GERMAN LOSSES.
COLONEL REPINGTON AND HIS CRITICS.
ROUGH ESTIMATE, Colonel Repington, the military corres poudeat of The Times, wring to that papur under date. February 14, says:
So many correspondents have asked for further explanations on the subject of Ger man losses referred to ju my article of February 9 that I Batist ask for a little
#211
space for a reply Population
1.-German Male asked to stato exactly what this figure is. It can be ascertained by taking the conjus 1910, which gave a total population of 64.885.903 on December 1 of that year, by adding thereto the natural increment of 1911-14, inclusive, and by deducting the considerable alien enemy population. We must then add something for Germans who returned from abroad on the outbreak of war. On the whole I estimate that the total male population was 33 millions in August, 1914.
to: 50.
·BATTLE PICTURES OF THE
TIGRIS
STOICISM OF THE WOUNDED.
[The Battle of Sheikh Sad, of which Mr. Ediaund Candler gives some distant glimpser in the following dispatch, was that fought by General Aylmer on January 7 bismarch to the relief of Kut. It ended indecisively for the moment, but two days later the enemy wers in fight, to take up new positions nearer Kut Bheikh Saad is 25 miles as the crow flies from General Townshend's stronghold, but much farther by river.]
In an earder letter I gave a brief descrip tion of the river up to Amara. Above Amara the banks becoine even mora barren The reed bute of the nomade and desolate. give place to black gont hair tents. The scenery is easy to describe hard-caked mud on either sido,
In the region of Sheikh Saad the land is matciously and fanatically sterile. It is the country over which Childe Roland rods to the Dark Tower, naked earth in its most depressing form, cracked and caked and rutty, without the rock, gravel, or sand which give colour to the desert
THE HONGKONG DAILY PRESS, MONDAY, APRIL 10 x 1918.
ARMSTRONGS AND
PARMAMENTS.
OVER SEVENTY-THOUSAND MUNITION WORKERS,
[BY THE SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT OF THE '* DAILY CHRONICLE."'-
Anyone who goes through the vast arm ment workswnica aro Roy situated an more than one part of England-or Messrs. Armstrong, Whitworth & Company must be struck by the general steadiness of the 70,000 or Budo men anu women at work There is an slackness in any brancli or in any shop, and in some departments the work is atrenuous is the extreme. The effort of this firm is a fine oxatapie of the quick aning of production brought about by the war and the adaptability of a great en- ging establishment to way conditions.
Formerly, while an enormous business in aramienta was done by the firm, they were also engaged in gecenal engineering work. On the outbreak of war their works shops were immediately. transformed Man of Military Age-At the same
It was over this ratty ground that the bridge-making machinery was scrapped rar date thero wer, out of these 33 millions, transport wagons bumped and jolted with gun-making plant, motor-car works gare about 13) million men of militage, 18 their freight of wounded on the evening of way to gauge-ractories, old workshops were to 45. juclusive, and 15 millions aged 17 January 7th. It was evening when our on urged and new ones bulit, new wačnívery stemmer mooted near the battlefield. We of the latest type, in many cases automus, 3--Maximum Number Availabic.-I am
weni dus to meet them as they streamedic, was installed, and a general spoeding asked why I have made no deduction for unfit men. This deduction has been made, in over the und-coloured flat, and gave up process adopted. Foreign war-work had and also a further deduction for increase whos aid we could. Many were walking to be side-tracked in favour of British ja
our of Bru of unfitness with age. These and other devery erect, some of them with the stiffness of quirements, ductions reduce the number of men of mili. effort. These were the serious cases; the stretchers and transport wagons came in tary ago, at tad available tớ servo in over nine millions,
August, 1914, from 13 millions to a little later. One was struck with the hardiness making arrangements for jucreused mitpu
an
BWIRS AUTHORITY'S FLOURES. 4-Colonel Feyer's Figures. I asked whether I agree with this excellent Swiss authority. To a large extent, yet, but by no means altogether. The last figaros of his that I possess are for No- vember last. when he gave the original mobilisable total at 8.850.000, including the 1800 and 1897 classes, and the reserves still available at 1.800,000. The difference be tween us is due to our varying estimations of figures not exactly known. He allowed 300.000 more unfit men than I budget for. and withdrew from the German Ariny 1.600,000 men of military uge fur railway posts, and telegraphs, a wuch higher figure than I as prepared to admit. He further rockoned the net monthly losses at 192.000, whorens I have shown cause why I make shem 150,000. I have great eospect for Colonel Feyler's work, and hope tast he is right. but respect for a goal authority 100g Hot compel us to absodon is right of privato judgment,
5-Gorman "Casualty Lists. Almost vory critic fastens upon the numbers given by the German casualty returns for cor- tain months, notably the small figures for August, 1914, and questions them. The Explanation is that these are losses, not incurred, but published, during the montlig named. The losses are often published Beveral weeks after they occur, and if the liebs aro regarded from this point of view they will be better understood. The lists, as I have stated, are open to suspicion, but personally I am not convinced that thore has been deliberate falsification in the past, whatever there may be in tho future. I believe that it is forbidden in most parts of Germany to republish these liska öz
summarise them, and that in fractions of this rule are visited by severe penaltics. This is in their favour. I am also asked whether, if the returns are often belated, we should not allow some- thing, over and above the returns of Jan- sary last. Corbainly we should. It is something to the good from our point of view. But it would be guesswork.to sag gest a figure.
DEATH FROM NATURAL CAUSES, --Bick and Wounded in Hospitals~I am asked why I have not allowed for wounded in hospitals and whether the number is not considerable. Assuredly it is considerable, and most normally amount to 300.000 men, but as the names of the wounded are given in the casualty returns
we cannot afford to count them twice over; The sick are not reported and so stand in a different category. If the medical au- thorities at the War Office would give us To estimate of German sick, and of per- manent waste by sickness, based on the analogy of our own losses from the same cause, I would gladly adopt it, but this has not yet been done. As for the 24,000 Germans reported as having died. I have already suggested that this may be the figure of those who have died in the army mony only. As a total figure it is unaccept able. The deaths from natural causes among3⁄4:19,000,000 men of military age must have been 200,000 during 18 months of war, and this I havo allowed for. Qo
7.Wounded Returning to the Front The Nation asks me to reduce the "unmber
་
and stoicism of the British and Indian aliko
Heg your
Ir pardon, sir,” says a British private, can you tell me where the ambu Innge is and he deprecates the support of my shoulder, though his calf is bandaged and it is painful for him to put his left foot to the ground
n
I as all right, sir; it's nothing serious
Ho lifts up his shirt and points to
His face is puncture in his stouinch. bloody and bandaged
took off
"I
By a fortunato coincidence Armstrong, were putting stown now equipment ana just before the war began. Their now ship. bulking yard, which cost over a milion was just ready. The company was there- tore able to produce munitions on an in. reused scale before oblier private free.
ENGLISH INFLUENCES IN RUSSIA
LIJN
JAVA-CHINA JAPAN
REGULAR FORTNIGHTLY SERVICE BETWEEN JAVA, CHINA AND JAPAN.
CHAT WITH A FRIEND OF THE TSAR.
STEAMER
"We hear of you in England," I mid, as a great reformer." He threw up his hands. laughed with all his heart, and exclaimed, I nu a worker, a-worker, no u reformer. Oh, I am too busy-too, too immersed in my work to be a reformer! Yes, I sure you.!
-Count Ignatieff is a man of widdle-age. who contradicts with a forceful vigour the There is no popular idea of a Russian. *mitchevo?! about this able Minister, who is simply boiling over with energy, and never frames a sentence in conversation without a score of gestures, quick as light- ning flashes. At one moment during our conversation he was scoring
of note-
with a kreon, pencil on pid:" lines. paper: at the next, this green pencil Which contrasted sharply with the deep ant unbroken black of the Ministar's dress-Wis togged away, and his hands were flasting hither and thither to give pure vigorous emphasis to his words. And all the time, or nearly all the time, lie was laughing in the pleasantent fashion conceivable. Tike one who enjoys his work, who is a philo sopher in the midst of his work, and who noter allows work of any kind to crush his spirits,
He is a partially bad man, with dark brown hair, very brown lively eyee, and a lighter brown moustache of almost military proportions. He is tall and a little corpu fent, with a full, face, ang high shoulders inclined to heaviness. When he walks it as if he had a train to catch or a lost hour to overtake. He can be serious in a moment.
ENGLISÉ T, GERMAN IN SCHOOLA, You are introducing the study of Eng-
But it is not yet how do you say it obligatory. You go, it is difficult. First
was not long before the whole stab ish- ment was thoroughly reorganised and
lipped ready to cope with a large sealelish into your schoola 1 asked him. production. The result is that the output of certain articles of war equipment has been increased by two or three hundred per cent, entire y owing to the new w chinery, new methods, and working night and day. The machinery, however, docs un for the quickeng of production. The te ve speeded up to tae uxtent of this ve per cent, working the same machines.
Гвом
OW Os ABOUT
WILL. IMAVE
Os on ABOUT
TJILATJAP
MAKASSAR
SHANGHAI
24th April
15th April
26th April
ROBE
BATAVIA
TJ/BODAS
KOBE
26th April
29th April
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For Parboulars of Freight and Punagy, apply to the
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·Expected®
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of an, you cannot make a language obtiga- TJLKEMBANG. tory if you have not the teachers, No, tast 18 not possibe but I am doing some thing just now to nave English taught in our universities," and "to" oneourage the
It is nothing, he explains; bit of my gara the distant Red Cross flag and the funnels
He will not rest, but moves on towards do everything. Labour is also responsible.udy of Euglish by men and women who of the steuer on the river. Here at logat should be rest, warm tea, and comfort for his wounds. But in Mesopotamia, it ja a far cry
the smooth motor-ambulances
DILUTION
of France, the rapid transit to the hospital. where an hour or two after he has received first aid doctors and nurses are ready with evory saving device that services can pro-embers of the special Com app vide.
THE BATTLE THROUGH A MIRAGE, The evolutions of our troops on land were obscured by the mirage. We saw infantry
thought them like trees moving, and transport train. Other masses which could be nothing but artillery, crossed the pon- toon bridge ahead of us from the right The mirage does not bank to the left. affect the atmosphere at the height of a bursting shell we could see the shrapnel smoke unfolding two or three miles from the bank, and wondered if it were Turkish Shelling their ad. artillery or our own.. vanced posts
was the genera verdict. It was not till later that we realized that the whole force was at grips with the enemy; and it was not until we moored and met the converging stream coming in from the trenches that we realized how costly the day had been. The guns we had heard bad played but a small part in the action. for the mirage had made artillery prepara. tion for our advance ineffectual, and the bulk of our casualties on both banks of the stream had occurred in frontal attacks on the enemy's position.
wil be able to wich in the schools. It will take a little time, doubtless; it is a thing which cannot be forced. But the eighty are good, and we are doing what we There has been no trouble at Arinstrong,
can to get the bachers. Then there is another dinicu.ty.
He stopped to laugh, on the question of the nation of labour.
**You see, hitherto the German language” The scheme put before the workers by iae
Well, the students has been obligatory. ed by the Government to deal win this. quesnon-Sir George Croydon Marks, they to these ves, After the war it will perhaps be the same as before the war.' I Kt. Hon. George N. Barnes and Al make an order. That in all very well. But D. J. Shackleton, was accepted with gene the students say. The university is rul unanimity as an emergency measure. The employers agreed to the conditions eternal; Ministers core, and they also ing with a perfect understanding of the associated with the deution that no work go? He laughed again, his eyes flash- than was to be prejudiced by the spurt students humour. So yon see we must that he might make or the greater surgo expect s reformation, a revolution, that ho might show in this time of national These students have been learning Gorman, streas to increase the output, beyond that they are used to Gorman, and they are a
little cynient, a little sceptics] about which could be expected from an ordinary man working for like operations. As Bir Ministers. English may be only my fad. Croydon Marka told the wen; the money to
German tay come back. They are not in- be paid is a secondary consideration, 11 being a case of output and speed rather lined just yet to put their backe into than conomy and money saving rather life something quite now new, and therefore saving than money saving He explained perhaps transitory." a
st
It followed that any man who wan transferred, or any woman who was transformed, to take the place of an other person having higher wages than the one who was about take the place
I
WAE FOR A GREAT IDEA, "But you yourself are keen about English
Qu, yes! I believe that in Russia we shall soon have the three languages. Rus- ¿ian, French English, I am one of the of the more skilled operator, enthusiasts for the English language," paid for the same output the sawe wages, believe that in Russia we shall be helped otherwise there would be benefit to the by the study of the English language, be employer by employing cheaper labour. cause there is so much in English character which helps to complete Hussian character, We are a nation which lives an ideas, You also have ideas, but you are very practical us well. Some of your ideas are the same ideas as oura, Russia and
As I write we are moving op to attack a new position, and it is not the moment yet. The condition attached to the scheme for a detailed account of the action and the part taken in it by individual regi ments. In the meanwhile friends at home may care to have a picture of the ground on which we are fighting and where our dead lio,
of dilution made it clear that where semi-skilled or unskilled labour was her after employed on work identical with that undertaken by the skilled labour; the time rates and piece prices and pre- maum bonus forms would be the same as that bitherto paid for the operations when performed by skilled labour,
Further, when skilled labour was trans ferred to any other work the earnings of much skilled labour on the now work should not be less than that hitherto paid to such labour before transference. No skilled labour was to be displaced by less skilled labour unless other skilled employ meat was offered to those about to be dis placed.
On the afternoon of the 6th a little regi- mental cemetery had been pegged out in the camp. Picture a narrow space between kicking mules and gurgling cames and atumunition mbere on the Tigris bank. In the distance, seen through the slanting. masts of the river-boats and the smoke of the transport stoniners and monitors, the snow of the Pusht-i-Kub is taking on a faint rose from the setting sun. The dead lie still and peaceful in their narrow graves, each in the dark blanket, wound
So far og Armsirengs are concerned, tightly round him, like a mummy, with his dilution is proceeding without friction, name scribbled on the page of a notebook and fixed to the fold with a pin. Soon and it in hoped that the difficulty in get. the padre will come and read the service ting more labour, should Army orders in over them. For verdure there is the agoon crease, may thus be avoided. and the kharnoog, and for a tombstone a wooden crass cut out. of a packing case. Private Andrew of their le bare tain Thomas, of the hires Born in a smiling grass country, buried in a hard, inhospitable day of Sheikh Saad.
DISTRACTIONS OF THE WOUNDED.
Cap
WOMEN WORKERS.
a great
They
example, this war. For England are not fighting to save, their countries from the enemy. We know very well that Germany can never conquer either England or Russia, It is impossible. But we are fighting. We are both fighting. What are we fighting for, then! We are fighting, England and Russia are both fighting, fur an idea the same idea. Al- though we know that Gormany: cannot destroy us, we are fighting her, and we shall continue to fight her, until the idea for which we fight is victorious-the idea of freedom from the tyranny of militarism, which we abhor, which we detest."
THE AWAKENING,
I asked him weather he looked upon education as a means of Höving those dis-- turbing social problemg which hamper the evolution of modern States misery, desti- tution and vice,
at Armstrongs shell factory, and several There are eight thousand women engaged
He replied that in Russia, bitterte, edu- hundred at the general engineering works cation has not been properly directed to undertake a grave, oploved. the culture of the whole man body, soul variety of work but th and spirit, that by directing it to this great majority of them are engaged in end he thought that very much might be As the fatigue party dig and prepare Enishing, shell cartridge cases and making den, towards the solution of social prob- the last bivouac for the deaf, the wounded fuses. Women have adapted themselves lens. In Russia, he said, the children of yesterday swatched in their bloody readily to machine work, and handle the have been educated with only one inten- bandages, stand on the bank a few feet machines deftly and with care, ption the supplying of their brains with apart, smoking and chatting and watching The making of munitions must be exact information. There had been no attempt the shells which burst with the clearness at all points. All material must be care to develop character or to improve the of magnesium wire against the opal and fully tested; the finished article must com- body, no steady and consistent intention ful beauty in these shrapnel flashes, and ments, and stand an all-round fest. In the future Russian education would more violet
haze in the west. There is a bane-ply with the most minuto gauge measure of cultivating the whole man. But in one forgets that they are making more dead, making of fuses alone there are no fewer closely approximate to the England method, It takes about two days to get used to the than two hundred gauge testu. The gauge Character would have his pics in Russian things. The crowd on the bank might be testing at Armstrong runs into millions schools. Harold Begbie in the Daily watching a football match; across the river of operations a week. One shop is devoted Chronicle there is an actual football. rising and to the making of gauge. It is a very falling to desultory kicks
of German wounded who return to the front from 80 to 25 per cent of the total number wounded. I see no good reason olaim should de so, because the German alls vory much higher than my estimate, because 60 per cent has been given as the figure for France. I do not trust all Colonel Feyer's figures of the Germân casualties, but I notice that he allows for 800,000 wounded to have returned to the front up to November last, and this is larger than my allowance up to date. Here, again, if the D.G.A.MS. will give as & figure, I will certainly accept it
8 Analogy of Frasco-British Lowes. I am asked how I account for the fact that the total casualties of the Germans on all fronts appear to be only equal to those of the Allies on the Western front. The French do not publish their losses, so I am got sure of the premises. But, presuming the fact to be as stated. I should ascribe It is now almost dark, but a serious it to the superior numbers and armament scholarly-looking Scot leans against the of the enemy. It was enough to have been bank straining his eyes over a Times st. Mons during the retreat, and at Ypres broadsheet. A few hours age he was fight- in May, to have learnt the crushing effecting as his bandages attest; for the moment of superior sumbere and armament. We he is far away in other clines, going rural suffered $1,000 casualties between April rides with Cobbett or reading Walton's 23 and May in the unnamed battle account of the marriage of Richard Hooker 1583, or listening to attack on the French. Since those days, the voice of George Mr. Lloyd George and Lord Derby have thats all simetris. been at work, and we hope soon to from their splendid activities."
Full of proportions; one limb to another. I may perhaps add that none of the Life and death have their true proportions letters which I have received, nor any of hers. Life is a gift that is rendered back the Frese criticisms which have reached relessly or earnestly to the Giver: Death mey gives me convincing reasons for chang is no more than a turn at the corner of the ing my figures. But I should repeat that dark road we have been treading blindly no two of us are likely to be completely Still, one wonders. Will there ever be an in sccord, and that I attach only a relative end of killing or maiming as a legalized
a technical and bighly-skilled work, and men have to be specially trained to do it
which began with the first Gorman gas in or about the yesterbart, who tells him imported from America, but most of them have met the demands made upon them.
importance to all calculations, including
form of human endeavour War, a my
my own, Theo things are but dim signals! subaltern friend says, is a much-overrated ja the fog of wæt.);
pastime Timerm,
well. When shells or any othe, munitions them save and invest in co-operative storce, are finished they are tested by the firm's or other ways, all their extra war wages, Much could be written about the recent own examiners, and again by the Govero- ment experts before they can leave the developments at Armstronge to illustrate works, va
the way in which they have turned out new The manufacture of machine tools, is an kinds of munitions, in record time, about ather highly-skilled business. Some of the their skipbuilding achievements, and gene machine tools in use at Armstrongs were rally concerning the way in which they have been made in the establishment The company is fortunate in having on Some of the machines have to be fed its board men of practical experience and by hand, as it were, others are quite national reputation, Sir Percy Girouard, automatic, and the only attention they seem who was associated with the Ministry of to require is to be started and be supplied Munitions at its initiation; Sir Philip with the raw material, tutan Watts, late Director of Naval Construc Naturally, the men and women earn ex- tion; Sir C. L. Ottley, formerly Beerstary ceptionally high wages. The weekly wage to the Committee of Imperial Defence: Bir bil of Armstrongs establishment is some George Murray, formerly Permanent Enc thing under £200,000 a week. Most of the rebary to the Treasury Lord Bydenham •
women are new bread winner for their
ARAKAN.....
From:
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11th April. | SAN FRANCISCO'
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