New Britain herald., 1915-09-08


 manoeuvering in open country. Every troop which attempts to ad- vance in the open against we'll armed enemy awaiting the attack, is doomed fatally to disaster; in an in stant the fire of machine gun mows 0own the ranks like a blade of steel moWlg down grain; and the volleys of artillery methodically annihilates them, letting nothing escape.
 Reason for Notifications.
 That is the reason for the neces- slty for seeking protection, as much as may be, against these storms of steel and explosives; it is the reason for the enormous development of field Qualifications, trenches, underground chambers, redoubts, concealed shelters and so on. The old Notifications of other times, fixed, standing out, | marked in advance for the fire of the enemy's artillery, cannot hold out against the projectiles of giant can non. But the plain ditch, scarcely yard or two wide,' easily dug, com pleted with invisible arrangements, the approach to which is made inn practicable by means of barbed- wire entanglements-that constitutes an obstacle almost impossible to be taken. Infantry, hoping to take it at a charge, will leave before such an obstacle every man, though they be 1nnumerable-for one machine gun, give it time and sufficient to feed it, will mow down a thousand men as easily as a hundred, and ten thou sand, if necessary, as easily as a thousand.
 But, on the other, this thread like obstacle, dug in the ground, furnishes only a very reduced target for artil- lery fire. To hit it, it is not enough simply to spend projectiles-they have got to be wasted to demolish the ter rain under a veritable hell of devas- tating explosives, under a deluge of shrapnel.
 Consumption of Munitions.
 "That is why the consumption of munitions and especially artillery munitions has exceeded anything that was ever conceived in time of peace. And the farther it goes, as the forti- fcations of the battlefields daily be- come more complete and more diff f1cult to reach, the use of projectiles must be more widely foreseen.
 Moreover, this intensive firing it. self wears out the guns, made only to fire some thousands of rounds, and there is therefore the necessity of re- placing them unceasingly. From this it is easy to see the enormous effort which must be required of the fac- tories to keep on supplying guns and munitions. The group of belligerents who will win this war is that which, thanks to its industry, will have been able to push the production of fire arms projectiles and explosives to the highest point and maintain it there.
 5O,OOO Killed for Calais.
 1T have heard that a German of- ficer, speaking to one of your com the kaiser would take Calais when ever they willed-by paying the price, which he set at 5O,O0O killed This boast is silly. Simply spending men will not give results. The Ger mans can pay our terrible three-inch guns a bloody price of fifty or five hundred thousand men If they please, without getting anywhere. But the day when, duly provisioned for that purpose, we scatter along their lines the tempests of iron and fire that we are preparing for them, they will have have to abandon their burrows, and our infantry will occupy the ground gained, their guns on their shoulders, without losing a man.
 "I have confidence in the final vic- tory-a victory perhaps less distant than is believed-of France and her allies. The advantage which the Ger man heavy artillery had over us can only be temporary. The industrial of the people leagued to- gether for the defence of right far surpasses that of the enemies of hu- manity; and the freedom of the seas permits us to profit of the labors of that great America whose sympathies. as we know, go out to the cause of the independence of peoples.
 France, in any case, has had, for the genius of artillery; once more she has given a proof of this in her marvellous three-inch guns, which no German cannon anywhere near approaches in perfection. When she shall have completed her arma- ments in heavy artillery, we shall show that we fear Germany in no | field, and that her pretended superior | ity is merely presumptuous.
 "(Signed)
 "CHARLES HUMBERT, |
 Senator of the Meuse." l