ECHOES OF THE WAR.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1349, 2 March 1916, Page 5

ECHOES OF THE WAR.

Residents of the Chatham Islands receive their war news from. Wellington day by day by wireless. The messages ape sen over i. distance of about 500 > riles (One of the operators at the telegraph station on the main island types them with a type writer machine and then strikes off copies with a mimeograph, and these are distributed to residents who subcribe to the fund for obtaining the news. The charge is about 5s for 200 words, and about 5s worth of war news is sent to the islands every day. One copy is taken by the hotel, and subcribers’ copies usually are placed i n envelopes and left at the post office to be called for. The New York “Evening Post” some time ago gave great prominence to the impressions of a “well-known business man from the central west,” who has just returned from spending several weeks near’ the battle front. Of Germany he says that she has enough foodstuffs an hand and in sight to. carry hep through the war with reasonable economy. It is estimated that there are about 7,C00,000 men in the German army at the present time and 3,000,000 more in training. It is the intention of Germany to maintain her army at a maximum strength of 10,000,000 men. This year’s class, consisting of boys 'of 17 years of age, bias not yet been caLed to the colours. I understand that the Germans propose to conserve their younger men. There is plenty of copper. In the five years before the war Germany

imported a million tons of copper. The entire country is under cultivation. 1

When a German farmer needs l assistance he goes to the nearest concentration camp of prisoners and asks for the number of men he needs. The prisoners gladly volunteer, and are paid for this work from two and a-half to three shillings a day. From my observations I should say the British prisoners are not treated as well in Germany as the German prisoners are in Britain, but I believe that the prisoners are getting the same rations as the German soldiers in the field. Of France this American says that while she has suffered more heavily than any other nation in the war, her moral is holding up wonderfully. Of England, he says;“l was generally impressed there with the idea that the country as a whole does not appreciate the seriousness of the situation. The English people do not seem to realise how great the war is ”

On every side in Germany states a recent neutral visitor, there is evidence that the minds of all classes of society have now assimilated the state of war. There are no shirkers; every man, woman, and child is doing their share. They have grown so accustomed to the war, the entire nation has given itself so com(pletffely to the business of-making war, that a sudd- cessation of ho hili ties would shake the fabric of the State to its foundations. But there is a marked change in the attitude of the people. It is no longer the "grosse Zeit” (big era), or even the “ernste Zeit” (grave times) of which I heard so much in Germany six months ago. Now it is the “teure Zeit’’ (hand times) that one hears constantly referred to. The people are begining to realise, if not yet to count, the cost. I was standing in front of the Kriegs Akademie (War School) in Berlin. The lower part of the walls of this vast red brick building are covered with printed sheets of paper, the casualty lists of Prussia. Women, children, and old men were straining their eyes, scanning the interminable rows of names, dreading to find the name of a brother, a son, a father. A small convoy of Russian prisoners passed—splendid young fellows, who stared at the crowd on the pavement with kindly childish eyes. The prisoners were on their way to the Lehrter Station to be interned at Doberitz Those who had been intently scanning the casualty lists turned about silently and watched the prisoners pass, few made any comment. A woman standing near me remarked, pointing to the casualty lists; “Is it worth it?” This is another aspect of the new war spirit in Germany to-day. There are many who are beginning to realise that the struggle can bring no ultimate good to the German people. Some few are beginning to question whether the war is rea-lly defensive; but the overwhelming majority still appear to believe in the righteousness of the German cause and the ultimate success of German arms.