SIDELIGHTS ON THE WAR.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 7911, 26 July 1917, Page 4

SIDELIGHTS ON THE WAR.

FROM VARIOUS SOURCES. Tino’s Trickery. A fresh illustration of the treachery of the Greek King is afforded by Sir Arthur Evans, president of the British Association, who, writing in ‘ ‘ The New Europe/’ says:—“lt is not so long since a Royal mail bag was intercepted on its way to the German lines, in which, together with a family letter to the Kaiser, were enclosed plans of our latest defensive works on the Suez Canal! The details of this discovery ore well known in Athens, though it is said that the British Foreign Office did its best to hush it up.”

“Kultur” Up-to-date. A telegram from Auxerre, in the Yonne Department, tells of another example of German kultur. A boy who was evacuated from the invaded district, had taken with him a child’s toy made by a German soldier, and which the latter left behind. Whilst playing with the toy it exploded, and the boy had three fingers blown off. It is believed that the toy contained a hidden grenade. Austrian Forbearance. The Emperor of Austria has vowed to build a church in Vienna if an early peace is vouchsafed. The Imperial promise, which was read in church, begins with the words:— Almighty God, Thou knowest what patience and forbearance we exercised with our enemies until, in justified self-defence and for the sake of our own existence, we had recourse to the sword. It will be very unfortunate, adds the “Observer,” if the Recording Angel happens to have kept a copy of the ultimatum to Servia. Rapture of Destroyer Fighting. Battleship fighting (writes Bennet Copplestone in the “Cornhill Magazine”) is not thrilling except for the very few. For nine-tenths of the officers and men it is a quiet, almost dull, routine of exact duties. For the true blazing rapture of battle one has to go to the destroyers. In a battleship, one lives like a gentleman, until one is dead, and takes a deuce of a lot of killing. In a destroyer one lives rather like a pig, and one dies with extraordinary suddenness. Yet the destroyer officers and men have their reward in a battle, for they drink deep of the wine of life. I would sooner any day take the risks of destroyer work, tremendous though they are, just for the fun which one gets out of it.

The Krupp ‘ ‘ Two Army Corps. ’ ’ Interesting details of the present colossal magnitude of Krupp’s operations are contributed in a series of special articles to the “Franfurtcr Zeitung” of April 13th and 14th. The writer states that the staff of the Essen concern now easily amounts to “two labor army corps.” The number has ‘ ‘ increased enormously ’ ’ since 1914. Women and girls comprise one-quarter of the whole. Essen has Spread out its territorial tentacles in every direction in order to accommodate the vast increase in population during the past 33 months. “Thousands of acres” which three years ago were waste land are now covered with factories, railway tracks, and working men’s barracks. Practically the whole of Krupp’s, many departments of which in pre-war days manufactured for industries of peace, is now engaged on war munitions. The Huns’ Whine. All Germany is viewing with grave astonishment the irresistibility of Allier artillery as shown in the fighting round Lens and on the Aisne. Haig and Nivelle are pounding the German and Bavarian Crown Princes so mercilessly that von Salzmann, the military correspondent of the “Vossische Zeitung,” is whining that the lighting on the western front is no longer “warfare of intellect.” Now that the boot is no longer on the Ilun foot, the campaign has degenerated into brute mechanical superiority on the part of Germany’s heartless enemies! “Luck of the Hohenzollerns. ” Events tempt one to ask whether the “Luck of the Hohenzollerns” has again been stolen (says a correspondent of the “Daily Chronicle”). The “Luck” is a plain gold ring, with a black stone, said to have been dropped by a large frog upon the bed of a Hohenzollcm Princess. Frederick the Great received the ring from his dying father, with a note saying that while the'jewel remained in the family the race would prosper. It was stolen by Countess Lichenau in 1790. and not recovered until 1813. The dates cover a period of great Prussian reserves, while 1813 saw a revival of good fortune. A Fortunate Reversal. It is not generally known (says the Parliamentary correspondent of the London ‘Telegraph’) that Field-Mar-shal Sir Douglas Haig is color blind. This at first threatened to be a serious obstacle to his career as a soldier, because he was refused entrance to the Staff College. Hearing of the circumstances Colonel (now Major-General) McCalmont and the late Sir Redvers Buller asserted themselves to secure a reconsideration, pointing out that Haig w r as not likely often to seek guidance from raihvay signals. Eventually the decision was reversed, and the future Field-Marshal passed through the College.

New Type of Ambulance. The Ambulance Department of the British Red Cross Society has just provided a new type of ambulance for serious cases which need immediate attention close' behind the fighting line. This vehicle, which is motorpropelled, will accommodate two patients. It is the most comfortable ambulance ever turned out. The sides are very thick, and padded with layers of sawdust to retain warmth—an es--sential thing in the conveyance of the wounded from the firing line to the dressing station. Electric heaters and hot water pipes are introduced, and an improved method of ventilation excludes all possibilities of-draught.

Our New ’Plane. The latest British triplane, which is said to be the fastest machine extant, has created no little admiration in France, says a British paper. Its guns, too, outrange all existing aerial weapons to date. The bringing down of six German aeroplanes one afternoon by one of these, without itself sustaining any damage, is eloquently satisfying.

Huns in a Hurry. Seldom did an entrenched enemy run away more quickly than the German from the fortress place of Lievin, said Mr Beach Thomas in describing the battle. It is piled with its valuables, big and small. There are great heaps and dumps of artillery and trench mortar ammunition, there are sidings with undamaged trucks, and a whole system of trench railway lines and trucks remains perfect as when left.

One dug-out contains the best store of boots that ever I saw. They are of thick leather, in one piece, coming hip-high and worth at least £lO a pair. And when the German, with his joint commercial and destructive instincts leaves behind such valuables he is in a panic indeed. Effect of British Shell Fire. “Some of our shell-is queer stuff,” said a British sergeant, in a letter from the front. “We came on a machine gun crew laid right out without a scratch on them, and no dirt or earth from a near burst over them. It was either concussion or gas, but it looked queer, for they all looked so natural instead of being sprawled like ordinary dead. ‘* In most parts you couldn’t see the trenches for shell holes, the whole series of lines was flattened out, dug-outs blown in, and the lot so closely pitted with shell holes of all sizes, that you had to do balancing tricks round the lips.”

Traps that Failed. A constant feature of the British advance is the extraordinary number of so-called booby traps among the ruins and in the dug-outs, on which the Germans expended endless futile ingenuity and labor. Any loose article lying about in dug-out, trench, or ruined house and any plank or duck-board, may have connection with a hidden mine, and everywhere we are finding contrivances where wires submerged in acid are being slowly eaten through to explode in due course. The thing is so universal that it defeats itself. Altogether these contrivances must have numbered many hundreds, and I am sincere in saying (writes the “Times” Correspondent) that they have not cost us ten lives, and have given a vast amount of entertainment.

Typical Hun Treachery. During the recent Somme advance the French discovered, on entering a delivered village, the papers of a German agent whose business it had been to arrange and manage the Secret Service on the Allies’ side of the line. To all appearances the honor of three highly-placed French Staff officers was involved. So circumstantial appeared to be their complicity that two of them wefe arrested, and about to be tried for espionage and treachery, when another lot of papers was found which impugned British officers in the same way. Then the whole plot of the Hun secret agent was revealed. By some means or other he had obtained the names of the officers, and had set himself to weave a web of what, on the face of it, seemed damning evidence of their treachery.

A Hero Indeed. An heroic occurrence near the Trones Wood is thus described by a correspondent in an English paper: — - “A man with a badly injured foot ; was lying in the trenches when he i heard a moan from a shell hole. He c.ragged himself there on his belly, and found a comrade half buried. He had leen there for three days and nights, utterly helpless, chilled to the bone by nights, scorched and blackened by the pitiless sun in the days, with foul earth about his lips and never a drop of moisture of any kind. The man with the injured foot had been given the fill of his own water bottle to help him to limp down to the dressing station. What did he do? He used the whole of this treasured drink to cleanse the mouth of the man in the shell hole and for him to drink. Then, with infinite labor the man who had gone to the rescue pulled the other out of the shell hole, put him on his back, and as best he could, in spite of the badly-injured foot, he was carrying the other to the dressing-station when he was fortunately met. War Work for Deaf and Dumb. The intensive production of munitions in France, with its enormous requirements in hand labor, has opened up a new future for the deaf and dumb, who before the war were excluded from factory work. Now hundreds of them are making shells and parts of automobiles and aeroplanes for the army. Manufacturers refused deaf and dumb help previously because of the laws that made the employer responsible for all accidents to his employees and because the accident insurance companies would not insure the deaf and dumb. There were also prejudices against them because of supposed difficulty in conveying orders and explanations. In practice it has been found that these men meet with no more accidents than their comrades who can hear and talk. They learn even quicker by sight than do many workmen by ear, a*nd their attention, never being divided by conversation, their output is of the best finish and equal in volume to that of the best mechanics. They are even more attentive to danger than men who have possession of all their faculties.