GERMAN CHANCE OF VIEW.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 146001, 6 December 1917, Page 5

GERMAN CHANCE OF VIEW.

THE “SWINE” WHO INVENTED GAS. A correspondent at the front writes< The new Gorman mask is less pliabie than the rubber type, although of soft oiled leather, and less easily adjusted. Rubber is scarce, and ominous warnings of economy in leather have reached the garrisons in the zone of death. If the Canadians decided to take Lons, said a recently captured prisoner, we could go back to a good position in the open air. and have a chance of life. But as long as wo are made to keep Lens, the bulk of the troops must live underground, and gas drifts into the network of tunnels and sleeping rooms, and hangs about. The whole city is so accurately ranged by the Canadian guns that it is death to try to remain on the surface. In brief, the Canadians have pounded their opponents into a state of passive resistance. They no longer try aggressive pushes into the territory they recently lost. Even their aeroplanes dare not try to harass our infantry in the open, as they have been doing further north. Some pianos venture across for observation, but they are distinctly cautious. “Do you think,” asked a Prussian officer captured at Hill 70. “that if we had not first used gas the English would not have tried it?” “I am sure they wouldn’t,” replied one of lus captors. “Then I wish we had the swine who began it,” said the. officer. “Our men have never gone in for crucifixion, although some of you Canadians think we have, but I think the troops in Lens would willingly crucify the man who invented gas.” ______