5 . _ all tha? was <imee haa sa ety. 2 or ---- PAVING THE WAY FOR AN ATTACK --_---- Ret Those Whe Take Part in Them Often Consider Them Trifling Ancidents. The trench raid is often an appar- ently insignificant affair. It is just a portion of the long round of those tasks that are being completed some- | where in the line, every moment of the day and night. And yet, however small it may be, ihe trench raid vitally important. Even those who take part in it are apt to underesti- mate the results of their effort. My first experience of a trench raid was very different from what I-had | WIDE FIELD FOR AEROPLANES." ! Many Are the. Uses to Which They Will Serve When Peace Comes. Regarding the use of aeroplanes is forest protection, it is interesting t learn that there are at least ten ion! sand airplanes in constant readiness | for use on the Western front, with probably thrice that number of train- ed pilots. the principal European powers had} slightly over three thousand trained military pilots. Before peace comes, provided the United States completes aviation programme, there will be ot less than twenty thousand air- och in commission, and ar sixty thousand trained pilots. this | © value to civilization after the war? is Are the pilets to go back to their for- | mer occupation--wingless eaglets | compelled to crawl on earth . when they would fiy in the upper blue? ger C. Middleton, a pioneer aviator, whose book "Airfare," anticipated. The battalion had ye in this part of the line for a weeks only and nothing of piticalar'| interest had occurred, but when w were relieved and had retired into' reserve for a few days' respite we be- gan to notice that things were liven- | ing up in our sector. There could he | no doubt that the monotonous inac- | was every sign of the suiroask of a! "big stunt." i Part of the Day's Work. We were not surprised, therefore, | on returning to our trenches ta learn that we were to carry out a smal! raid | that very evening. My platoon, which | Was occupying the support line, was' selected for the task. We received | instructions that the raid was to be! in the nature of a surprise; we were | quietly to enter the enemy's domain, | bring back a few prisoners, if pos-. sible, and anything else we could lay | our hands upon. It was to be an un-! obtrusive affair and the men were! somewhat disappointed, as they were | expecting a stirring dash over the top| with the glint of the cold steel. | We filed up the narrow communica- | tion trench and, taking up our posi-' tions in the frent line, awaited the ex- | act moment to go across. We noticed | thatethe barbed wire which the enemy | had placed in front of his lines had been completely rensoved by our ar- | tillery fire--an every day occurrence, | but none the less essential to our suc-! eess and a tribute to the uniform ef-' ficiency of our gunners. | "Hi, Bill?" cried one of the men, "just go and tell our artillery to stop strafing; if they go on like this they won't leave any Huns for us to have our little argument with!" « "Don't worry," was the reply, "Old Fritz is safe and poe in his) little dugout. You'll have a job to get him out to talk to you." =. In Enemy's Front Trench. Presently we crawled over the top| -- and lay in front of our barbed wire} and then, after crawling a little fur-' ther, we got up and walked stealth-: ily across No Man's Land. The men went forward very quietly, just as if they were on parade or practising behind the lines. As we passed the remains of the enemy's wire a few "very lights" shot up and a machine gun snapped at us from our left flank. Tt was too late, however, and the next instant we all dropped quickly into their front trench. ' I expected to see a row of men kneeling with their hands up and screeching "Kamerad!" but all I met in my traverse was a dead machine gunner lying beside his gun--"One of our shells," I thought. JT could hear very little of what was taking place, just one or two half stifled shouts. Our artillery was making a tremend- ous din on our flanks and on the en- emy's support lines. T ran around to the next traverse and found some of our men holding a bunch of prisoners. They seemed very docile and pretty dazed and I conld see that we should not have much trouble with them. Accompanied by my sergeant, I hur- riedly visited all the traverses and ' found that the only difficulty experi- enced was on our extreme left, where our men, who had encountered super- ior numbers, had had a tussle with the bayonets. The few Boches who sur- vived ran around the next traverse and, judging by the number of bombs that were being hurled over indiscrim- inately, they had been strongly rein-, forced. Our men retaliated with care- fully placed hand grenades and we. prepared to protect our flank against an assault. We waited, but they made! no attempt at attack; apparently our | ed from cither side, he kept on firing man sharpshooters grenades had been more than suffi-| cient for them and they had retreated { "The Safe Return. "The "ii, With a roar, our artillery in-! tensified its barrage and under this! protection we made our return trip, | bringing back our prisoners, a few! , tural village had twenty employes on the Germans occasionally sent float- stolen machine guns and our one or! hie farm. and as none of them were" ing over the trenches. two wounded. We returned to our support lines | they should be, he hit upon a plan! has been invented so that the pigeons and after handing over the loot the! which he believed would cure them of are saved from this untimely death, men retired to their dugouts.and made ! shért work of the hot soup. i "Didn't think much of that for | show," I heard one grumbling. "We) only found two Boches in our bit and they didn't try to put up a fight. Mind, I don't blame them, old Bert was not looking at all pleasant." For my own part I hardly realized it was all over, and when I reporte everything to the C. O. it seemed a very trifling incident. However, he seemed pleased, so I suppose we did Ve coms been published by Constable ompany, and deals in a very thor- pe way with the airplane, the - forscanl and the airship in peace © war, is convinced that great wavial i fleets will be built up after the war, ;not only for the transportation of' | pagsengers and mails, but of certain jclasses of freight, including silks, ! spices, tea, furs, ivory, and similar: i valuable commodities. lines the principal aerial trade routes | from London to the East and South, ! 'the Western route across the Atlan-} tic having still to be tried out. The Atlantic stretches are too wide to permit of airplanes as at present operated carrying cither passengers or mails, the entire lifting capacity ' being required for the petrol neces- | sary for the iourney. An iilustration of the route to: Cape Town from London by the West, African aerial service is thus pre- rented by Lieut. Middleton: Allowing a minimum average of 110 miles an}? hour, with light wind, and half an hour for each landing, an airplane leaving London at 8 on a Monday morning would keep the following: time-table: London, 8 a.m., Monday. Paris, 19 a.m., Monday. Bordeaux, 1 p.m., Monday. Gibraltar, 8 p.m., Monday Fez, 9 p.m., Monday. Lagos, 5.30 p.m., Tuesday. Loango, 2 a.m., Wednesday. Johannesburg, 8 p.m., Wednesday. Total time London-Cape Town 2 days, 20 hours. By steamer, via Fun- chal, the time taken is three weeks, which gives an advantage of two and, a half weeks. Another route to Cape, ® Town would be London-Paris-Lyons- obar - Mom- Rome - Alexandria - Ank basa Pals barg-Cape Town." Z - THE V.C. FOR. DEAD HEROES. Men Who Were Killed Checking As- sdult of Germans. Acts of almost ism characterized deeds for five Victoria Crosses have been awarded recently. Three of the reci- pients are dead. The following in- stances are typical: Second Lieutenant B. C€. Cassidy, late of the Lancashire Fusiliers: Dur- ing the hostile attack. when the flank of his division was endangered, Lieu- tenant Cassidy, who was commanding a company in close support, carried out in the noblest manner and to the letter orders-that he must hold the position to the last. The enemy came on in overwhelming numbers, endeav- oring to turn the flank. He, however, continually rallied his men under a 'terrific bombardment. The enemy was several times clear- ed out of the trench by his personal leadership. The company was event- ually surrounded, but Cassidy fought on, encouraging and exhorting the men until he was killed. His most gallant conduct held up the whole at- tack at this point and undoubtedly saved the left flank from possible disaster. Private H. G. Columbine, late of the machine gun corps: Owing to ensual- iies Columbine took command o gun and kept firing from 9 o'clock in the morning until 1 o'clock in afternoon in an isolated and unwired position, beating back successive en- emy waves. An attack by a low-fly- ing airplane finally enabled the enemy to guin a taatiner 4 in a trench on either side. 'he ee being untenable, Col- 'umbine ordered the two remaining men to get away, and, aithough bomb- the gun and inflicting tremendous losses. He was eventually killed by a bomb which blew up both him = and 'the run. There Was a Reason. A farmer who lived in a certain: energetic as the farmer thought' their lazy habits. "Men," he said, one morning, "I have a nice easy job- for the laziest | man on the farm. Will the laziest. man step forward?" angeeotiy nineteen of the men step- | ped forw: "Why didn't you step to the front. with the rest?" enquired the farmer of the remaining one. "Too much trouble," was' the reply. | Heip yourself and your country by eS to. the loft which' they are buying War Savings Certificates, When the war broke out When Wireless Apparatus and Tele' vast capital investment to be oe no: He even cut | ' -fwas that all superhuman hero-, which | a dom fails. * ty-seve r the nine n per cent. , HOLDS A PROMINENT PLACE IN PRESENT CONFLICT. @ | phones Become Useless, Pigeon ves Service is Effectual. | When the wireless telegraph was invented eve: supposed -- day of the carrier pigeons had pa: 'ed. Up te that time pigeons had b had 'a prominent place in war as well as 'in peace. If it had not been for pige- would heve been unable to communt Leaime be with the outside world during}; jee long siege to which that city was subjected. When steamships began to ply the os. carrier pige- one were re when the vessels ; were a few hundred miles from land, {and quickly brought home advance 'information for the use of public offi- /cials and business men, as well as | supplying news to the people. It is a fortunate thing that the car- rier pigeon did not become extinct af- ter it had been supplanted by the 'Marconi invention, for the present war has demonstrated that pigeons can be depended upon when the wire- jless fails. Armies which long ago -- their pigeon service are trying to accumulate all! the!: coaitadiey birds that can be-found. Belgium's National Sport. As it happened, the raising of pig- leons is the national sport of Belgium. {It corresponds to baseball in America. | There are many associations of racing 'pigeon keepers in England, too, and some in Framwce. It is generally ad- ' mitted that the Belgians and the Eng- : lish breed the best birds, and most of | the successful fanciers of this coun- 'try owned stock which came from British or Belgian strains. | The Germans have not been promi- ha nent in the breeding of racing pige- ;ons, but when the war broke out they jrealized the value of the birds which the Belgians possessed. Among their first orders as they passed through the ravaged territory of the Belgians pigeons and firearms {should immediately be delivered up. | Of course the intrepid Belgian people 'did not obey this order if they could ' avoid doing so. Hundreds of pigeons | were concealed, gnly to be liberated | from time to time when oecasion of- fered. They revéaled to the English and French the truth about affairs in Belgium when the Germans were giv- ing out woe. piseoting intobson- of the fighting lines. The birds are housed in portable lofts, the roofs of which are painted in bright colo | which can be seen a long distance. tt has been found that the pigeons will find their way back to these lofts even though the latter are moved a dis- tance of forty or fifty miles. Valuable to Aviator. When an aviator scout flies over the enemies' lines seeking information he carties with him a number of pigeons which are released one by one. Be- fore each pigeon flies away, however, a short message is written on a piece of rice paper and the paper attach- ed to the bird's leg by means of a rub- tf BIRD OF WAR! ons the beleaguered citizens of Paris| means pigeon army has been quartered back | youth Steam "traction m engine was a he into @ certain rural dis- = = - a @ are settled in will vo a = 'Should Land Forces Fail. reas the military situstion the enemy off or whether it fails, it _ 4 conditions of the land upon the a risked the interven-! tion of the United States on the as-' that an unrestricted U-boat' weapon could prevent the latter from | ever intervening with success. They | February, 1917, and American troops are pouring into the European thea-' ter of war. "The consequence? That the issue. must be decided by a knock-out blow. And the attempt to deliver that blow | is the evidence that the U-boat cam-'! in the estimation' | "Affairs on the Continent are grave enough. . . . An enemy would over-' look our coasts. But his power would! stop at the water's edge unless he could annihilate ovr fleets. To sub- due Britain they have to fight her on, the element which has been her own for a hundred years or more, and: which experience in this war has shown to be as much her own as ever. Rn is no need to anticipate that the Germans will succeed in over- whelming our armies. But should they do so, the effect will be that sea-' power will come fully into play, and that its effects, now hidden, will be_ immediately seen. The Germans will reach no 'decision,' however victorious their armits may be, until they have reckoned with and overcome the force which is incalculable to their gen-' rals. | "That is the fact which the poonie of se country must come to rec nize, if they would get a real- anaer-| standing of the position." _ MASTERY OF THE AIR. | j 4 trict, the local farmers said that it would never: be able to move itself, | and when it did move itself, they de-| clared that it would never beable to ascend a certain hill. When it did, both these things, the local wisdom was that the engine would never plow. When, however, it succeeded in plow- ing, the agricultural community was at once converted to a belief in the new power, and there is no district in Engiand where traction engines have been more fully used. We are re- minded of this experience by what has happened in the case of airplanes. At first the world doubted whether the airplane could be made to stay in the | ber band. It is the common practice: to use a little aluminium case to hold: the message. but the French fliers | have found that the message is car-! ried just as safely under a rubber | band, and this simple plan is being' generally adopted. The use of pige-' ons makes it unnecessary for the flier | to return for several hours. Pigeons are also being used to! earry information from ships at sea to the Jand. Jt is in carrying reports | from the front to the rear of the fighting line, however, that they are most valuable. Wireless apparatus is | fie dismantled in the course of a! battle. Then recourse is had entire-| ly to the pigeon service, which sel- It has been estimated that | of all mess- { ages sent are delivered. Have Gas Protectors. Although the birds are very sensi- tive little creatures, they do not seem | to mind the shock ef smoke and bat- tle. At least they are not confused, but fly from the trenches straight back to their home lofts. So import-! ant has this service become that Ger-| have now been! given the task of bringing down every pigeon they can reach with a bullet. _A pigeon on the wing flying at the rate of a mile a minute is a difficult ; 'object to hit, however, and most of | (them escape. Formerly there was | considerable loss from the gas which | | ! Now, however, a cage with a special gas protector { Although called carrier pigeons abroad, the bird used by the army is not the carrier as known .in this coun- try. Our carriers are bred solely for | exhibition purposes and can fly only a hey distance. The message carry- birds are really homing pigeons | santlar to the homers used for squab Ling wut trained for flying. This aining must begin when the birds jare only five or six weeks old. First of all it is necessary to get them to occupy. That is, they must become! and |said advices air. Now the airplane has shown an almost uncanny mastery over that element. Obviously, however, in spite of its. wonderful performance, it still far behind the bird in its achieve- ; ments; but Prof. Bell, the well-known inventor of the telephone and a great student of aeronautics, has all kinds of hopes as to the future. He sees the day when the flying machine will | fly so fast that wings will be unneces- sary. It is even possible, he thinks, 'that the mystery of moving through the atmosphere may be so fully pene- trated that locomotion may be found , possible, not only without wings, but without an engine. It is certainly true, as he says; that "all other things that fly, fly without engines, the alba- tross without the movement of its wings -- overtaking a ship against the wi coo BELGIUM SLAVES. | Children Over Thirteen Are Forced to Labor for the Germans. As part of the practise of com- mandeering labor, the German mili-. tary authorities in Belgium have re- | gistered all youths above thirteen in the region of Mons, and are employ-, ing many between fourteen and sev- enteen in digging and grading close to the.trenches north of Verdun and near St. Mihiel, the American sector, received recently at Washington by the Belgian Legation. | A protest of Belgian Senators re- ceived at the Legation says the Ger- mans are forcing men, women and children into a state of servitude throughout the military zone, which comprises all Flanders and a con- siderable part of Hainaut and Lux- | embourg. - "At Erneghem, a village of Flan--- ders," gays the Legation's® state- | ment, "the bodies of ten children. who had died near the front were' taken back to their parents. In the; region.of Mons a census has been tak- ; en of all youths over thirteen; a good | many of them have. already ne ba | en to the front under armed and under most pitiable matitien me eee Se any farm | er's bay should not breed homing pige-| ' . Prebabiy the in- |g re will continue to' ro that birds will be in de for. the raising offs 'as will come to be as common ot in this country as it formerly JOST FIGHT BRITISH NAVY. Sea F Weuld € Come Into Play. re the timber is spruce (picea ¢ {all the cut timber is hauled on pret Sed | lict land in conjunction 'Are peeping from the crocus bed in 'shrine to which they can bring flow- "PROFIT IN PINE TREES. SOLDIERS ARE GROWING FOOD.' | Forestry is Taught in the Public Thie Work is Considered Second in Schools of Norway. ---- Only 'te Fighting. Madera isa per cent. of the King- 'eod growing is second in import- f Norway is covered with forest fick only to fighting. Such is the mere is, about 17 million acres. gist of an army order issued '" year that, about 15 million acres is Pro- | 520 $e the -Beition -trewps ductive forest. The Government owns | Much » 'military cultivation ol teak bes ebout two million acres. e commer- pisdaicha heen ianew-Sleian: _cial forests under Government super- | Rietysaiiiery-caniy tithe. Called acres, , Kingdom, every German prisoner's Journal. The rest, or about 12 mil-' camp, and every serodrom i jlion acres of productive forest, is pri-! 'agrieultural operstions. In addition, vate property. Seventy-five per pe, ; 50,000 acres are being cultivated be- I pind the lines in France, 7,000 acres in ,at Salonika, approximately 700,000 @S ' acres in Mesopotamia, and large areas ant Egypt, Palestine and Cyprus. In an- | France the Army hgs its own Direc- ee torate of Agricultural Production Nearly | working for the cultivation of dere- 'with the s#), and~ pine (pinus silvestric) § , about equal a as we nual forest growth or increment acre is about 21 cubic feet. + to the river in the winter and fi to the coast in the spring. The rene iing is now nearly all done by piece work, which haw-proved to be a great success, The value of forest products ex- i ut $30,000,000 annually. French authorities At Salonika the crops now growing eomprise 2,100 acres of barley, 500 acres of wheat, 700 acres of potatoes, 2,000 acres of maize, and 1,700 acres of other crops. It is estimated alsc that the work there will result in a saving of 20,000 tons in the quantity of hay required to be imported. In Mesopotamia, small irrigating pumps, driven by steam or oil, are it use on the banks of the Tigris. It i: estimated that this year's yield from military cultivation in Mesopotamia will total 25,000 tons of wheat and 100,000 tons of barley, besidea fair crops of other grain. Tractors ¥ithreshers and hand implements of boards, doors and windows, now come into promin- ence. The pulp represents about 50 per ¢ cent. of the export value. The people have awakened to the! importance of improved and _ con- servative methods, and planting in the coast districts has also been en- , couraged. Most of it is done b ; School children. Douglas fir im-| several kinds have been sent from In- Ported as seed --_ the Pacific coast! dia and Australia, as well as from and raised urseries, is being Great Britain. i | planted quite 'istensieaks in parts of Norway. Forestry is taught' in all Public Schools and instructors give lectures in the aaaley districts. In Egypt, Palestine and Salonika the British armies will this year grow ail their own vegetables, and they will also produce a large quantity of hay and other forage maierial for horses. Last year the Army in Egypt produced for itself 196,000 tons of hay; this year it is estimated that 424,000 tons will result from its land labors. Last year's yield of barley was 26,000 tons; this year ihe supply will be about quadrupled. Last year a portion of the Army's sugar supply was imported; this year the whole re- quirements both for Egypt and . for Salonika will be produced in Egypt. The figures from the Aldershot Command prove what great work has been accomplished in England. Only 28 acres were being cultivated there eighteen months ago; this month, 1,200 acres are under cultivation. The Trifier. Spring rain, spring rain, Like a wayward lover, 'Stealing to the trysting place through the misty night; Dropping on the crocus bed Kisses in a shower, Fragrant still of all the = ga- thered in your fligh And a thousand little" a Of those wild sweet kisses, the morning Jight. apes wind, spring bmi Such a boisterous Squ Racing with the cloudlets silvery dawn; Bending al! the tree-iops To your rough desire, Snatching kisses as you Bo from ap- 5S inonal the a COMMANDANT OF WAACS." Women's Anxiliary Army Corps Re- viewed by Queen Mary. ee eo scrapes tg asd it will ' a t day for the "Waacs," as they Fickle, frail and tender, _ oe A are called, when they line up in re- Tae 'mid spring- view order before her, says a London ; : correspondent. Queen Mary has act- ue the long aul sitey day el for the King at a review of troops At ee. ithout Naskewd tack on Salisbury Plain, and the event was went sand o'er the hills: "learried out with a thoroughness which ; Torbay "a astonished the soldier#, BP ce aie con. pisiges The "Waacs" are likely to find out' Come to me in the breeze that wafts before long that the royal command- wexGen my window-sills ant has not been colonel in chief of the Eighteenth Hussars fcr many years without learning something about the value of military discipline. Though the corps is young, it al- 'Seite ove. spring love, y 'Mage | "Hevees. A very beautiful and dignified idea for perpetuating the memory of those | ready has had'its baptism of fire and who have fallen in the Great War isjhas behaved in the ordeal with the that carried out in the graveyard of | quiet-courage which the war has the little old church at Beetham, a| caught one to expect from English village in Lancashire. An oaken cross,! women as much as from the men. No beautifully polished, standing about . war correspondent has yet told the five feet high, has been erected near | gtory of the march of the "Waacs" the church dvor. On the cross have b. from St. Quentin under the Germun been nailed small brass plates about} pombardment. but when it is disclos- two inches square, each bearing an/ed it will be no -unfitting pendant to macoree which tells how Private the magnificent retreat of the heroic ---- or Captain ----~- was killed in ac-) Scottish nurses in Serbia. tion in Flanders or elsewhere. It is interesting to recall in this There are now half a dozen or 89) connection that Queen Mary before little brass plates on the cross, show-/the war was colonel in chief of the . ing the heavy toll the war has taken even in such a tiny out-of-the-world hamlet as Beetham. Kaiser's Fifth Pomeranian Huszars, but her Majesty since has had veen- sion to remark at a public function, This wooden cross with its neat) "You will never find a German helmet little brass plates is a simple and 'that will ft an English head." beautiful way of commemorating the! oe heroic dead, a way which is open to! The British Navy on the Job. the poorest. And those who have! Feel anenne they "know not where | Be papell png aval ac- =e ' al 32 they have laid him." bave--in-it ® and skill of the men who, under x igalling fire, sank the Vindictive at the harbor entrance. It was no casy 'feat. The old cruiser was for twenty | minutes in full view of the enemy hat- and Indeed, the cross at Beetham al- 'ma nest of sweet-swell-|t there by loving ers, | ways rises fr™ ing blossoms Taid hands. . > -- teries; she was hit repeatedly, The Gate of Life. the wonder is she did not go down pre- jmaturely. When her stem was ram- "Under the orders of your devoted! med against the pier and all was 'officers in the coming battle you will pealby for the explosion, two motor 'advance or fall where you stand fac-'jaunches went alongside to take off ing the enemy 'the men. Their crews, we are told, "To those who fall, I say: 'You will, "behaved in the most gallant man- not die, but step into immortality. ner, rushing in to shore utterly re- Your mothers will not lament your gardless of their safety to see that no fate, but will be proud to have borne one was left behind." They were ail such sons. volunteers who thus ventured "into 'Your names will be revered for ,the jaws of death, into the mouth of ever and ever by your grateful coun- hell." It was a daring adventure, and try, and God will take you unto Him-' 'Canada, no less than England is self.' ""---Lieut.-General Sir A. W. 'thrilled by it. Yet though the men Currie in an order of the day for engaged deserve a special tribute for March 27 to the Canadians before the' their courage, the spirit they showed battle. \is that of the whole navy. The crews eae . of the British submarines have under- Belgium Desperate. gone great hardships, they have tak- Word comes from Belgium that the; en terrible risks, and they have play- food situation is more desperate than ed a large part in keeping the Ger- ever, and even if all recent shipments} man warships bottled up in harbor. arrive safely that the country will be; The criticism "that the British navy , without bread for twenty days at, | was not doing its share, that its policy least. The need for funds to send | was not aggressive enough, never had the children out of this country of ; any . justification. Recent, episodes | death and into Holland and Switzer-; should convince -- jes cites land is _Dressing. ; " fof that, is ---