WAR NEWS.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 4945, 19 September 1914, Page 2

WAR NEWS.

A MIGHTY ENGINE. THE GERMAN ARMY. One, Dr Armgaard Karl Graves, who claims special inside knowledge, writes with tremendous flourish in “Collier’s Weekly” an article entitled “The German War Machine.” According to Dr. Graves, this machine is the “most efficient and elaborate system ever devised by the ingenuity of man, and used not only for war and destruction, but as an intelligence clearing house for the whole of the Empire.” This is a large order, but—judging from the latest accounts of the military enginery—somebody has dropped grit in its bearings. “Controlled and directed by the War Lord in person through the Chief der Grossen Gen eral Stabs —at present General Field Marshal von Heeringeur—this immense machine, the pulsing train of a fighting force of 4,500,000, is composed of from 180 to 200 officials,” vide Dr. Graves. Heeringen, He adds, resembles the late von Moltke in many resepets. He is reported to have an army of 30,000 lead soldiers with which he plays the moment he opens his eyes—“much in the same manner as Moltke, who used to request his chessboard the first thing in the morning.” ' Heeringen, it seems, is known as the “Giest of Metz,” and the writer paints a dramatic picture of a gaunt limping figure stalking round the Metz outposts on freezing nights, accompanied by orderlies carrying camp stools and tables, night glasses, and 'electric torches, the while his men take down the “short, creaking sentences escaping between the thin compressed lips” —all in the best Napoleonic manner. It looks a plain imitation of the great Corsican..

After dwelling at some length on the composition of the German war machine, and the wonderful quickness with which, on the mobilisation order, the civilian reservists are transformed into fully equipped military units, the writer produces the key of the war chest, which is hidden in a little mediaeval-looking watch tower, the .Julius Thurm, near Spandau. Out of the £21X1,000,000 war indemnity paid by France in 1871, as many marks in gold coins, mostly French, ■were put away as the nucleus of a ready war chest. It is eve- increasing, says Dr. Grave-, for, quietly and unobtrusively, 6,000,000 marks in newly-minted gold coins are taken year by year and added to its store. “On October 1 each year since 1871 three ammunition waggons full of bright and glittering twenty-mark pieces have clattered over the drawbridge, and these pieces are stored away in the steel-plate subtarranean chambers of the Julius Thurm. . .” When the war started, the accumulated sum amounted to £24,000,000 —sufficient, it computed, to provide the German Army with the necessary funds for ten months. Dr. Graves declares he knows of his own personal knowledge that the money is there that its purpose is war, that it is guarded by triple posts and a device for flooding tho treasure cavern under 15 feet of yater, and that twice a year the Emperor, or his heir-apparent, personally inspects the war chest.

Superlatives only .are used when the perfect transportation facilities of the German General-Staff are described. The strategic lines are mentioned, and instances cited, of where, “at any given time, especially at tense political moments, at every large strategical railway centre in! Germany, there are a number of trucks and engines kept for military purposes only—sometimes, as in the Rhine division during the acute period of the Morocco question, with steam up.” Ninety per cent, of all the railway officials, it is said, are ex-soldiers. Five minutes after the signing of the mobilisation orders by the Emperor, the whole of the railway system falls automatically under direct military control. Spec-ially-trained transportation and railway experts on the General Staff take over the direction of affairs. Elaborate timetables and transportation cards are in readiness to be put into operation on the instant of mobilisation, superseding the civil timetables of peace. Those schedules are tested twice a year during the manoeuvres. “Through this vast and far-reaching system of transportation,” adds Dr. Graves, “Germany is enabled to throw a million fullyequipped men on to either of her

frontiers within 48 hours. She oaai double this host in 60 hours more.” Turning to the provisioning of the German Army in war time, the writer gives us his honourable word that “at any given time there is su ffient foodstuff for man and beast stored in State storehouses and large private concerns to feed the entire German Army for 12 months.” He works in a quiet dig at somebody, thus: —“The total absence of bloated pudgy-fingered army contractors in Germany is pleasant to the eyes of those who know the conditions in some other countries I could mention.” Now, who can he meanP He lays great stress on the food values of the ergsenwurst (pea-meal sausage), a preparation, of peas l , meal, bacon, salt, and seasoning, each weighing a quarter of a pound. “Highly nutritious, light in weight, practically indestructible, wholesome, this is easily prepared into a palatable meal with the simple addition of hot water.” The trouble has been the last week or so that the Germans have been too occupied to boi] the billy.