respecting the methods that are admissible in warfare. Fortunately they are ideas that are peculiar to the "kultur" of Germany. Murder and outrage, in which 110 respect is shown either for age or for sex, are among the practices that are encouraged by those high in authority and that are applauded by the populace. They serve the purpose of Jetting it be known that opposition to Germany

is liable to be attended by fire and ruin, from the consequences of which even women and children may not escape. It is the German way; it accords with tbs German sense of what is legitimate and justifiable in warfare; and we have to accept it as such, merely noting the fact that the German way is in total violation of the terms of the international agreements to which the German Government had committed its country and that, in this particular, it is of a piece with the whole conduct of the war by our principal enemy. The raids of this week have taken the Zeppelins further into England than they have ventured on any previous occasion. The atmospheric conditions have probably been unusually favourable, and the omission in the Midland counties to take the precautions which are observed in London against the risk of air raids, and which have deprived that great city of lights at night, will have supplied the Zeppelin crews with a useful guide to the localities over which they passed. In all the circumstances, it must be counted as exceedingly fortunate that the loSs Mid damage, although distinctly heavy, were not much greater than the reports from the United Kingdom lead us to suppose they were. The various Zeppelin raids that have been made seem to have proved that anti-aircraft guns are less effective than it was hoped they would be, even although the destruction of one Zeppelin which has been seen in a sinking condition in the North Sea may be attributable to its having been hit, and it is fairly evident that the problem of countering an attack by these engines of destruction has not yet been satisfactorily solved. The best defence probably consists, however, in the development of - a vigorous aggressive. The suggestion by the Daily Mail that a fleet of 25,000 air-planes should be acquired with the object of making a simultaneous raid upon a number of important German towns is one. of those extravagances that are not to be entertained seriously. But reprisals in the form of a raid by » / few hundred air-planes on German fortified cities are practicable, and, if they should be effectively destructive, they would sensibly modify the raptures of the Germans over their possession of a monopoly in their Zeppelins. ,