The San Francisco call., 1906-05-31
DOYLE WRITES
OF AUTO IN WAR
Author Proposes That
Large Auxiliary Force
Be Formed.
Would Have Motors
Serve as Transport
for Riflemen.
Special Dispatch to the Cal.

Special Dispatch to the Cal.
LONDON, May 30.-Excapt Rudyard
Kipling, perhaps, there isn't an author in
this country who takes greater interest
in military matters than Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle, and probably not even Kip
ling spends as much time in considering
how Great Britain can best be defended
in case of another war as does the burly
doctor who would little rather not be
reminded nowadays, that he created the
redoubtable Sherlock Holmes.
No one for instance, has taken more
prominent part than Sir Arthur in the
movement that is now on foot to increase
the number of effective fighting men by
encouraging rife shooting in all parts of
the United Kingdom. Beside making
many speeches and writing frequent ar
ticles on the subject, the author of THE
White Company" and "Brigadier Gerard
recently set a practical example by hav-
ing miniature rife range built on his
picturesque estate at Hindhead and in
viting the young men of the neighborhood
to use it, and the result is that a regular
rifle club now exists in the locality. of
which the novelist is said to be one of
the best marksmen.
Now Sir Arthur has been struck with
the idea that the motorists of this coun-
try would be able to render an important
service lin case Great Britain were in
vaded by a foreign enemy. Like Kipling,
the creator of "Brigadier Gerard is an
ecstatic devotee of the motor car-hav-
ing been fined once or twice for exceed
ing the speed limit-and he has just
written a letter to the London Times IN
which he explains how he believes that
the automobilists of Great Britain could
be utilized in case a foreign army had
landed on the coast
PLAN OF DR.. DOYLE.
''Supposins," SAYS DR. Doyle, that such
an event had happened. Everything would
depend upon swift action so as to prevent
any cavalry that force might possess from
pushing on in small parties, cutting wires,
blowing up bridges and generally disor-
ganizing the defense"
So Sir Arthur goes on to suggest that
a thousand English motorists should
pledge themselves on the first news of
such an invasion to instantly fill up their
cars with picked rif1emen drawn from
their own immediate neighborhood and
to convey them with a weeks food, their
rifles and their ammunition to the danger
point.
Food rifles and motor cars, he says.
''are already to hand and the only fac
tor missing is the ammunition, 1000 rounds
of which should be given by the Govern
Ilenl 10 tie hccpl1S VI tHC tiiotOi iSt NilJ
signifies his willingness to serve-such
ammunition to be stored in his garage in
time of peace.
I'm this way says DR.. Doyle, within
a very few hours such a fringe of ir-
regular, self-supporting. rifiemen would
be formed round the enemy that they
could not push swiftly on or collect sup
plies without their patrols being cut off,
and an immediate line of resistance would
be formed, behind which the regular de-
fense could be prepared-all this without
putting any tax on the railways
DR.. Doyle adds that, once the motorists
of Great Britain be organized in this
way, it would be easy to test their eff
cacy, and evidently the author is inter
ested in learning how his idea appeals
to his fellow automobilists. for he has
asked those that approve of it to COM
municate with the Secretary Of the Legion
of Frontiersmen, the newly formed vol
unteer organization of which the author
of Sherlock Holmes is an enthusiastic
member
IMAGINARY WAR LITERATURE.
1t must be admitted. too. that DR.. Doyle
is quite in the literary fashion with his
new plan of defense for England, for
at no previous time have so many au-
thors on both sides of the channel been
occupied with 'anticipations" of a COM
ing great war between this country and
some Continental power-Germany for
choice.
There is William lie Queux. for instance,
whose story of the Invasion of 1910''
is now running in the columns of the
London Mail-not to mention two Ger
man novelists. "Seestern" and "Beowulf,"
who have recently published romances
dealing with a supposed conflict between
Great Britain and the Fatherland. But
these writers and one or two others
either made England successful in the
comnig war or else made the struggle
indecisive, and this conclusion has been
denounced as false, misleading and hu-
initiating for the German nation" by
still another Teuton romancer-"Mori-
turus' by nom de guerre-who has just
published a work of his own which is
called With the German Army, via
Paris to London"
Here we have an attempt to describe
"the real course of an Anglo-German
war;" and this, according to .Moriturus."
is as follows: Germany, first involved in
hostilities against the combined forces
of England and France, inf1icts defeats
so crushing on the French army that the
French Government is obliged to aban-
ditionally to accept the German terms.
Germany thereupon compeIs France to
join her in war against Great Britain,
and the united German and French navies
annihflate two British fleets in two sue
cessive engagements, thereby enabling
the German army to carry out success
fnl invasion of England After the occu-
patton of London, the German Emperor
dictates his own terms Of peace to the
humiliated English nation.
Every now and then there comes from
South Africa a hint as to the sources
from which Rider Haggard drew his stor-
les of that land which were thrilling us
all ten or fifteen years ago. The latest
came the other day, in connection with
the pursuit of the rebel Bambata, when
a venerable Zulu chief, named Signanda,
declared that he remembered the UNDER
ground river that was told of by 1.-The
white man who was always writing
9TH w~rxrfe 49,.