THE HUMAN TOLL

Southland Times, Issue 17476, 3 April 1915, Page 2

THE HUMAN TOLL

BRITISH BOSSICS. SIX MONTHS' TOTAL, 104,000, fl'Toin Our Special Correspondent). LONDON, February 12. During the first six months of the war - —up to February 4t.h, that is—the total casualties of the British Expeditionary Force were approximately 304.00T) ol* a*fj ranks. So said Mr Asquith in reply to' a query put by a Biberal member in tbe House- of Commons last Monday, and Mr Tennant, the Fnde’r-Sceretary for War, .states that the Premb-r's estimate included men who were "missing.” or who had been made prisoners of war. Mr Asquith was careful to state that the casualties wore only those which had occurred in the Western area of the war. but lie did not make it clear whether the 104.000 included the losses sustained by the oversea contingents which have been assisting: the Expeditionary Force proper. If the total given is inclusive, then our losses. grievous as they arc. have not been nearly so grr* t as many people presumably qualified to form an opinion on the point bad Jed us to anticipate And in looking' at the figure.; given w must boar in mind the fact that a very largo proportion of our wounded receive injuries which only incapacitate them for a brief period, it is. indeed, stated that about fiO per cent, of the wounded up to date have been able to return to the front, and the death rale among the wounded is said to be very lew. No figure lias been given as regards the British wounded, if*: some time ego a French newspaper gave some returns which showed that a certain base hospital le-s than per cent, of the so di-*rs brought in for treatment succumbed to their wounds.

A Rood many people lutvo expressed surprise tl.nl the Government should see fit lo publish these figures, while so much of apparently loss significance is concealed on grounds of military policy. Yet the publication is reasonable enough. It t> ils the nation something it !uis desired very urgently to know, without disclosing to ilo- onotny anythin?: worth his laiowin?. anal tin re is no reason to believe (hat the Prime Minister’s statement will havf any adverse effects upon recruit incr. As regards the objection made in some quarters to (ho publication of our casualties because it gives the enemy information regarding our troops which our French friends withhold regarding theirs, it may he pointed out that Great Britain is lighting 1 with a force recruited by voluntary enlistment, the actual numbers of which at the present moment are carefully concealed, so ho proporton that our casualties bear to the mass of men now under arms and in the field remains a matter of guesswork to the enemy. AA'ith the French it is different. The Germans with their own experience to guide them might very well he aide to make a fairly accurate estimate on the basis of known statistics, of how many men ought. under a system of national service, to come into the Held ultimately. For this reason—there may be others—the French military authorities make no statements of total casualties, nor so fains we arc aware, do the Russians. German casualty lists are printed, an 3 appalling losses are presented in them. The latest, issued less than a week ago, brings the Prussian losses alone up to Oa'hOOn. killed, wounded, anil missing. Rut these an* not a-; -Mr Asquiths fig-* urns arc, total ca.sualties to a given dale, and though we must exercise eautim in accepting the daily tales of Germany s "appalling losses" in the Kastern theatre, with which imaginative scribes in Petrograd and elsewhere furnish the Knglish papers—ja.OflO killed was alleged o be the price Germany paid in one battle—it is quite certain that the German total losses to date in killed, wounded, and missing, cannot be loss than two millions'.