1918-06-05 — Page 5

Page

THE WAR.

Branco Belgian Front,

EARLIER CABLES..

{THROUGH REUTER'S AGENOY-]

BRITISH FRONT.

LANE ADVANCED SLIGHTLY.

LONDON, June 3rd.

12.45. ..

THE HONGKONG DAILY PRESS, WEDNESDAY

CORRESPONDENCE.

THE CONSCRIPTION BILL. TO THE EDITOR OF THE HONGKONG DAILY PRESS."']-

Sin. Your correspondent Practical Man No. 2, writes, They (the wives of the public servants who were recently sent to the front) are receiving the wages and pay of their husbands from the

OUR LONDON LETTER [FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] FINDING THE MEN FOR THE WAR

THE MORILISATION OF THE MIDDLE AGED.

JUNE 6TH, 1918

ELECTRIC CANNON-

GERMAN FORECAST AND THE

FLYING TRAIN?!

In connection with the long-range bem-

PRE WAR CONTRACTS. INTERNATIONAL ACTION

SUGGESTED

under the chairmanship of Lord Buck- master, states that, in addition to hearing 48 witness, the Committee were supplied

public funds, of the Colony, or from the inevitable outcome of the terrifin over a thousand miles if necessary, The of brilliant operations is one of the finest with written answers to a set of questions:

of:

tions in the neighbourhoods of Vieux statement, or will any other reader sup. England is determined to resist to the experiments with an electric gun. The bridging the Jordan during winter would widespread, so that unless goodwill, and

Field-Marshal Sir Douglas Haig republie money anyhow."

Can your correspondent prove this ports:--We carried out successful opera

port it with confirmatory evidence? Be enuse, if so, it will form a powerful lever for squeezing an adequate allowance out of the Government for the conscript's Our wife,

Berquin and Merris, and advanced our line slightly at these points. We cap inred 103 prisoners, a number of machine ine guns and trench-mortars. casualties were light,

Will Fractionl Man No. 2" explain which are

"the other places in the Em

LONDON, April 8th. The new Man Power Bill is the characteristic British answer to the German bid for world-power. It is also

fighting on the Western front. It means that, as in the old days against Napoleon,

last man and the last shilling the chal lenge of Kaiserdom for world domina tion. The age-limit is to be raised for military service to 50 years, and in special cases to 55, so as to bring it doctors and other, with special technical knowledge. That, in its essence, is the

country. BERIOUS BETBACK.

CROSSING OF THE JORDAN

Mr. V. T. Hasey writes, in a de-] spatch from Palestine dated March 26th

In spite of many difficulties the British.

The report of the Commifitte appoinf- troops have forced the passage of the ed by the Board of Trade to consider the bardment of Paris, it is interesting to Jordan and occupied Es Salt, 28 miles position of British manufacturers and recall that in November, 1914, the from the river banks, on the anniversary merchants in respect of pre-wax contracts, Deutsche Tageszeitung, of Berlin, gave of the first battle of Gaza. General remarkable details of an electric gun Allenby's Army marchies from one success which it was claimed would throw a shell

to another, and this latest, of the series

Deutsche Tageszeitung said :—

tributes to the moral and efficiency of his In 1905 Professor Birkeland,

troops. Christinuia, conducted some interesting

In ordinary circumstances the task of projectile to he used should be in the of a 10-inch iron bar, 2.40in. in diameter, By means of an electric wire a current of 2,300 amperes is applied for one tenth of a secund. This process, which will not injure the wire in any way, will con- centrate a tremendous power on the iron velocity of 226ft. per second. With such electric cannon the distance measurements and the volume of the applied power may be extended at will, so that not only will it be an easy matter to fire across the Channel, but even a distance of 1,000 miles

We successfully raided south-eastward pire" which have provided amply for the meaning of the latest call upon the projectile, which will acquire an initial of the crossing

of Arras, north-westward of Lens, and westward of Merville. We captured 20 prisoners, three machine-guns and trench-mortar.

LATEST CABLES.

FRENCH FRONT." ENEMY ATTACK SHATTERED,

PARIS, June 3rd,

schen.

We maintained our positions every where else.

wives of the men who no longer have a monthly cheque to hand them," and can he say what the amount provided is based on

44

in suitable terms, and would welcome the new ideas we could give them por

In any case we must do it now, and

till

not wait

as mere "cannon-fodder." What is im portant for us to bear in mind is that they evidently think it worth while to

EXPLAINED.

either.

A

PE FIRST MEN ACROSS.

The General, therefore, decided to alter

the material obtained, covering about 600 contracts and showing that the extent of the interference with trade conditions is forbearance are shown by parties who will have the right to claim damages gravo difficulties may arise.

should

be one of considerable magnitude, but the rainfall during March has been excep. tionally heavy and has filled the river

a swift-flowing torrent. The Of the contracts within the terms of with Jordan had overflowed its banks, and waterlogged that animals could not tween British subjects both of whom the ground at its mouth had become so reference, approxiinately half were be move. This necessitated a postponement traded in the United Kingdom, and It was intended. that the main cross half were between a British subject or Jericho, where the Turks destroyed the has revealed the existence of many cases ing should be at Ghoraniyeh, east of firm and another party in an Allied or neutral country. Though their inquiry bridge soon after we occupied the town of difficulty, the Committee are, on the When everything that the picturesque

on the plain Ghoraniyeh is in the whole surprised that they are not still writers of war correspondence can say

middle of one of the many beads of the more numerons and more uniformly dis Jordan On Friday morning three of the tributed. This latter would form a good precedent about the events of the past three weeks

strongest swimmers of the Londoners. The Committee do not recommend be We repulsed raiders southward of to hold before our Government, and

tried to breast, the current which tumbled cancellation of pre-war contracts. They past them, but they found it too, strong. I point out that many of the contracts aro Villers-Bretonneux

wight assist them in making a decision.— has been said (and, of course, you have

read all that) the fact remains, and may Professor Birkeland's idea was appa A punt was no sooner put into the stream made with persons who are not British Yours faithfully,

PLEBIS. as well be frankly admitted, that the ently similar to the process adopted by than it was torn from the hands of the subjects, and cancellation might provo Hongkong, 4th June, 1918,

British and Allied armies have been M. Emile Bachelet in connection with the engineers launching it. It was obvious disastrous to British credit, the mainten

that the force of the stream would make ance of which is essential to secure rapid pushed back since March 21st to date propulsion of his dying train, which was it impossible to throw a bridge across at and complete recuperation after the loss [TO THE EDITOR OF THE BONGKONG

and exhaustion consequent on the war DAILY PRESS,77]

a distance of something like forty miles first brought to the attention of Britons Chremely doubtful ether aufhoient They feel that the sanctity of contract

Bri All the talk about the German losse in Muy, 1914,

numbers of infantry could be ferried over has been in the past, the mininstay of SIR-In continuation of my letter

This train, which might equally well even if a tout line were made fast to

tish credit, and that anything likely to A communiqué. states:We continued.

unpair that, credit is jealously to ba appearing in your issue of the 4th inst., and undoubtedly they have been appal-

avoided. The Committee hold the view our counter-attack last evening on the I should like to ask A Practical Man" ling-does not alter the fact that the have been a shell, travelled through space the banks.

strongly that no isolated legislation by any single country can rescue interni- whole front between the Ourcq and the whether it would not be a good plan to enemy has come on and that ho believes without visible means of support Marne and advanced at various points. wait upon the Government and give them himself in a position to come still fur.above or below. At the wizard touch of his plans so as to make the main grossing tional commercini relaticas from the con- A violent enemy attack on both sides of ideas as to what should be done in this ther. Never before has it been shown an electric witch it was away like a fat Makhadet Hajlah four miles lower fusion into which they have been throw

flash, devouring distance at the terrific down, where the pilgrime rond to the by the war. Some common basis, the Chateau-Thierry--Paris road was matter of separation allowance. Perhaps with what cynical indifference the govern speed of 300 miles an hour, and defying less tortuous, but this was Hajjah's only be established as soon as

Jordan ends. Here the river bank sore, for settling the dible by the Advantage. The banks are thickly cloth. various Governments. If, in regard to sbattered by our fire south-east of Bourney are at a loss to express themselves ing classes in Germany regard the people all the laws of gravity.

ed in trees and undergrowth right down foreigners, some form of international to the water's edge. The left bank, after convention, or, in regard to the rest of several hundred yards width of jungle, the Empire, some form of Imperial agree rises tier upon tier for a considerable ment, could provide for scheme for the

Turks

tracks, the grounds of their objection The Committee are The troofs moved down the Wadi Kelt would dieappear. (Valley of Achor) and sheltered in unable to recommend further legislative broken ground near the river bank, while interference with bone contracts in the an officer and six men swam the river, absence of more convincing evidence that

existing towing a rope behind them. Sternly hat thi

do not recommend that compenen thing with the current, they reached the

They the Channel and Paris by direct route.

left bank and began hauling across light tion should be granted out of Government If they succeed many things may

lu other words the affect of a magneticrafts with men. The Turks lighted serub funds, except where los is due to direct happen which it is not desirable to din coul on certain metals is to repel instead tires, which mine the surface of the interference by the Government. In cet- cuss now. An intelligent perusal of the efsta attract them. One of these metals river Boatlands had to be tugged over tain of such cases the Committee think on aluminium was the great hundred men were over by daylight, and made, but that it should be strictly in map will tell more than volumes of cloud mitum, and the effect of magnetic in the face of considerable fire. Three that some allowance might reasonably he printed articles. And so we come to the factor in the propulsion of the air train, bridge-building was then began, though the form of indemnity, and not in that The cars of the train when stationary the engineers had to carry material down of compensation No payment for Josa prosent position, and the call for men rested on a track below which at intervals precipitous banks. The work which of pront should be paid out of the public up to 50 for military service. As to this of two feet wete electric coils arranged throughout was very heavy, was complet purse

konnte deliver the magnetic lines of force ed by a barrel bridge soon after 8 o'clock, there will be the usual shrick of the against the resisting aluminium of the By that time the remainder of the troops Pacifist Press and from the Irish in car

had been ferried across, but the nature of the ground presented them from form Farliament; but there is not one serious

ing more than a very narrow bridgehead,

The credulity of the average person la minded man in this country to-day who

300 yards wide and not more than 300 amazing At least half a dozen people does not realice we are fighting for our

yards from the bank. Paths had to be have assured me (writes a correspondent cut through the jungle before a man to the Daily Chronicle) that the war is Asked for At intervals of of the track could move. In front of us were nesta of going to end in Februa 1 says 50 în very existence ng a nation, and, further-

they reply more, unless we emerge victorious from were placed solenoids, or pulling magmachine-guns, and beyond a belt of wood their

The car were dunes where Turks lay entrenched, the Bible The source of their know nete, shaped like a funnel. the straggle the Germans will dominate passed through these solenoids, which were Over the dunes were low hills sheltering ledge is the Book of Revelation, in which automatically energized in necession, a well-armed enemy a statement is teade about a certain Beast This Beast, the not merely Europe but the world.

thus acting as a continial magnet to draw Two of our mountain batteries kept whose number is 668 THE AWAKENING.

the train along. Many of those who wit down the Turks fire to a minimum, but, sum and substance of all that is evil, is nessed the Dying train demonstrations with all the advantages in favour of the proved by an ingenious calculation to It could equally well were truck by the tremendous possibilities defenos, no further progress could be be the Kaiser.

At any of this mode of propulsion in the science made during the day. The men lay out he proved to be anybody else.

rate he is to be overthrown on the legend artillery are on the battlefield

under a hot gun, 1,200ft below sea level.

Fary gun constructed on the Bachelet

WIDENING THE BRIDGEHEAD two months.

from August, 1914, system would need to be at least 2c0ft. It was resolved to try to widen the the forty-second month the end of the long to fire seventy five miles. It would bridgehead at night. Soon after a tyrant's tether falls on February, 1018. be simply a number of metal spools wound with copper wire, and would require only night on Friday a determined well sus. It says something for the fertile imagina tained rush was made by our troops tion of the person who frst concocted this would be necessary, and the projectiles would be winged with a muzzle velocity of five miles a second.

we are enrolled as soldiers, pay the price they are made to pay in its marvellous work was this. Bache, distance to the east, fortified by the mutual adjustment or modification of con-

The enemy losses in these actions were for th heavy. We took 100 prisoners.

EARLIER CABLES:

we shall get very little charist order to advance. Their object is well of being deputed ourselves or of deput-known. It is to divide and destroy the ing anyone else to do it for us.

All we require is a fair number of Allies armies in the field, to sieze Amiens and thereby ext communications between

FRENCH RECAPTURE POSITIONS. married men in form a strong backing and

PARIS, June 5th-

- comminiiqué - states: The battle has continued especially north of the Ouren

to the Marne, where the enemy have made their main efforts.

Our loops have withstood the shock abstinate of the enemy forces with

bravery.

The enemy succeeded in regaining possession of Faverolles, but the attacks at Coray and Troesnes failed.

the thing is as good as done,

We may, of course, be told to call some other time, but what of that?

Deputations of far less importance are being made to various Governments in different parts of the world every day of the week, and even if those forming the deputation are not, after all, sent to the front themselves, they, at any rate, will be doing a good turn for those who will be Yours faithfully,

PRACTICAL MAN NO. 2. Hongkong, June 4th.

Another Practical Man" was repre- drove back the enemy on Passy-en-Valois sented in our yesterday's issue as advocat We re-took Hill 103, immediately westing the construction of wonder ships in of Passy-en-Valois, after desperate this Colony. Wonder" was a mispriut

for fighting.

Our attacks west of Neuilly St Fontog

Farther south of the Corey-Bournsches front two successive enemy attacks broke

wooden"

THE TRADITION OF THE SEA the light of accumulated knowledge, will

CAPTAIN WHO GAVE HIS LIFE

down.

On our right we recaptured Champlata and gained ground in the direction of Ville-en-Tardenois.

British

FOR HIS MEN.

sea traditions were heroically

The historians of the future, writing in

apportion praise or blame to the War Cabinet for delaying until now the mo bilisation of the whole man-power of the nation. But it is always easy to be Enowing enes in the Prose, in Parliament, in the Army, in the Lendors Club, in Society (and out of it) who prophesied two years ago that the Germans were 1 that it was only a already beater, and

The explanation of the system under which the air train, or, as it might have been, air torpedo, was made to perform let discovered that certain metals offered reading indenne tu nectric coil

flowing front au energized by an alternating current This retarding influence set up "eddy currents which cause the reverse of magnetic magnetic attraction namely, repulsion

As soon as the electric influence was set in motion the coils, instead of attracting the car, pushed it away with the result that the car was immediately raised and held suspended in the air clear of the track.

of

sys

has been tried and busi

HUMAN CREDULITY,

field of stedon in forty und

The situatiqu elsewhere is unchanged upheld by Captain E. Williams and nine wise after the event. Where are all tho | 300-hp of electricity to fire it. No riding through the thorn bushes and trees to war prophecy that bo has been able to

General.

members of the crew of the 5,000-ton British steamship Miguel de Larrinaga, who volunteered to perish in order that others might live when the vessel founder. ed in mid-ocean on February 6th, Sur

THE WAR MEMORIAL.

FARLIER, CABLES. {THROUGH REUTER'S AGENCY.] AFFAIRS IN RUSSIA

vivors state that the captain, rather GREAT COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARY than overcrowd the lifeboats contain

ing twenty seven men, announced his If it had not been for the Russian time and inclination to wrangle over the left bank and over the cliffs, anddenly positions. There was keen fighting at

PLOT,

decision to stick to his ship, which was

question of a few months until they were crumpled up like a battered concertina

There is something curiously reassuring in the fact that while the greatest battle in history is in progress we can find the site of the proposed war memorial in

military slebacle and subsequent internal fast sinking. He called for nine yolun chaos we should bave had the Gen of thing is not likely to go down before teers to stay with him and make the boats mans flying peace kites to-day instead safe for the others

Two of his officers, & gunner, and six of attacking with every conscript they seamen lined up beside him, and declared are able to put into the firing-line the they were willing to take a chance of youth of eighteen as well as the man of being rescued before the ship sank

resistible.

some Lewis

depth of a thousand yards the Banks convince a great number of people of its being extended till they formed a "authenticity, people, too, who do not ap bridgebead 1,500 yards wide. Mesh pear to rely in any measure on the Bible while the engineers had been.constructing in their ethical or spiritual difficulites, a steel pontoon bruge under considerable and would probably wag their beads in shell and rifle fire, and we were able to disdain at the idea of, say, the miracles get over an entire mounted regiment by chronicled in the same Testament. dann daire moving silently, up the The cavalry, moving silently up the emerged on the plain, over which they Londen. A nation which can do this sort galloped towards Choraniyeh, riding several places, but our troops were ir- LONDON, June 3rd.

down and capturing 70 Turks and some Near Bhunct Nimrin The Press Bureau announces that a

the Boche Some think that the proper machine-guns, and making the enemy gunners and riflemen crept towards a dplaces Hydic Park near the Serpentine, opposite Heilah foot it as hard as he battery which was shelling our troops, Russian wireless message says that the

the water of which would add to the could. The Turks suffered a number of killed some gunners and drivers, put the Executive of the Soviets decided on May

architectural effect. But everybody is casualties in getting away. Another remainder to Bight, and captared four

guns, not vastly impressed with the idea, for mounted regiment was got across at

As the enemy, including Germans, were 29th to compulsorily call to arms work

they have no desire to alter the present Hajlab and scouted eastwards

As the stream became less swift, retiring up the Es Salt road with trans men and the poorer peasants in the Petro-

A British warship sighted the vessel, fifty.üve. But Russin went down, and beauties of the great pleasure ground of

the Metropolis by the erection of a bridges were built, and the Ghoranych port, our airmen dropped nearly three- grad, Moscow, Kuban and Don regions, and boats were launched, but the fury hence the present predicament of the mitenta there. A pile of masonry to cost passage of the river was assured in two quarters of a ton of bombs on them,

of a hurricane made it impossible to take

a million pounds would scarcely enhance places. We had kept the Turks com-

down and with their machine-guns It has declared martial law at Moscow off the ten men, who for forty hours had Allies and hence, also, the fresh sacri,

site suggested is close to the new County the main erossing was to be effected. scattered the Turks. At the foothills the and ordered wholesale arrests of counterclung to the half-submerged ship, knocked fices (and there will be many more to the amenities of the Serpentine. Another pletely in the dark as to the spot where making à number of direct hits, and came about and pounded by heavy seas follow) that the country and the Empire Council buildings that stand half finish- In the Auja district reconnoitring troops infantry captured about 40 Germans, in- revolutionaries and vigorous anti-Prees The gallant ten at intervals during the

ed below Westminster Bridge on the found the Mandeek ford impassable, but cluding offers, etc night sent up rockets to encourage the are called upon to bear.

south side of the tiver. Anyway, wher their presence there served to keep the WAY WEATHER TROUBLES. The massage says that a great counter-rescuers, but the signals ceased after 3 Happily, the nation is at ono in this ever it is erected the war memorial will Turks mystified. The enemy tried to On Sunday night the weather broke,

a.m. At daybreak only patches of revolutionary plot, supported by foreign wreckage marked the spot where they crisis of its fate The peril which con-cushrine everything of permanent inter attack them, but was beaten off with loss, hampering wheeled traffic, and anly pack

test or value connected with Armageddon, VOLUNTEERS EXELUIT, had gone down. Videos

fronts us is fully realised. We are drawn and be the Mecca alike of the historian. Another excellent piece of work was transport could move But the troops. capital, has been discovered in Moscow The Miguel de Larrinaga, formerly a

is remifying Spanish steamship, we formerly over all adverse and Petrograd, which

the British Government, and left New- the beginning of the war while our "Old tourist of the years to come. Russia. The plot was responsible for the port News, Virginta, late in January for Contemptibles" were falling back from ALL UNIFORM FOR AILMEN SA

a French port.

measures

~'

the Turks flank at Hajlah, and two made their way through the foothills into officers and 45 men volunteered to make mountains over 3,000ft. above the level

march from a the Jordan a mort mutiny of the Techechoslovak Corps which

The shop windows are displaying the straight up the left bank of the river of the Jordan, beating down all oppost- Mons to the Marne; but there is now this

new cap of the Boyal Air Force. It is This little party jocularly called tion. Some went up the metalled road captured railway junctions and lines.

notable difference that the wild enthuin all respecta Eke the cap worn by Société Anonyme Maritime was rowed towards Es Salt, others climbed the were wet, most of them sustaining them- Naval officers, but has a black mobair across the Dead Sea in the dark and land trackless surface of harren hills. All Large owners in other regions are mobilis-

GERMAN SABOTAGE AT GENOA.

siasm of those days has given place to band. The badge in front is surmounted ed east of the Jordan. They had an Arab selves on the rations they carried, and in ing the richer peasants to resist the com-

The Military Tribunal at Genoa re reasoned appreciation of car pori, and by a crowd, and underneath is au eagle guide with them, but he was last in the the evening our outposts were only 1,000 wandering of flour. Agents in the sitits, cently sentenced four Germans, Hampt, every man and woman is bracing himself (not the spread-eagle variety) with out darkness. However, the younger yards from Es Salt. The hills were then

stretched wings. A noticeable departure pushed on and made his way towards the

halted till dawn. including the starving masses, are against Koenigsheim, Martin, and Hess, to be

shot in the back, Locker to fifteen years and herself to meet more formidable is that the badges of rank are shown on ford and attacked a small enemy post, covered with a thick, damp miet. We the Soviets Depots of flour in Kuban imprisonment, Samueli to ten years, the onslaught. And on this point let me say the cap in the form of small vertical slips taking prisoners, but finding between

morning a year ago when a thick sea fog and Don are menaced by a counter-revoluwoman, Frieda Lubenthal, to twenty that it is with pride and pleasure that of metal on either side of the crown him and the ford a much superior force To-day some of us were reminded of s years and Conrad Dis to ten years we in England feel that we have the The colour of the uniform of the Air of the enemy, he hid the party till he denied us victory at Gaza. However, the tionery band which hopes to provoke All the accused were employed in the whole Empire with us to the death, and Servics has also been changed from khaki could effect communication with the body elements were not permitted to interfero foreign intervention The Soviet is com Genos Electrical Works, and were guilty that every man who can come over and to light blue; and altogether the members at Hajlah. This he did early on Satur with progress to-day, and as the sun was of sahoiage, with object of stopping play a man's part will rally to the succour of the force when daly equipped will look day morning. More infantry and cavalry over the mountains of Moab our splendi the supply of current to factories engaged of the Mother Country in this hour of what they are beyond all question and by got acces during the day, and on Sundays captured Es Salt and the surround- on war work. They also acted, as spies, supremis danger.

common consent the smartest corps in strong stacks were made on the enemy ing heights and inflicted a heavy blow The four mon sentenced todeath managed

(Continued at foot of next Column.) the fighting forces of the Empire -H.B.

(Continued at foot of next column) upon the Turks and their German allies.

fident that the calling up of the starving people in the industrial and corn-grow ing provinces will frustrate the plot.

the

to escape before the trial.