Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-10-16
FALMOUTH, ENG,
FULL OF RECRUITS
The Famous Cornish Watering
Place Has Complete Change
OF Appearance-About 10000
Recruits Now Drilling, Many
Without Uniform

Correspondence of The Associated
Press)
Falmouth, England, Sept. 25.-Those
who have known Falmouth,-ordinar
lily a peaceful Cornish watering place
would not know it now. 1t has sud
denly been transformed into a mill
tary and naval center, with some sug-
gestion of a shipping port of great
importance. The recruits who have
made it their rendezvous may be seen
daily busily engaged in digging
trenches in the high cliffs which over
hang the beaches so as to be ready
for any enemy which might land there.
In the evening those beaches are alive
with hundreds of soldiers having a
dip in the surf after a hard days
work at digging or marching along the
roads which lead from the sea into the
town.
The commercial aspect is heightened
daily by some new arrival of prize
ships, which may be seen coming in
under escort of a British war vessel.
Even at night it is impossible for an
unfriendly ship to escape detection off
Falmouth, for the flash lights in the
ancient Pendennis and st. Mawes
castles which command the Falmouth
promontory and harbor reach many
miles to sea. The work of the patrol
boats has been so effective, in fact,
that the landlocked harbor and the
peaceful river which connects Fall
mouth with Truro and other famous
villages of Cornwall are almost filled
with ship prizes or vessels under ex-
animation. Most of the German tramp
steamers and sailing craft in the
North Atlantic have been disposed of
now, but the activities of the war
ships continue in the examination of
neutral ships carrying possible con-
traband to Dutch ports. Cargoes of
petrol, wheat, coffee and other food
stuffs are frequently held at Falmouth
until it is made clear that their ulti-
mate destination is not Germany.
Great Britain is gradually making it
plain that she will not have Scandi-
navian and Dutch ports supply Ger
many with food supplies under a neu-
trail flag. Neither is she willing to
have German airships and war motors
supplied with fuel slipped past Eng
lish ships through the cleverness OF
neutral merchants who have taken
man firms.
The quiet life of the farmers whose
tiny fields dot the hills overlooking
the bay has been rudely disturbed by
the soldiery here Sheep and cattle
have been replaced largely by signal
men constantly practising with flags
and other devices Many of the stone
fences and elumps of trees on high
points which command roads have been
utilized as breastworks and reinforced
ty bags of sand.
The recruits now here number about
10000. Many of the youngsters are
without uniforms Some drill in white
duck overalls, but many more in the
inevitable green and gray suits of the
English civilian. The wooden stocking
cap is a favorite headgear.
While many of the improvised forti-
ffcations have doubtless been con-
structed mainly with view to CIV
ing the recruits a taste of defensive
tactics, the earthworks and wire en-
tanglements are invariably placed
where they would do most good if an
enemy were to attempt an invasion
here. Lord Kitchener is farsighted
and his thorough campaign of prepar-
alton is evidently made with a view
to meeting emergencies which might
arise were the English feet to meet
unexpected reverses.
Leases on buildings taken for army
use have been made for a period of
three years in Falmouth.