New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-08-01
COST OF YEARS WAR
STACGERS THE WORLD
More Treasure Spent Than Nations Have Accumu'
lated in 500 Years and Millions of Lives
Lost to Achieve-Nothing.

Kamerun, German possessions. Brit
ish attack on German East Africa was
defeated. while German Southwest
Africa has yielded to the forces oil
General Botha.
The lnsular possessions of Germany
in the Pacific were captured by Great
Britain and japan.
Tsing-tau, the German fortress in
China. was captured by the Japanese.
aided by British contingent.
On the seas there have been no
great battles. Great Britains su-
premacy. owing to the overwhelming
size of her fleet. has not been disputed
TO the ultimate issue, the main German
feet having remained in home waters.
Two German cruisers which were IN
the Mediterranean when war began
went 10 the Dardanelles, and were ac-
CURED by Turkey. few German
cruisers and converted merchantmen.
including the famous Emden. and the
Karlsruhe. Kronprinz Wilhelm and
Prinz Eitel Friedrich, raided shipping
of the Allies for a time. but wer'
eventually sunk or forced to intern IL
neutral ports. The Austro- Hungarian
feet has remained in the Adriatic and
the Turkish feet has been kept from
>
rine has been swept from the seas.
There have been several naval bat
ties of Importance, however. In the
first month of the war Rear Admiral
Beatty's squadron dashed into Heligo-
land Blight, near the great German nav
al station, and sank three German cruis-
ers and two torpedo boat destroyers.
In January occurred a battle in the
North Sea between British warships
and a German squadron which presum-
ably was attempt NJ a raid on the Eng
lish coast. In this tattle the German
cruiser Butcher was sunk.
The German Far East squadron de-
feated Nice-Admiral Cradock's British
squadron off the CHILEAN coast on No
vember l, sinking the Good Hope and
Monmouth. The British obtained their
revenge in December, when, off the
Falkland Islands, a powerful British
squadron defeated the Germans. sink
ing the Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Leipzig
and Nurnberg.
German squadrons have twice attack
ed the English coast, causing some loss
of life and damage to property. Eng
lish towns, including London, have also
which have made several successful
points on the east coast.
Methods of fighting have been altered
radically in consequence of the lessons
learned in the first year of the war. Il
has been pre-eminently a war of ma
chimes. The resources afforded by mod
ern scientific development have been
taxed TO devise new instruments OF
death and destruction more potent than
ever had been employed. 1t has been
also a war of surprises New problems
have arisen. necessitating reconstruc-
tiOn of the theory Of war. Plans and
methods heretofore approved by author
tiles on military affairs were discarded,
and the stats Of the various armies
were compelled to grapple with situa-
tions for which there was no precedent.
The first great surprise of the war
was the German 42-centimetre (l6l2
inch) gun, which hurls for some fifteen
miles a she'll weighing almost ton.
The great Notifications which were the
pride Of Belgium and believed to be
almost impregnable were battered into
ruins by these guns in comparatively
short time. Two of these guns. sta
toned ten miles from Antwerp, wrecked
its elaborate defence works. Liege and
Namur fell similarly.
The use of artillery and machine
guns, in fact, has been one Of the prln-
cipal features of the war. Great ex-
ecution was done by the new Krupp IL
inch howitzer, weighing nearly forty
tons, with a six-mile radius. The Aus
trian 12-inch howitZer also has proved
exceptionally efficient. The French rs
mllllmetrc gun is regarded as one of
the most effective field pieces.