ECHOES OF THE WAR.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1307, 13 May 1915, Page 25

ECHOES OF THE WAR.

Lieut.-Colonel Davidson, who has been spending a long furlough in Nelson, left Wellington for San Franc.seo last week, en route for Peru, where he will resume his place on the staff of the Peruvian Army.

Mr. R Evans, an employee on Otairi station, Hunterville. had four brothers at the front —two married and two single—and he received word the other day that every one had been killed in the recent fighting.

Mr. Vincent, whose caricatures portraying current political events in Melbourne are a feature of the “Bulletin,” is seriously ill. It is likely that some months will elapse before he wil be abe to resume duty again.

Herr Ballin, managing director of the Hamburg-Amerika line, has stated that Germany has ample copper. She is replacing her overhead copper tramway wires with steel substitutes.

Private James Slim, who was born in Jamaica, and is a coloured man, has enlisted in the 4th (Reserve) Coldstream Guards at Windsor. He first joined the Foreign Region of France, and was wounded while serving in the trenches. When he recovered he expressed a desire to join the British army, and Lord Kitchener granted his w.sh. He is now going through a course of training at Victoria Barracks, and hopes shortly to leave for the front. He is the first coloured Guardsman within memory.

Said a Russian to a pressman: “But you English are dreamers. You think the German heart is easy to break. Nitchvo! We shall see. That Kaiser has the heart of a devil. He will see his last army corps butchered, and broken before he w.ll throw up his hands. But we shall say to him by and by, ‘Now, Mr. Kaiser, if you insist on dragging out this business, and killing thousands more men, we are very sorry, we Allies, but we shall be compelled to retain Silesia and Westphal a permanently to balance our fares to Berlin.”

Captain Dahl, who is in charge of the steamer Natal, which arrived recently at Fremantle states that there is a feeling in Denmark that Germany is not likely to respect lhe neutrality of Holland any more than she has done that of Belgium. Holland’s neutrality is a big drawback to Germany’s plan for an invasion, and it is thought that when it suits him, the German Emperor will forward an ultimatum to the Du'ch Ministry demanding the right-of-way from Ant-

werp to the open sea. The strategie impor ance of the Belgian capital would be enhanced by the declarat.on of war against the Dutch, whose territory s.retching across the mouth of the River Scheldt hems in the waterway to Antwerp behind neutral land. “Ever since the capture of Antwerp,” continued the captain, “the Germans have been busy raising a large number of vessels which were sunk in the harbour before the Belgians vacated the port, and these vessels are now almost ready to take to the sea again. There is no room for doubt, that Germany has designs for an invasion of England, and from the ac'ivity in Antwerp, the vessels in the harbour are apparently being fitted up as transports to convey the invaders. Until, however, Holland is embroiled in the s ruggle those vessels cannot get out, and the general feeling is that a breach of Holland’s neutrality s only to expected.”