CURRENT TOPICS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12174, 24 November 1917, Page 8

CURRENT TOPICS.

THE BARRAGE. A European correspondent describes the great "barrier" or "barrage," as the naval men call it, which the British have erected across a narrow part of the English Channel, twenty miles or more. It. is said to consist of a series of "obstructions," stretched from hugo steel buoys, from shore to shore. Any craft which strikes one of these obstructions explodes a group of mines and is destroyed. A whole fleet of naval shipping is constantly employed in maintaining and patrolling this great barrier. Its existence is no secret to the Germans, for they are constantly sending over airplanes to chart the buoys and note any changes that may have been made since their lastinspection. And changes are constantly being made. Here and there along the line are secret openings,- through which naval pilots may guide u.Ultimate ships along their way, but these openings are constantly altered, and not even the airplane eye of the German can tell which marks safe passage and which marks destruction. If the enemy mine-laying submarines wish to enter the channel they must cross submerged, for the patrol boats are on constant duty, and it is at least an even chance that they will meet destruction by hitting a mined entrance. Sometimes twice a. week, sometimes oftener, explosions are heard at night from the barrier, indicating that f-oir.e----thing has touched off a group of mines. Immediately the patrols hujry off in the direction of the explosion. What they find there is a well-kept secret. THE GERMAN COLONIES. Writing in the "Contemporary Review," Sir H. H. Johnston says that the return of German South-West Africa is impossible unless the British Empire, and its Allies are so completely defeated that to save their homelands they must consent, to a "German" peace. The restoration of German South-West Africa to Germany would mean that before long Trans-Zambesian Africa would either leave the British Empire in order to reconquer SouthWest Africa, or that Germany, through that re-entry, would eventually subdue Trans-Zambesian Africa. "Similarly, after all that has happened, I could almost imagine that Australia and New Zealand, if asked to withdraw from Northern Papua and Samoa, so that the German flag might be rehoisted : would prefer to proclaim their independence, and hold on to those positions, which, if they value their growing nationhood, must never again become the points a'appui of a masterful European State. Japan and China, would never consent to the return of the Germans to Kiao-Chao. ' There is another article by Mr William Harbutt Dawson, which presents the case for conditional retMrn of the colonies — German South-West Africa always excepted. To withhold colonies from Germany, he says, would be a. pretty act of retaliation which might be pregnant with large and disastrous results. It would be premature, he adds, to suggest exactly which of Germany's former territories should be restored to her, and on what conditions the rest should remain in other hands, but. the necessary ndjustmets should be made a, subject of negotiation, and the idea of exchanges and compensations should be kept steadily in view. Whether in the case of the colonies returned Germany should be required to refund the whole costs of the military expeditions is regarded by Mr Dawson as a fair question for discussion.