WAR ITEMS.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15192, 12 April 1917, Page 8

WAR ITEMS.

THE FRESH WITHDRAWAL. There is nothing surprising in the announcement made by a correspondent in Northern France that the enemy is contemplating a withdrawal from La Bassee to the Belgian frontier. It ha,s all along been evident that following the evacuation of a big stretch of territory south of Arras, the country around La" Bassee would quickly become untenable. Lens lies at the centre, of tho coal-hekls of the Pas-de-Calais, which nave an area of 200,000 square miles and yield 15,000.000 tons of coal per annum. From here a railway lino runs to Carvin. an-important industrial town. Douai, the other town of which mention is made in the correspondent's despatch, is situated on the car. a Used, channel of the Scarpo. and is an industrial centre of some importa ice. It had a pre-war population . f 33,247, and is, therefore, larger ~,hnn Lens, which had a population of 27.000. The town is of great antiquity, and it possesses several famous old churches and an exceptionally hue •miseum.

A SHATTEBED DREAM. On the day that the fall of Bagdad was announced a cable appeared stating that German engineers were busy upon projects for improvements to the Bagdad railway. Their plans included a scheme for tunnelling the Bosphorus, with the construction of a bridge as an alternative. Recent English .files give further particulars of the grandiose schemes which the enemy had in view in pursuit of the Kaiser's dream of a Central Empire with full sway from Berlin to Bagdad. Early in ihe year a conference was held at Stuttgart of leading German engineers for the discussion of the question of overland communication for goods traffic between Central Europe and Asia Minor. The main purpose was that it should be complete, with sea routes, and "independent of English influences under all circumstances." The construction of a "Schwcbebabn," presumably ::n overhead eablo line with hanging cut s. from Berlin, via Constantinople, to Pay;dad, was advocated, and it was pointed out that, this would be easy to make and would satisfy all traffic demands. Another scheme dscussed was for an electric railway along the same loute, with only a few stations, at great distances apart, as collecting points ier goods traffic. The rout of the Turkish army and the fall of Bagdad will have the effect of setting at nought all these ambitious proposals.