WAR NEWS.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 5445, 31 May 1916, Page 6

WAR NEWS.

A CLIM AX COMING

IN NEXT SIX MONTHS. Electric Telegraph—Press Association. Copyright. London Last Nighc. Colonel Ellis Griffith (who resigned his position in the Ministry early in 191-5 because the . (government would not bring m conscription, and who is one of the most noted Welsh politicians), after fourtefen months at the front, makes a striking appeal to munition workers through the “Weekly Despatch.” He says: “The next six months be the most critical tifne in the whole war. We are passing rapidly to our zenith, and the enemy's efforts are ever increasingly violent. We will be in the gravest danger if we are caught short of ammunition or guns with the enemy commanding apparently unlimited supplies. Both the Whitsun holidays, with the inevitable curtailment of output will be little short of murder for the Tommies in the trenches. This is a gun n a,, Verdun has proved that any shortage wil be fatal. Men without guns and shells do not count. Shortage or waste means the sacrifice of thousands of lives. We never, until recently, had guns or ammunition approaching anything near the total available against us. All these long months of struggling have equalised the conditions. Now we are on the right road to overtaking the Germans. I do not believe we are going to Ik* let down because munition workers are determined to take holidays. The science of gunreading enables the enemy to discover your weakness whether you are conserving ammunition, or awaiting guns. Let the munition makers treat themselves to the best of nil holidays, the one enjoyed by the mind from a sense of duty alone, giving the mind rest from' terrible thought that slackness on. vour part had compromised the country’s safety. If we all play up well, we will put out soldiers well on their nay to their goal. If there is any slackness, I fear to contemplate the consequences. It is just as serious as that.”