WHAT IS THE LESSON OF VERDUN?
OUGHT WE TO IMITATE: Mr. A. G. Gardinor writing in the Daily News and Leader, alter giving a resume of the operations around Verdun,
There is in this a profound lesson for
THE HONGKONG DAILY PRESS, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 7TH, 1916.
BRUSSELS TO-DAY. Before the war Brussels had the re- patation of being the gayest, the live liest capital in Europo.
buy enjoyment at a lower cost than any
It was a little Paris, where you could where else, a city of pleasure and a city of leisure, attracting residents from all parts of the world,
is turned
To-day the city of pleasare Not
There were
SCOUTING FOR ZEPPELINS.
NIGHT FLYING AND ITS 4
BENSATIONS.
[BY AN 411MAN IN THE DAILY CHRONICLE."
MOVING THE TOP OF A MOUNTAIN.
ITALIANS AMAZING FEAT IN THE ALPS.
the great feat on Tuesday last, when the Graphic details are now available of
JAVA-CHINA-JAPAN
It was a telephone message that warned us of the approach of Zeppelins, and of bridge to a with my pilot, and our machine was extreme summit, towards Mount Sief, I was at the aerodroms Austrian defonders perched on ite being wheeled out of the shed, by blowing off the hope darkness, laden with bombs, machine battalion of enemy forces, wrote the Mechanics hurry into and out of the an, and thereby overwhelming a whole
be of the mou guns, ammunition, and other accessories special correspondent of the Daily to a Zeppelin chase. We wrap ourselves Chronicle from Milan on April 23rd. a protection against the biting cold, and, in the Upper Cordevole Vallely which, TJJBODAS in our leather coats, put on face-masks as The Col di Luna is the supreme peak taking our maps and electric torebes, at an elevation of 7,800ft, commands the we stride over the aeroplane great highway through the Dolomites. pilot tests the engine, and I examine the A din group gathers round while the bomb rack and Lewis gun. Everything
TJIKINI. satisfactory,
pod
during June and July last year the In a long tories of leaps and bounds Italian Alpini won their way up the mountain till they had driven the Aus most cone trians to seek a a last refuge on its top
ats. I shall not presume to say what that into a city of gloom, ed incidentally called us away from a rubber, Italians rid the Col di Lana (Bastern lesson is, but I shall attempt to suggest what it may be. And as a preliminary the most cheerful capital of the Con
only was Brussels before the war minutes late more exciting game. Five Trentino) of the last remnant of the let us agree that the aim ought to be, not tinent, it was also the most prosperous, to satisfy any public impatience, but to providing employment for its 100,000 in win the war. Public impatience deposed habitants. But most of the trades were Fabius, and gave Hannibal the victory of concerned with superfluities rather than Cannao, but it was the patient policy of carriage builders and manufacturers of
the necessities of existence. Fabius that made Hannibal's ultimate lace, artificial flower makers and jewel: defeat assured. The natural demand of lers, dealers in fashions, the public is for action. They want to see and dressmakers, and milliners some dramatic stroke, and there are plenty of quacks to appeal to this elemonta complete standstill. Even wore thore All those luxury trades have come to ary and hunun demand. The German any money left for luxuries, the money have failed at Verdun, they cry: What spending are we waiting for? Let us have & Ver Belgian Government are at Havre The have emigrated. The dun of our own. Let us smash through to printing works and newspaper offices calls the pilot, and a second later the pro-
We are ready at last, Contact the Rhine.
Is that the true moral of this great on, but it is only used for the transport his art, the two chocks are pulled from of the avalanche of boulders and showers are closed. Railway traffic is still going peller is racing round. The pilot, waves episode? By aniversal consent, this has of troops and supplies under the wheels, and we tear across the of hand bombs which were rained upon For a brief day the Italians, in spite been the greatest offensive of the war. Only the churches are filled with aerodrome. We The Germans brought to it not less than for the absent and the dend pitch darkness immediately below us withering fire concentrated upon them
mothers and widows who are 600,000 men and a six months accumula
praying A hundred feet up. We know that the gain a footing on the summit, but the them by the exasperated foe, managed to tion of material. They prepared the at lasted now for nearly eighteen months, all that it should be, for if it peters outgina planted on the encircling heights This paralysis of trade, which has hides a wood. Pray Heaven the engine is from the Austrian artillery and machine- tack with extraordinary secrecy and began has resulted in appuling poverty Worse at this stage we shall be too low to glide soon forced them back to the security of it with every advantage on their side. They had four days of startling success, silent unobtrusive, genteel poverty of the treetops.
even than the poverty of the poor is the into the open and so avoid crashing on their trenches, some 50 yards below. and in Berlin the wooden statue echoed the well to do. For the behest of the We began climbing in carnest. Though ENEMY'S TAUNT to the hammering-in of countless nails. And, at the end of nine weeks they have public kitchens for twopence or three visible and seems miles away, I have Progress on either side. From their
wealthy cheap meals are sold in we are still below 500ft. the earth is in- wuffered the heaviest defont in history pence, and 10,000 rich people are the fancy that I am being hurled through No computation of their losses puts them taking advantage of them space on the winge of a nightmare lower than 300,000 men and it is, doubtful whether the losses of the French are a the part of the Germans to rebuild the band if I held it before my face, though There have been repeated attempts on Everything is black, and I cannot see my third of that numbor. And it must be shattered fabric of trade and industry I can feel the rush of wind as we force fat is the relativo loss. In the old days of the ordinary railways for tran-run my hand along the side of the remembered that the measure of the de But, as the Germans divert all the traffic our way through it at 80 miles an hour. of mobile warfare, the defeated army fled sport of troops, as they have torn up fuselage for the satisfaction of touching from the field. There was visible victory: Bundred of miles of light railways, to be something solid. In the static war of to-day, the defeated transported into Poland and Russia, HENSATIONS IN HIGH ALTITUDES, army stays on the field and measures its
As they have lifted all the available defeat by its dead copper and metal useful for military can pass through his first experience of It is not too much to say that nobody Can we do better? I know nothing of of machine tools for their own factories.cold fest. I tell myself that if the purposes, as they have taken thousands night flying and escape all symptoms of the view of the higher command. It may as they are still extorting hundreds of engine fails we shall be unable to find 's be that they believe that they can and millions of francs from a starving landing ground in the darkness, and can that they will make the attempt; but I population, their attempts to revive Bel-scarcely avoid a bad crash I realise the For four months a double shift of mining write simply from an external view of the gian trade have totally failed.ible when the flares have guided us back to night, to achieve their sim. All went
difficulty we shall have in landing even
fnete as they present themselves to the lay mind. No one suggests that the German lines are more vulnerable than those of the Allies. On the contrary, their trench system is notoriously more elaborate and their defensive resources are certainly not Iess complete. The Germans have sacri- ficed 300,000 men at Verdun and have fail ed. What is the sacrilico we should have to make in order to succeed 1. Can any- one estimate it 2 Suppose we made the attempt and, like the Germans failed
suffering of unemployment and poverty
More poignant even than the is the invisible moral tragedy There is the moral suffering of a proud, freedom loving, easy-going people," under the heel of the Hun.
martial law we must add the anguish of To the intolerable oppression of the isolation. There are not many families in Brussels who have not a soldier at the front or a refugee in exile, And as Brussels is cut off from the rest of the of their dear
our aerodrome. I think of a friend who after looking for Zeppelins on just such a night, collided with a tree as he came But these sombre thoughts, born of the down and was fatally injured
seconds. I remember I am up to look for surrounding darkness, only last a few raiding airships, not to give way to nerves. I switch on my electric torch, and examine the altimeter, the compass, the machine gun, and the drums of ammu Bitiona
LIJN
BEGULAR FORTNIGHTLY SERVICETETWEEN JAVA, CHINA AND JAPAN.
From
EXPROTED ON OF ABOUT
WILL ENAVI
ON OR ABO!
JAPAN
TJILIWONG
JAYA A MAKASSAR
BATAVIA & BINGAPORE
10th Juns 111 June
10th June
BATAVIA
16th June:
ROB
12th June 17th June
SHAN HAI
*Wirelam Telegraphy,
Cargo
The Steamers are all fitted throughout with Electric Light and have socommodation for aimited member of Saloon Passengers. All atesmen onrry a duly qualified surgeon. taken at through rates to all ports in Netherlands India and Australis.
For Partienses of Freight and Pamage, spply to the
York Buikdinge. Let Floor. *Hongkong, 19th May, 1916.
bod
JAVA-CHINA-JAPAN LIJN. Telephous No. 1574,
JAVA-PACIFIC LIJN.
often ding the taunt: You may take Months passed by without supstantial
friests, of cren Trent, but Col di Laos NETH. citadel overhead the Austrians would.
never
rock
At length it became clear that there
the air. The idea originated with the was no way out of the impasse except by heroic young Garibaldi, and, to give blowing all the enemy's positions into
effect to it, the Herculean task was in- a gallery 250 feet long through the solid augurated, on Christmas Day, of boring
under ingenious conditions lest its strid- A powerful perfurator was got to work ent voice should give away the secret
boring operations approached the Aus- engineers tailed incessantly, day and
trian positions, and the steady burrow- ing noise of drills and the thud of well till the early days of March, when
pickaxes awoke the enemy to the of what was going on
reality
became aware that their opponents had LIFE AND DEATIL BACK. The
Italions, on their part, speedily
Go ahead, my boys," urged the Italian lieutenant in charge of the operations. storted excavating a counter tunnel.
after losing 300,000 men to their 100 000 world, they have no new Three things are oddly comforting It is a matter of a face for life now.”
We should have suffered a defeat which would obliterate the precious conse quences of Verdun,
And it would have been made, not under necessity, but gratuitously In every war the methods of the opposing Bides must be different, often diametric ally different. One side is more pressed thin the other. Both want victory, but they must seek it in different ways on by baste, the other by delay. Napoleon, in his Moscow campaign, wanted to bring the enemy to a decision the Russian aim as to avoid a decision. And because they avoided a decision they won the victory Now the capital fact of the present situa tion is that the Germana.must have a vie tory; they must have it at once; they must have it on the Western front. They must have it at once because time is againal them. They must have it on the Wester frout because it is only or the Western Iront (or by a decisive blow at sea) that they can win the war.
But the case of the Allies is entirely different They need not win their deci
OBES.
And there is the harrowing uncer tainty of the future,
and
morrow, bring forth What will to the pale half-moon that has just come of the Italiau mines. The gallery had
the triumph of the Allied Armies, but The people of Brussels still believe in they are living in daily terror the when victory does comes, it may have to be paid for by the final destruction. of their beautiful and beloved city-Dr. Charles Sarolea, in the Sunday Pictorial.
vice mee versa? British credit would be exhausted. A Their conclusion was that year has passed and I think I know what. their conclusion would be to-day
Take two facts. Three hundred thou Band Germans have fallen. before Verdun alone. Now turn to this (Friday) morn ing's paper and loox at the Bank return Observe the last line in the table, Pro- portion." It looks very innocent and very harmless, but in that line you may sed the fate of Germany written in indelible ratio of reserve to liabilities stands at 208 characters. What does it say? That the per cent. And it adds this, that the in
set against its liabilities a ratio of re erint. In other words, the Bank has to serve more than 30 per cont higher than a year ago. That is one measure of our
help to counteract the sense of unreality
engine. A freakish twist of memory searchlights, and the loud him of the out from behind a bank of clouds, the makes the engine's rhythmic roar suggest to my sub-consciousness
Mr. Mandragon, the millionaire, I am G. K. Chesterton ballad, and ly find myself murmuring
and I sudden
happy to say is dead."
He
enjoyed a quiet funeral in a cre- matorium shed
And he lies there duffy and soft and
grey and certainly quite reâned When he might have been rotting to flowers and fruit with Adam and all menkind.
stated an earlier date for the explosion The turn matters were taking HECKI
to the assault which was contemplated enabling men to move easily two abreast bean bored on and upwards at a width immediately after the explosion, pan
When everything was ready for laying the stupendons mine, no less a quantity than ten tons of gelatine and dynamite was stored at the extreme end of the tunnel with a formidable shield of thick armoured steel so as preclude an outlet the remaining tract of tunnel from to the force of the explosion and to say? destruction, while providing an oper trenches. pathway. for rushing the enemy'S
A TURN OF A WHERE, AND______
The altîmster now registers 2,500ft Weteers for the last-named taek under the Forty soldiers came forward as volun- town. The twinkling of the myriad street attempt sucoreded are right over a populous part of the promise of a fortnight's holiday if the reflection on the pavement makes it look At half past eleven on Tnetary night lamps and shop lights or rather their
from trams and buses. Away to the right group of heroes marshalled at the en like a monstrous Chinese garden. The the Lieutenant gave two turns to the moving flashes, we suppose, must come wheel of a little electric generator. The we can see a bend.
were shaken to its base by a terrific earth- Crance to the gallery were struck full in later the mountain seemed as though it quake. A hellish roar burat forth and reached across the vast wastes of the
MONTHLY SERVICE BETWEEN
INDIA, MANILA, HONGKONG & SAN FRANCISCO.
Next Bailings for SAN FRANCISCO NAGASAKI. Subject to Change Without Notice,
8.8 "TJISONDARI”
88KABIMOEN"
8.8. "LTJIKEMBANG
B.BARAKAN
4th June.
Jaly
1th August,
11th September,
The Blammers have accommodation for a limited number of Sa'oon Pamangers and curry s dnly qualided surgeon,
Cargo faken on through Bills of Lading to all Overland Points in the United States of Americs and Canada,
For Partions of Freight and Prange, apply to
Tork Balding. Hongkong, 15th May, 1916,
JAVA-CHINA-JAPAN
IJN,
MANAGING AGRETA,
[04.
CHINA MAIL S.S. CO., LTD.
FREIGHT AND PASSENGERS
S.S. CHINA
WILL SAIL FROM HONGKONG FOR
SAN FRANCISCO
VIA SHANGHAI, NAGASAKI AND HONOLULU, JUNE 29 SEPT. 5-NOV. 11.
AN UNSURPASSED HIGH-CLASS PASSENGER SERVICE AT INTERMEDIATE RATES. A
O. H. RITTER, Freight and Passenger Agent, Prince's Buildings, Ice House Street.
1629
Hongkong, 27th May, 1018.
sim on the Western front. I said more crease on this time last year is 11 per river of the soft-shim the face by a mighty or blast. A moment CHEM MAZE COLEX
than a year ago that the quickest way to Berlin was the longost way round and by the back door. That is no less true to day. The Gorman dragon is withering at
by the Archies (anti-aircraft guns) At 6,000ft. an outburst of frightfulness warns us that a Zeppelin may be some where near. Three dull explosions from
the Italian
DOCKYARD)
AND ENGINEERING CO. OF HONGKONG, LTD. TAIKOO DOCKYARD, HONGKONG
BRASS AND IRON FOUNDERS, CONSTRUCTIONAL, ELECTRICAL AND MECHANICAL ENGINEERS.
Estimates given for quick construction and repair of Ships, Bagi WELDING AND CUTTING OF METALS BY OXY-ACETYLENE
** AND ELECTRIC SYSTEMS. Boilers, Railway Rolling Stock, Bridges, and all Classes of Engineering Iron and Wood Work.
THREE PATENT SLIPWAYS taking Towels up to 8,000 tons dispraeement, providing GRAVING DOOK-787 by 88' by 34′ 6′′ Pamps Empty Dock in 2-8/4 hours,
eonditions for painting skipa with most aliclona reenite
50-Ton HydraL TESTING KACHINE for Chains, Wire Ropes, Birchs, adu 100 Ton ELECTRIC OBANE ON QUAY ELECTRIC OVERHEAD CRANES te throughout the Bhops ranging to 100 Toma:
AGINIS, POR
the tail end. It may be that the force at credit, and even if it be said that the far below confirm the supposition, and Dolomite Alps. For a few minutes the AERODYN) 10 (- sur there will be the accustomed cries the truth is nevertheless indisputable British homes. I see red, and long for after explosions caused by the ignition of
be SALVORS BEFAIFERS. BOILERMAKERS of "All is lost and "We are betrayed" from the professional whimperers.
that, whatever test we apply foreign ex much as we may deplore the fact it will holding of gold--the position of the credit and near the favourite altitude of the towards the enemy trenches, the moon But changes, our payments in gold, or car I note with joy that we are 5,000ft. up mines which the Austrians had prepared.
a chance to avenge the outrage. have no bearing on the great march of of this country is healthier than at any nightraiders. Another loud thud below is suddenly and providentially beamed out up When at length they bounded forward events. Our invasion of Mesopotamia time during the war. It has rarely stood preceded by a bright flash on our own in full splendour from behind the clouds, has done its work, has held up the Turks higher in normal times. Relatively it has level and we race upward and from the Persian Gulf, has drawn the never stood so higher in the direction thur shown,
rows of heaps of mailated corpses and Are from Egypt, has paved the way for that great advances of Russia into Turk Germany in men are being drained by away our opportunity, we are caught in render
It means that, while the resources of But a wandering searchlight snatches
spectral, dumbfounded survivors by the Black Sea. Turkey will soon be in frightful sacrifices, the credit of this its beams and half blinded by the sudden In the meantime the
with hands upraised token of sur eriremia Bulgaris is rent with faction. country, which sustains the whole fabric glare. The pilot loses control while bank began raining a tempost of shells apon In Austria Hungary all the men up to of the Allies, in bearing the strain with receive a painful slap in the face from Lana and Mount Bief with the double 55 have been called up, and in Germany out a sign of failure. It does not pay the icy cold air as we rush downwards object of preventing the flight of the
ing, and we fall into a side-slip itself the shortage of necessaries has sensational papers to dwell upon these diagonally, and I bite my tongue from enemy and the oncome of fresh forces.
the mountain saddle between the Col di reached the verge of absolute famine. The things, because there is no sensation in shock. In two seconds the machine hes PRISONERE AND THE DEAD. Balkan adventure which seemed so for them But here is the true reality of the righted itself, and I thank whatever gods But nobody tried to escapa aidable siz months ago has petered out war. It is being won by British credit, there be that it is of the automatically enemy's in utter disillusion, leaving Germany Time will reveal the overwhelming part stable" type which has evoked such manicatione grafic out telephonic com not with new resoarces, but with new and which we have played in the struggle caustic criticism.
The formidable drains on her old resources.-
And that brings us to the other coning this country up to the odium of our
had been utterly destroyed in While a disloyal fection has been hold
the explosion. At that fatefal hour the sideration-Time Every day that passes Allies and the contempt of the neutrals, begin to climb again. By the time we been sent from Biet to relieve the soldiery When the aeroplane has found itself we force on the spot. The force had just Austriant happened to have an extra without a decision in her favour is a day it is our Navy which almost terry the altitude we juft in such & in the trenches. Hence of defeat for Germany and a day of vicaided, has made the German nation hurry the anti-aircraft guns are silent. bers of tory for us. That is why she thunders a to-day at the gate of Verdun and will workshops which have furnished the and then, finding that the Zeppelins have been killed in the debris. Ten Italian nation of prisoners, it is our We cruise around for about ten minutes, Over a hundred are known to have Hence the large num victima, thunder to-morrow somewhere else. She Allies with the occessaries of war, must break through or he vanquished. and above all it is our credit that alone home. part of
left our
of the air, We win while we wait. We need not has enabled the armies of Russia, Franes,The compass points our direction, and with four officers among them, and then volunteers quickly descended the moun- force any gate, for we are not in prison. Italy and England to keep the field we begin to descend. At 4,000ft my returned to bring the second batch of f prisoners, We have only to keep the door barred sud The maintenance of the credit which breath is taken away as an ungainly and five officers and 110 unwounded men. at the enemy fling himself against it from works this miracle is the supreme need sinister shape dashes past about thirty mountain gun, cleverly mounted thin in his impotent efforts to escape of the Allies. If it foil the Alliance with another aeroplane early mollided cavern, and half a dozen mitrailleuses The more he shatters himself the sooner would fall, because the means by which Wh the and will come. It will come much it lives would have disappeared There begin to re-assert themselves. Where on stores of food suficient to last her than if we shatter ourselves in would be no armies because there would earth is the line of flares that marks our garrison for one month.
horrid doubts intact, and 200 vain and wasteful attempts to break into be no arms for them to use, no food for aerodrome If the orderly officer han
were seized, with his prisos. Let us get rid of the Curzon there to ent, no clothes for them to wear. gotten to keep then alight shall wo bles entirely in the hands of the Italiang
the entire Vision of a grandiose parade down Unter It is this overshadowing consideration to attract attention, and,
for- den Linden. is magnificent, but if that makes storms rage long if pot, how
Tite Col di Lana has henceforth been
WERKZN about whether we can put another hun. As we near the 1,60 DOLLE MOU
MAKING FOR HOME
turn
Main, escorting the first batch of ori
In
When we get lower the lashed to: Shother five were
wards in a red stream, but there is no a jerk. The undercarriage is mashed, A sharp bunty, another bump, a short 4 Way Carlie spurt along the ground, and pall up with answering flash. At 500ft, we are still in but other we are safe and sou the dark and so is our landing ground. Leaving the mechane to the
There it is at last, the thin, red line cies of the mechani
is not war.
But thir riqw of the position connotes dred thousand in the field so unrest Willa Very's light in the something else, Fundamentally, this is the war be won if we have 1,200,000 men It crackles and winda i and has been a war between German re in the field and lost if we have only Hours in men and British resources in 4,000,000. The question needs no answer, erdit A distinguished neutral has re- The war will he won in British factories, Isted a conversation he had nearly a year by British trade and by British credit ago with members of the German higher The lesson of Verdun is not to emulate command. It turned upon the prospects Verdun. It is to conserve the Allies of the war which they discussed with ab strength in the field, to press the enemy solute candour. They agreed that the in its vulnerable rear, and above all to issue could be boiled down to this maintain the energies of this country
Would the German supplies of men their highest so that in a struggle which outlast the British supplies of money, or has become a struggle of endurance the
(Continued on nezt Column.) Alliance can outlast the anemy.
of Aares that represents
we are gliding down, our flares grow bigger as we lower. Now the engine is
the shape of an elongs
the soberly and talk acros lower and where the orderly
off and fully that all the
being come home to roo
been air on Over hot meet change yarn
tired gue than by an
sit tight and hope we shal with our old friend the wood just before touching earth
(Continued on next Column
corage
JOHN 1 THORNYCROFT & CO., LTD. PETROL and KIFOSENE MARINE MOTORS 7-1/2 to 150 B.H‚P applied ic the British Admiralty and War Offon, ==
MOTOR VESSELS, LIGHT DRAFT CABRIERS, GUNBOATS, LAUNCH EP
HOUSEBOATS and PLEASURE CRAFT OF EVERY DESCRIPTION MOTOR PUMPING and LIGHTING BETTS, MOTOR VEHICLES, EN Dockyard Managers, can be seen between the hours of 11 R2 and 12 € Too
at the Tora Offor
BUTTERFIELD & SWIRE. HONGKONG, CHINA, AND JAPAN, AGENTS Takenokis AA TALIOO DOOK
THOS, COOK & SON
TOURIST, FINANSHIL AND FORWARDING AGENTS, BANKERE, ETC. OFFICIAL AGENTS TO THE PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT,
LA-SHANGHAI YOKOHAMA.
PERING 10
TICK
KUPPLU
BAG
[20:4
dp STEAMSHIP LINES 225
CASHED
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.