Six million men

Works greatest battle developing in the east

The call to Britain

Great effort needed

A SECOND official report is needed to explain the Admiralty communique issued on Saturday night.

We are told that a British transport was attacked by a Turkish torpedo boat in the Aegean Sea, that the Turkish boat fired three torpedoes, all of which missed and that about 100 men on board the transport have lost their lives through drowning.

If the torpedoes missed what happened to produce this loss of life? Was a fourth torpedo fired? Or did the men jump overboard in panic? Presumably the answer to the latter question is in the negative but it may also be presumed that this loss was not reported to the Admiralty without the cause being given.

We may take it for granted that this is not the first time that transports have been attacked but although no losses have previously been indicated no information of such events has been vouchsafed.

Both the Admiralty and the War Office are treating us badly in the matter of news and one is almost forced to the conclusion that the authorities misread the British character as sadly as do the Germans and Austrians.

In this latter connection a prominent newspaper makes the amazing assertion that the recent zeppelin raids were designed to create a sense of uneasiness and to further increase the hostility of English working men to the war.

The English working man is not opposed to the war but the question comes reluctantly, are there not circumstances which at least excuse the Austrian gibe?

In a remarkable letter to the Spectator, the Bishop of London says he has conversed with nearly every general in the field and has come to the conclusion that we shall never bring this war to an end without more complete national concentration upon it.

With lucidity and emphasis he gives his reasons ‘Every day when there is practically nothing going on 200 are killed or wounded, this is a sickening thing and we should follow the example of the French, the government should take over all factories capable of the manufacture of ammunitions, arrange the wages and make as great as traitors either employers or employed who hinder the work.

That we have done, and are doing, vastly more than was originally expected of us or dreamed of may be perfectly true but that no one foresaw what was ahead of us can not be an excuse for lack of effort or resolution in coping with the huge task we now recognise as before us?

It is the duty of the government to tell us without any mincing or wincing, exactly what the situation is, to state what they want and to see that they get it.’ There is no fresh news this morning from the main land front and indeed practically all the incidents recorded up to the moment of writing have already been posted.

The French have apparently transferred active operations to the Alsace front and appreciable progress has been made. From the Germans we learn that there has been fighting North of Ypres and that a German position has been attacked by the British and reading between the lines a tremendous success achieved.