Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, 23 December 1915, Page 21

Current Topics

The Silver Bullet Mr. Lloyd George is authority for the statement that in the long run the silver bullet will tell, _ and that the side which has the longest purse will prove the final victor. In the light of this view, some practical interest attaches to the estimaterecently published . on the authority of M. Jules Roche, of France —of the—stock of gold (coined and bar) possessed by the Entente Allies on the one side and the Teutonic allies on the other. M. Roche’s figures are as follow: Entente Allies. "

lerman Tail Talk The high and. boastful tone adopted by Dr. von Bet hma nn- II , the German Chancellor, in his •ecent speeches in the Reichstag, faithfully reflected Re spirit prevailing in what may be called the more iggressive and flamboyant military circles in Germany. rhe highest hopes are indulged as to the outcome of die Balkan operations, and the breaking of British power in the East is regarded as a thing of the near future. It is assumed that the Suez Canal and Egypt are the goal of the Balkan drive, and it is assumed, with equal confidence and jubilation, that the goal will be quite easily attained. , Captain Persius, the well-known naval expert of the Berliner Tuyehlatt, in an article in that journal entitled ' England's Fleet Annihilated,’ gives the rein to some vain-glorious but rather premature heroics as to the things that are going to happen. ‘ For the emancipation of Egypt from English tyranny,’ he writes, ‘ the passage of the Mediterranean is no longer necessary. British warships will hardly be able to prevent the crossing of the Suez Canal, and from Egypt, wherever one might then look eastward or southward, one encounters the impotence of the British sea j iwer. Everywhere the way is free for land armies. To the submarine and Zeppelin fear is now added the fear of developments in the Balkans'. The English fleet is unable to save Serbia and cannot prevent the march of the armies of the Central Powers to Constantinople any more than it can throw' a protecting wall about Egypt. The English fleet proved inadequate when the word was given to destroy the German fleet and starve out Germany >. inadequate to conquer the Dardanelles, give breath to Russia, and to ward off the more distant danger that lies in threatening Egypt.’ * A high official of the Kaiser’s Foreign Office is quoted in Berlin papers as voicing similar sentiments, and as declaring that within two monthshe was speaking at the end of October—Germany will ‘really begin ’ to fight the British. It was on the success of the Teutonic Balkan campaign, with the opening of a source of admittedly much-needed supplies, that he too was counting when he spoke. ‘ In five more weeks, he is reported as having said, ‘a way will be opened through Serbia to Bulgaria and Turkey, where great quantities of food and raw materials are stored. Within two months we will have all the Anatolian cotton and wool we require, so we will not need an American supply When we have established communication with Bulgaria and Turkey war with England will really

begin. We : have enough of France and Russia already to guarantee satisfactory peace terms with these two. Our success in the Balkans will mean the menacing ; of the British empire. Our way to Constantinople open to us, we can strike at Suez and Egypt.’ ; These roseate hopes and plans are based on the view—which is said to be widely held in certain circles in Berlin—that the decision in the war will depend practically upon the outcome of the Balkans campaign. Such a view, it need hardly be said, finds little countenance amongst expert opinion on the side of the Entente, and if this notion has really any vogue amongst the German authorities it can only be explained on the principle of the wish being father to the thought. •Religion in the Firing Line There are those who profess themselves seriously troubled in mind about the possible or probable effect of the war upon religion and religious belief. These good people are fearful lest the nameless horrors and indescribable suffering and savage brutalities which the war has brought in its train may lead men to doubt and question the very existence of a divine and beneficent Providence. It may safely be said by way of reply that at least the-war has had no such effect upon those who have come into closest contact with its realities and who have tasted most deeply of its terrors. On the contrary, instances innumerable are recorded in which men who had long abandoned the profession and practice of religion have been brought back to both by the heart-searching experiences of the battle-field. As we have often said in these columns, there is one place where there is no decay, of religion or religious faith, and that is in the trenches, where men are daily and hourly looking death and eternity* in the face. Many letters from chaplains have been published showing the remarkable awakening of the spirit of religious faith and fervor amongst the fighting troops, but most of these have referred to the army of France, amongst whose ranks atheism and materialism had made serious inroads. Here is one, however, which shows that a similar state of things prevails amongst the Italian soldiers, and as we have heard very little of conditions on the Italian front the letter will be read with general interest. It is from the chaplain of the Twelfth Regiment of Bersaglieri to the Archbishop of Milan, and speaks for itself as to the fine spirit of both priests and men. It runs thus, as published in the Corner e della Sera of June 11 :—-

‘ June 8, 1915.

‘ Your Eminence,—l permit myself to write in pencil, because to those who write from the battlefield all is pardoned. I am the -least of priests (tin prHino novella), one of the last ordained, and now tried by four days of fighting. I have done my duty as priest and soldier. The Commander of the regiment has mentioned me for a medal of valor. I shall perhaps be the first chaplain decorated in the war. If you did but know what a battle is in -our day! Before the fighting the Colonel presented me to the troops, with warm words of faith and patriotism. To the whole regiment formed in square I imparted the General Absolution, because I could not give it to each separately. On the Ist of June, after ten hours’ march, we had four hours’ fighting. On the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th we fought all day and all night. These were days of continual assault with the bayonet under the fire of artillery and machine-guns. How good it is to Be a priest in the forefront of the battle! to encourage the combatants and comfort them with the consolation of religion. I have a museum-boot. It was shattered by a shrapnel bullet, which did not injure the foot. It deserves to be suspended upon some altar of our Lady. How moving it is in some moments of sorrow to see around one officers and soldiers asking absolution, or at least a little benediction ! I am asked repeatedly for the little medals. Sometimes the wounded embrace me, clinging to me as if I were their own mother. To risk one’s lifp for the saying of a soul is no heroism for

a priest but a necessity. , . .To-morrow I shall go to visit my wounded and then return to the Apostolic life on the field of battle. lam well and always cheerful, for the Lord blesses and comforts me in the midst of so many and great dangers. 1 pray you send these two battle-fragments to Monsignor de Giorgi, the Superior of my Seminary, that he may send them to my mother. Send me your benediction and a plenary indulgence in articulo mortis, for in to-morrow’s fighting perhaps I fall. I kiss your hand with the affection of a son. “ Edoardo Gilardi.’

How War * News ’ is Made

It is safe to say that never before, in all history, has there been a great war in which the world has known so little of the real and actual truth of what was taking place as in the case of the present struggle, and that although this is the day of wireless and of the almost übiquitous cable. . This state of affairs is partly due to the fact that war correspondents have been practically debarred' from getting sufficiently near to the front to see things for themselves, partly to the rigid censorship prevailing amongst all the belligerents, and partly to the consequent fact that newspaper writers have had to fall back on rumor, hearsay, or their imagination for the war ‘ facts ’ which they feel called upon to serve up to their readers. This last circumstance is freely and fully admitted by newspaper writers themselves when they can be caught in candid mood. ‘We newspaper men printed a vast amount of rubbish during the year of war,’ says Simeon Strunskey, writing to the Atlantic Monthly on ‘War Notes From a Newspaper Desk.’ Ho proceeds to give particulars of how the public was hoodwinked:—‘By reflecting the nonsense of diplomats, chancellors, war experts, statisticians, professors, scientists, and young women just landed from Rotterdam and convinced that the Germans were bound to win, we justified our claim to be the mirror of the universe. Some of this rubbish we printed unconsciously, in sheer ignorance, but a great deal we inserted, I imagine, for relief. As newspapermen we wanted to break up the monotony of long columns on the front page. As neutrals we were glad to vary the monotony of long German victories, with a perfectly disastrous bit of secret information regarding conditions in Berlin by way of Zurich and Venice to London and so to us. Most of this rubbish was of anti-German cast, and it is these small ‘ fillers ’ that the Germans had in mind when they cried out at the campaign of lies that was waged against them. Lies they may have been, but to call them a. campaign is absurd, when you consider their purpose, which was mental relief, and their effect, which was utter futility. . This silly gossip of the cables was generally against Germany, but not always. German ingenuity received grudging tribute. I recall clearly the oil casks that the German Admiralty sank off the British coast as storage reservoirs for submarines. 1 recall the fog bombs that Count Zeppelin invented for the invasion of England, and even German thoroughness could hardly go beyond carrying fog to London.’

To this list of absurdities we may add the multifarious stories which were circulated regarding the erection of concrete platforms by the Germans in every possible and impossible place, and pretty well all over the surface of our planet. They had their origin at the time of the siege and capture of Maubeuge by the Germans in the early stages of the war. In this connection a Paris newspaper, famous for its sensational news, published a tale to the effect that a few months before the war a Belgian financier bought land at Lanieres, near Maubeuge, and began to erect there a factory for railway engines. But it explained that the real buyer was Krupp of Essen that, while the alleged factory was being erected,' concrete gun platforms were laid down ; and that when the Germans arrived they mounted their siege guns on these ready-made platforms. The story was reproduced in English newspapers, arid immediately there arose a scare about con-

crete platforms constructed around London and elsewhere fey German agents. Garden terraces, cisterns, the 'foundations of printing-presses, and all * manner of likely or unlikely structures ‘ were denounced to the police as the work of far-seeing German spies. General Sir Desmond O’Callaghan, an artillery officer, who examined" several of these alleged gun platforms, demonstrated .their innocent character, and in a letter to the press pointed out that at Maubeuge the howitzers employed needed no concrete bases., The 11-inch howitzer of the German siege train has a quick-firing mounting, and steel plates, or ‘ girdles ’ on its wheels, giving it a wide support, so that it can be fired from an ordinary road or platform of sleepers. It was subsequently shown that the whole story of the concrete platforms at .Lanieres was an obvious fabrication. Lanieres is to the south-west of Maubeuge. The German howitzers for the attack on the forts were on the Other side at Peissant, just within the Belgian frontier. Some lighter siege guns were used oh the west side of the fortress, but there was not a single gun at the engine factory. The publication of such stories is not only silly but mischievous. The Germans have already a sufficient reputation for thoroughness and foresight ; it is quite unnecessary to add to it by gratuitously attributing to them exploits which they have never performed. The * Patriot ’ as Plotter For a time the dramatic and unexpected resignation of Sir Edward Carson was somewhat of a puzzle to British politicians. The House of Commons, which, like Mr. Dooley, knows how 1 to be ca’am whin there’s annything to be ca’am about,’ did not betray any notable excitement over the Orange leader’s announcement, and the resignation hardly caused so much as a ripple on the surface of politics or public opinion. Some of the papers, indeed, especially the Irish , papers, were positively flippant in their comments on the occurrence. The Freeman’s Journal said: We do not know yet what exactly the resignation of Sir E. Carson portendswhether he is dissatisfied with Lord Kitchener or wiser than Grey, or wants Asquith’s head in a basket, as the London “Civil War” Press unanimously puts it.’ The Irish Independent remarked: ‘The Attorney-General has retired on a question on which he has no opinion of any special value to offer and which will certainly not tend to make him a popular idol.’ The Times, naturally, took the retirement ponderously and gravely, but there is a hollow ring about its portentous comments. ‘ Sir Edward Carson’s resignation.’ it observed solemnly, ‘ is, of course, a political event of the first magnitude, and none the less so because it seems likely for the present to stand alone. If at, last he has been driven to the conclusion that he can take no further part in the present conduct of the Avar, then Ave may be perfectly certain that he has weighed, And found wanting, the whole case for remaining with his colleagues and preserving the semblance of Cabinet cohesion at such a time.’ *

It was quite evident that the reasons offered by Sir Edward Carson were entirely insufficient to justify or to account for his unpatriotic and divisive action, but the question was, What was the real and hidden meaning of the move? The secret has now come to light, and it is one which reflects little credit on the ‘Ulster’ leader and his associates. The incident was part of a deliberate conspiracy to burst up the Coalition Government and to get rid of Mr. Asquith, Sir E. Grey, and other Liberal Ministers. It was a movement with no authority behind it, originating in newspaper offices and London clubs, and without any national backing. The quarters from which it obtained the press support accorded to it are plainly indicated by London Truth, which accuses the Morning Post of sniping,’ the Globe of offensive arid’ venomous libel ’ on Sir Edward Grey, and the Daily Mail arid the Times of complicity in the game. Truth makes the

further announcement that these plotters ‘have valuable allies and sympathizers in the upper ranks of the old army,’ and still worse, that they ‘ have been closely in touch with British head-quarters in France for the last year. Other papers, discussing the same subject, say plump and plain that the Northcliffe scheme was nothing less than to hoist Sir Edward Carson into the British Premiership. This aspect of the conspiracy is more than hinted at in an editorial in the Morning Post, from which we quote a portion. ‘ The Coalition,’ this paper says, has failed because it was formed, not on national but on party lines. The men were chosen, not for their qualities but on the basis of proportional representation—so many men for one party, so many for another. The whole thing” is rotten, and the best men in the country should unite to make an end of it. This might be done by the creation of a national Government selected, not oh claims of party, but on grounds of efficiency. . . . The party claim must be swept away. Mr I Lloyd George, for example, seems to be as much in earnest as Sir Edward Carson. If they are both patriots and both with the same clear, overmastering end in view, then they would both work together, irrespective of the past. These two men and Lord Kitchener might find others to work with them of the same mettle, and might be able to form a small, efficient Cabinet for the purpose of fighting Germany and ' not for the purpose of keeping two effete political parties in a state of suspended animation. What is most urgently required is that those -who think with Sir Edward Carson range themselves upon his side and organise themselves into a possible alternative Government, strong enough in men and interests to take over the heavy responsibilities which are being shirked by the present holders of office.’ Some of the ‘ heavy responsibilities 5 which this precious junta were prepared to take over are plainly indicated by the London special correspondent of the New York World. Referring to the work mapped out by the leaders of the new combination in English politics, he says: ‘ The scheme is to form a Unionist Ministry under Lloyd George, to carry on the war and when the war is over to destroy the Home Rule Act. This latter purpose is understood to be the particular condition on which Carson would take office again.’ So far the conspiracy has completely failed, and the only effect of Sir Edward Carson’s unworthy and unpatriotic action has been to demonstrate that the Cabinet and country can get along very comfortably without his services.

France ... £320,000,000 Russia ... 208,000,000 England 152,000,000 Italy ., '...' 60,000,000 Belgium ... ... ... 5,500,000 Tola 1 £745,500,000 Teutonic Allies. £745,500,000 Gonna £179,000,000 Austria-Hungary 74,000,000 Turkey ... , 29,000,000 Total - £282,000,000