VALUE OF A HUN'S LIFE.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LX, Issue 17074, 30 August 1917, Page 6

VALUE OF A HUN'S LIFE.

A PERSONAL ESTIMATE

MARTON OFFICER'S EXPERIENCE

(From our Travelling Reporter.)

There is on view at Messrs. Lewis and Cameron's shop, Marton, a most interesting little memento or the part Lieut. .Lewis took in the Messines offensive. This is in the form of a onemark note, equal in value to 10d., and rt'as pressed into Lieut. Lewis's hand by a German who had been prisoner cd. It was given ostensibly as an appreciation for sparing a life which he apparently thought was keenly sought by the. "hated English." '..The circumstance under which the paper money was given is graphically described by Lieut. Lewis in a letter to his'wife. He wrote: "As we came through tho enemy barrage, nearer to the town of Messines itself —which was simply a mass of bricks and concrete —we picked up our directing points, and settled down to the. job in Jbaud. I never saw men in such a demoralised condition as the Huns we met in this battle, and they made- a very poor show of fight. But little wonder, poor devils! for their experience must have been a fearful one. My various sections having gono about their respective jobs in clearing dug-outs, etc., I took my sergeant runner and we entered a trench which appeared to bo a little less wrecked than tho others, and came across a large concrete dug-out with two entrances about 24 inches square. This seemed to me a very likely place for hidden Huns. I first" of all called on them to come out, and, meeting with no response, I fired my revolver in the opening. Still no sign, so 1 pitched in a Mills bomb, and that had the desired effect. Immediately after the explosion there was a dickens of a babble of voices, and smothered cries of 'Mercy, Kameradi' One by one out they came, on hands and knees, fifteen in all. with the most piteous look on their faces, shooting up their hands immediately they could stand up. As soon as they realised they were to bo, treated as prisoners, they wanted almost to hug me, and endeavoured to get mo to accept such offerings as cigars and cigarettes, and one man even thrust a mark note into ray hands, as though making a. purchase of his life. I sent the prisoners back to our line, and they were keen to get there, I assure you. This scene I have described was only typical of scores of others in our divisional sector. Many hundreds of prisoners were collected in this way. Some of them were boys, and quite nice-looking fellows at that —very different from the majority.''

not yet possible; ; types are changing too rapidly. Therefore, it happens sometimes that,- for a certain time, one or other of phe antagonists has a fighting machine which is a little better armed, or of a slightly greater speed, than the machines of a corresponding type by which it is opposed. Such fluctuations, as we hare said, are practically unavoidable. And it is also-iupre or less inevitable that in our air service at ths front, and in the enemy's also, there should be craft of a more or less obsolete type which we should be glad to supersede if we could, but which cannot be discarded until machines are to hand of a newer and better type. The demand for aircraft has, from the beginning of the war, always exceeded the supply—greatly though this has been accelerated; and this is the reason why neither one side nor the other has been able to obtain a final or unquestioned supremacy. We could win such a command if we had a sufficient preponderance in machine.! and personnel. And here is where we must make a strenuous effort. We must obtain a greater numerical superiority over the enemy, both in machines and pilots. We need not waste precious time in seeking to design or construct any ideal type of aeroplane. What we must do is to turn out the:best machines obtainable to-day in such quantities that, though .some of them may bo a mile or two slower, possibly, than certain enemy craft, we shall still have such a clear preponderance in numbers that we shall be able to overwhelm the Germans and defeat them finally and decisively.

OUR SUPERIORITY IN OFFENCE

Failing, through lack of numbers, any such absolute supremacy, our air service has none the less gained for us, and maintains, such a superiority in offensive action that we operate far moire extensively over the enemy's territory than he does over ours; and this means that in reconnaissance from day to day, in raids on enemy communications, and in the aerial direction of artillery fire-, the British Flying Corps lias rendered, is rendering, an d sihould continue to render, a far greater sservice to its headquarters than is the case with thufc of the Germans.