How to the Fight?

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12087, 16 August 1917, Page 2

How to the Fight?

ROTES ON THE WAR. THE POSITION ANALYSED, CHRISTHCUECH, August 16. The saving of £43,000.0 CX) reported by the Public. Accounts Committee in the cost of ammunition in the Old Countrv this year is presumably based on the cost of last year's production, for of course there has been a very marked increase in the quantity produced. The days of waste and extravagance are passing, though they are r.ot yet zone, and Britain is organising her vast industries on the most efficient and most economical lines. Waste of money and energy and material was inevitable in tho earlier stages of the war industries, because the whole vast machinery had to be improvised, hut the organisations have grown to such dimensions now that Dr Addison might well speak of them, as ho did recently, as providing " an imperishable memorial to British genius and resource." In his latest statement on the subject the Minister said that Britain's capacity for the production of explosives was four times as great in March, 1917, as in March, 1916, and twenty-eight times as grea'S as in March, 1915. Incidentally he mentioned that the Director-General of Munitions Supply had visited India to inspect, the factories there, and that a considerable expansion of the production was anticipated as the result of the suggestions he had made. In regard to ammunition, I>r Addison said that Britain had reached such a state of nroductioa that she had been able to divert some ammunition factories to assisting other bianches. He mentioned a large quantity of a new kind of explosive which, he said, had proved most valuable in facilitating the spring onensxve, and in the saving of life. A gre3t reserve of tield-g.m ammunition had been provided and the arrangements were now working so smoothly that despite the enormous expenditure of ammunition at tho front the stock of filled shells bad only decreased seven per cent after the first nine weeks of the offensive. Sir Douglas Haig, h e declared, was enthusiastic regarding the quality of the ammunition. The output of machine-guns and rifles -was fully equal to the demand. In the course of the same spesch Dr Addison explained that tho forty-three millions referred to by tho Public Accounts Commi'ttce were saved in tho cost of shell components alone. Many points from the statement were cabled at the time it was made, but there were some interesting items overlooked in the message we received. Regard.ng th 6 supply of railway material for the Army, Dr Addison said that railway lines were pulled up at Home and m India, while Australia and Canada had also contributed. The Government of held a meeting, and wiichm forty-e:*ht bcurs had arranged, if "- to null up 300 miles of rail.JV .r.A :hh it complete. Altogether ihnv, 2000 v:ilos of track had al::.v been supplied. Of locomotives •'..:-£iiid':rab!v more than 1006 had been iU"o;.ee! T'lu- supplies of the new impro.td "''tinks" wore coming forward otvColrmklv. and he hinted at further developments in this direction. Dealing with overseas transport, he saio that Britain was interested in nearly 1..500,000 tons of shipments monthly. Nevertheless, sinco the beginning _of tho German unrestricted submarine campaign, the heaviest loss in any single shell component shipped from America was under 6 per cent, The Minister added that the Imperial Munitions Board was now by far the greatest or business organisations.

The return of Captain Stanley Wilson, nf :or twenty months of internment in Austria, recalls an incident that happened in tho Mediterranean at the ond of 1015. Colonel Napier, formerly British Attache at Sofia, and Captain Wilson were travelling from F: recur, to Messina in a Greek steamer, the Spetzai. Just as sho was entering the Straits of Messina an Austrian submarine appeared, ordering the steamer to stop. The Greek captain -as instructed to go aboard ue submarine with his s, an tho submarine's officers examine these carefully. Then tho commander o.ive tho order through a megaphone that three British officers whom he named should I.3are tho ship and go on board the submarine. After a shoro conversation, Colonel papier and Captain Wilson were arrested, but tuoy were allowed to return for their g?.ge, while tin- third officer was permitted to remain on tho on the around that ho belonged to tnd Red Cross. A passenger subsequent y declared that th c names or the officers v.-ere not taken from the list, but were read out from another pnrior in vhe possession of the captain of tho submarine, a. fact which uuicb it clear that the submarine had been informed in advance of tho presence of tho British officers on tho Spetzai. An Italian diplomatic courier was on board, but tho captain of thh? Spetzai did not montion his presence and no attempt was made to arrest him. Added interest was given to the incident by the fact that Captain Wilson was carrying dispatches. He had been on courier duty for a considerable timo, and if the enemy knew that ho was travelling by the Spstza-i he must have expected to obtain possession of the. dispatches. However, an official statement issued through the Press Bureau declared that none of the* papers taken from Captain Wilson were of importance. It was hinted that diplomatic correspondence was on the Greek ship, but if that was tho case precautions wero taken to protsct it, foi from a. few letters on geuaral sub. jects, no official documents, according to the reports made at tho time, passed into the enemy's hands. Subsequently it was stated that definite evidence wa-> forthcoming of the fact that the Aus- j trians knew that both British officers I were travelling by the Spetzai, and that sh?i was chased and stopped solely i for the purpose of capturing them.