CONVENTIONAL FORTS USELESS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 218, 19 October 1914, Page 7

CONVENTIONAL FORTS USELESS.

j MODERN ARTILLERY TOO GOOD. LORD SYDENHAM'S VIEWS. (Received October 19, 10.20 a.m.) LONDON, October 18. Lord Sydenham of Combe (formerly Sir George Sydenham Clarke), when interviewed, stated that owing to the great strides made with regard to field and siege artillery, and the development ofv, high explosives, they have become absolutely fatal to forts of conventional form. It is difficult to believe that after the upset of her plans, Germany lias impetus enough again to take the offensive on Paris. The British Government should take more active steps to restrict outside supplies for Germany. [Lord Sydenham is a well-known writer on defence questions, among his publications being " Plevna," " Fortification —Past, Present, and Future," '' The Last Great Naval War," 11 The Navy and the Nation," and "Imperial Defence." He served in the Egyptian expedition in 1882, and the Soudan in 1885. He was a member of the War Office Reconstruction Committee of 1904, and Secretary to the Committee of Imperial Defence in the same year.]