ALLIES’ REPRISALS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3197, 23 June 1915, Page 18

ALLIES’ REPRISALS.

LONDON, June 15. Airmen were over Karlsruhe for 105 minutes. The central districts near the castle suffered most. Bombs hit the Margravian Castle. PARIS June 15. Official: As a reprisal for the bombardment of French and British towns, we sent 23 aeroplanes over Karlsruhe. They dropped 130 pro= jcctiles on the Castle, Arms Factory, and Railway Station. Many fires were seen. There v/as a great panic at the station, from which trains were hastily despatched eastward. The enemy vigorously shelled the air squadron at Zabeni, Strassburg. Rastail, and Karlsruhe on the outward journey, and at Blamont, Phalsburg, and Zabern on the homeward trip. All except two men returned safely. AMSTERDAM, June 15. A Berlin telegram states: “Five enemy airmen bombarded Karlsruhe. The raid lasted 45 minutes. Several people were killed or wounded, and there were numerous cases of damage to property. The place is in a military sense unimportant.” A German official report states : A hostile air squadron bombed the unfortified town of Karlsruhe. Eleven civilians were killed and six wounded. One of our warplanes brought down an enemy aeroplane. The occupants were killed, THE AMERICAN NAVY. A SCATHING REPORT. NEW YORK, June 15. Mr George Meyer, ex-Secretary of the Navy, in the course of an address on national defence, referred to the American navy deterioration. They lacked battle cruisers, submarines, and aeroplanes, and a policy of national defence was conspicuously absent. They had only 21 battleships ready for service. Their submarines, were crippled, and the Atlantic fleet needed 5000 men, while their target practice was no better than it w r as in 1903. PRIME MINISTER WELCOMES HIS COLLEAGUES. LONDON, June 15. Mr Asquith, referring to the reconstruction of the Ministry, welcomed his new colleagues. He paid a tribute to their public spirit in responding to his invitation in this supreme crisis. It had been a painful experience to part with his own colleagues. If asked why he had brought about a political upheaval when in the past coalitions, in the main, had been found wanting in dignity and success, he replied that the situation -was without parallel. There had been no call for any change in the national policy, which is to pursue the war at any cost to a victorious issue—(loud cheers), —but he came reluctantly to the conclusion that there should be a broadening basis of the Government in order to eliminate even a semblance of a one-sided party character. The coalition would demonstrate to the people at Home and to our fellow subjects overseas, our allies, all neutrals, and even to onr enemies that Britons were more resolute than ever to obliterate all distinctions and unite every political, moral, and material force in the prosecution of their cause. He had always emphasised the gravity of their task and his confidence in their ultimate issue. He deprecated a blind counsel of hysteria and panic. Our paramount duty was to obtain willing organised help from every Briton. ■ Asquith concluded: “ When our cause has been vindicated, and there is once more peace on earth, may it be recorded on that proudest day in the Empire’s annals that no home and no workshop had failed to take part in the common struggle, and thus not earned its share in the common triumph.”—(Prolonged cheers.) GERMAN VIEW OF THE SITUATION. LONDON, June 15. The Times neutral observer writes : “In marked contrast with what I noted on a previous visit to Berlin, many German officers are at home on leave. The German plan seems to be to give everyone a few months’ training and then actual experience of fighting. The result is a continuous coming and going of troops. I found, however, no confirmation of the belief current in England that German army corps keep changing fronts. “The general opinion is that the fall of Constantinople is very remote. The Germans are convinced that the Allies’ dispositions are inadequate, and that tne .Dardanelles cannot be forced, German officers repeatedly stated that the Turkish soldier well fed and well led, is as good

fighting material as any in Europe, and that ho excels in trench warfare and offers a stubborn defensive resistance. Under German direction, efficiently equipped and organised, he would probably hold his ground in the Gallipoli Peninsula. “ The. Russians are considered a stubborn and elusive enemy. German staff officers stated that if the Russian commissariat and transport equalled their tactical skill and fighting qualities different pages of history would have to be written. “I heard but little of the campaign on the French front. It is admitted that the army of the Grown Prince has been unable to retrieve its losses. Paris seemed no longer to be the objective, but there is a difference of opinion as to whether the Germans are here on the defensive. “ It is repeatedly insisted that artillery, not men, will count in this war, and that the fact of a Krupp gun having bombarded Dunkirk at a range of 20 miles has inspired as much confidence as the operations of an extra army corps in this district would have done.”