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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Herald, 1914-08-14, Page 500 SUPPLY AND SI E WAR BAT AN EXPERT TIEINKS OF 'll'inE SIT UAli 0N.. e Says That Great Britain Will ]knave to Depend on • ' Russia. Rutledge Rutherford, a food ex- ert who recently toured Europe ttidying food conditions, . says in e New York Herald :-- Should the .Armageddon come, it ill be a war -of foods. Already•the amine scare has seized parts ' of erunany and England, and it ould not be surprising if it soon level.oped into a panic. France, ;oo, remembering the .days of 1871 hen meat sold at $20 a pound, is .eelin€ tremeluo•us, To England and Germany the pro- blew is of most momentous con- cern, for these two nations are de- pendent on the outside 'for most of their sustenance. "Starvation, not t invasion, is the danger of the coon- try," declared A. J. Balfour sever- al year ago in arguing against the declaration of London. The declar- ation will prevent America from contributing prominently to the re- lief of war -ridden nations. England xpects to gain by• her treaty with cassia more than she will have lost through the restricted relations with the United States, and maybe n that : she has shown wisdom. hat remains to be determined. England's Serious Problem. It is the most serious problem ngland has to eunsider, the con- inuance of her food supply. With her it is not a question of quality. .:nce little attention is paid there to the purity of foods. The food aws are lax and inadequately en- orced. Chemical preservatives are ed freely. A report of the Local Government Board of Scotland howl that of three hundred and fifty-two samples of British origin ubmitted to chemical analysis, one hundred and fifty-eight were found to contain boron compounds, and we've preservative sulphites. Any means of obtaining the requisite mount of food.and making them seep as long as possible is welcome n England. Should the nation's ood supply be shut off by any eans, starvation would impend anmediately. London's Plight. Think what it would mean to ondon alone 1 London with its en - irons has a population of nine mil - one, which receives its sustenance hrough the London markets. and roduees no food at all. Not in his - dusing nation on earth. The same is true of France. Austria's Position. Austria-Hungary is a Treat food producing country herself, .but no- thing to compare with Russia. Then the art of agriculture is scut pati ly developed there; In many parts the people are almost, in a state of semi -civilization. It is a country where the women go barefoot and ,do most of the work, while the men drink beer.`. In nearly all respects the nation is far behind the other great power's of the world. Italy is largely dependent en. outside sources for her food supply and is a very weak nation from many stand- points. Germany's alliance with Austria, like England's with Russia, is for the ,purpose of assuring a food .sup- ply in ease of war. Austria-Hun- gary is Germany's cupboard, and Russia is England's. Germany's cupboard is more accessible but lens productive. Long Germany has realized her weakness in this re- spect, and she has taken heroic measures to remedy it. Despite all - this, however, Germany's capacity for .producing food is exceedingly small compared to her population; The whole nation might be compar- ed to a great manufacturing centre producing little food for herself, but calling on the outside world for supply, just as cities call upon the surrounding farms. Of necessity, then, conservation plays an import- ant part in the nation's admipistra- tion. It governs everything and everywhere. The German Problem. With an area of less than 208,780 square miles—less than the State of Texas—Germany 'has seventy mil- lion mouths to feed. What this means can best be understood by comparison with United States. America, with a population of 90.- 000,000, has an area of 3,624.022 square miles, or more than seven- teen times that of Germany. Ameri- ca has 22 6-7 acres of land to every inhabitant. Germany only 1.9. And this is true, notwithstanding the nation's great efforts toward conser�-atiou. Every foot, indeed, almost every inch, of Germany's area is called upon to contribute its share toward the nation's sub- sistence. All possible sources of waste are avoided. Owners of va- cant lots are compelled to leave them to tenants at regulated prices for garden purposes. The -trees along many of the highways and country lanes 'are food bearing trees and the shrubbery in so far as consistency permits yields berries and other edibles. The fruits can- not be plucked except at specified tunes and by licensed persons. Even the wild nuts and berries of the forest are governed by such re- ory is there a situation like this— strietions, and anyone gathering mei a vast assemblage of people them withdut a license is .fable to uddled together in such a• small ,res on an island and all dependent or their food on outside sources. arrest and fine. -Since most of the soil is poor in quality the Govern- ment has given a great, deal of en - If London should be besieged as cottragement to the raising of po- as Paris in 1871 famine would set tatoes, es this vegeta'bles will immediately. This mighty swarm people consumes each day five zillion loaves of bread. four thous - d tons of potatoes, 350,000 gallons milk, nearly a million cabbages, d in season 20,000 pecks of peas d beans. Ml over the world peo- e are busy growing the grain, icing the cattle, looking after the sultry, ea -belting the fish and tend - g the fruits and vegetables to ep London and England supplied ith their foods from day to day. merica has been supplying an en - moue proportion of it. Rearrange Food. Avenues. But there must be a great rear- angement of the food avenues in ase of war. The way to America i;s long and perilous. This perhaps is the cause of certain articles in the Declaration of London. It helps to explain the cause of England's ..11.iance with Russia so soon after the Russo-Japanese war, when we found her a firm ally of Japan. Britain's main source of supply in ease of war will be Russia and the British colonies that are not, too far distant. That is One great disadvantage rwith most of the British colonies. They are so far away that the route is beset with all manner of perils in ease of war . . And then it is . dif- ficult.to keep many routes open and protected. Far simpler it would be to maintain one great route of supply from Russia, patrolledby he most powerful of England's warships. It was for such a pier•. ose that they were built, It .is for ooh purpose than they' will he used f war is to be. Considering Eng- and's position, then, we rust ad it that she has been far-sighted. 'building her mighty fleet of. bat- eslhip•s and forming an alliance itwh Russia, the greatest food pro - thrive in poor land. Potatoes, geese and sugar beets are three of German's most important sources of economy. Test For Many. Now, with war on hand, Germany has a chance to test the efficacy of her conservation scheme as well as her other prearranged schemes for preventing a food famine. Each city and village as a unit is commis- sioned to Iook out for its own popu- lation.- Likelihood that the railroad system will be blocked to ordinary traffic has caused each to take steps to increase the stock of previsions within its ownjurisdiction, The Berlin City Couneil has commis- sioned a number of firms to pur- chase and bring in supplies of grain and flour. Most of the other muni- cipalities have followed suit, A detachment of Se Servian Troops:Ready for Action. vian troops, showing the type of men and equipment, in the ' country engaged in war with Austria.. army of the little FRENCH TERRITORY ABROAD LARGE POSSESSIONS OVER VD IF, WORLD. Have an Area of 4,000,000 Square Miles and a Popu cation of 40,000,000. The French have colonies and de- pendencies with a total area of 4,- 000,000 square miles, while the pop- ulation is 40,000,000. Germany, on the other hand, has only 1,000,000 square miles of territory outside •of Germany itself, but the population of this 1,000,000 square miles is 13,- 000,000. The English colonies, possessions and protectorates have a total area of 11,224,000 square miles and a population of 372,000,000. to Tunis and Algeria,' and is bound- edon the west by the Spanish coast territory of Rio de Oro and Adair. The military .force consists of 10,- 000 men, 7,000 of whom are natives. The area is about '1,687,000 square miles and the population 11,000,000. "The following synopsis shows a few ;faets of each country separately : Dahomey, lying between Lagos and northern Nigeria on the east, and Togoland on the west,;; and ex- tends inland to the military terri- tories, has an area of 40,000 square miles and a population of 815,000. French Guinea, which lies on the coast between Portuguese Guinea. which forms the boundary on the north and Sierra Leone, on the south. but it extends inland to the Niger, has an area of about 95,000 square miles, and a population of 2,000.000. The Ivory Coast, lying between Liberia and the Gold Coast, and to- wards the interior, adjoins the 'French Soudan, has an area of 125,- 000 square miles, and a population of 1.126,000. Senegal consists of four snunicip- al communes of St. Louis, Dakar, Rufesque and Yoree. It has an area of 73,760 square miles, and a population of 1,168,000. U,pper Senegal—Niger Colony—is hounded on the north by the French Algerian territory, on the French Ground. The following is a list of the French colonies, possessions and: protectorates in the world: in North Africa. Morocco being the westernmost of the Barbary States, .occupying the northwest corner of Africa, ad the territories of Les Dreka and -Tafilet. The area is about 920.000 square miles, and the entire popula- tion about 5,000,000, of which 25,- 000 are Europeans. Algeria, one of the Barbary states of North Africa, has an area of 221,771 square miles, and a pop- ulation of 5,563,828, of which 752,- 043 are Europeans. Algiers has a population of 177,667, while Oran has 123,086. The Algerian Sahara has an area of 141,563 square miles and a popu- lation of 494,;,06, of. which 5,433 are Europeans. Tunis, lying to the east of Al- geria, is bounded on the north and east by the Mediterranean, and 00 the south by the Sahara, has an area of 51,000 square miles and a population. of 2,000,000, of. which 24,000 are Freneh exclusive of the army of occupation. Tunis, the capital, has a population of 205 000. French Somaliland, on the coast of the Gulf of Aden, includes the two parts of Ohok and Jibutil and the town of Tagura. It lies be- tween the British Somali (:oast Protectorate on the east and the Italian colony of ltrythrea on the north coast. The area is about 46,- 000 square miles and the population 908,001, of which 15,000 is at libutil, the capital. An Angry Constituent. "No; I'll never vote for that fel- low again." • "'Why not i" "1 wrote him that'I wanted a gov- ernment plum and he sent me' a couple of seedlings from the Agri- cultural department." — Irnows Better Now. Wifey—Do you •recollect that once when we had a quarrel I said you were just as mean as you could be.? •Hubby—Yes, my dear. Wifey- 0h, Torn, how little did I know you then. A Saci Thing. First' Working Girl—Say. Mame, I heard an awful sad thing this morning. Second:Working Girl (wearily) -- So did I -the alarm Week. In the Indian Ocean, Madagascar, an island with an area of 228,500 French India, consisting of Pondi- square miles, and a total population wherry and other towns in a district 46,400 square miles aid a, popula- tion of 6,119,720. Tlhe Laos territory has a popula- tion of 663,927 and an area of 111,- 500 square miles, Oceania Colonies. VORACIOUS PLANTS. Sense the Presence of Objects at a Slight Distance. Without eyes, ears or serine of ; smell, iso far as -we know, plants, are apparently affected by the pre- sence of objects that do not direet- ly•touch'them. In the ease of ani, mals, objects produce this effect through the well-known senses but it is. hardly probable that plants have any of these, although the • discovery of lenses, analogous those of the eye, in the leaves of some plants. Yet they must have some faculty nearly akin to ours, as is 'clearly shuwn by the expert- ments described by S. Leonard Briton. We know now, Mr. Bas - ton asserts, that plants are able to feel objects at.a distance. That is to say, they set as if they were aware of the presence of a certain thing, even though they may not be in contact at all. He gives as follows -a few of the most startling cases which have come under his notice, says the Scientific Ameri- can. Everybody knows that the sun - dew catches flies. The leaves of this plant are covered with tenta- cles which, being very sensitive, close in round the captive. But the foliage of the sundew has an- other remarkable characteristic. If a fly is fixed about half an inch from any of the leases a most as- tonishing thing happens. After a short interval it is seen that the sundew leaf has moved perceptible' towards its victim. Soon the cruel tentacles have reached the unhappy fly and are seen to he slowly mov- ing around their prey. There is now no chance to escape. and with every moment the fate of the insect becomes more certain. A few feeble wriggles and the fly is dead. When one comes to think of it, it is.very strange that a plant should be able to go in pursuit of its prey in the manner indicated. Some plants are very unscrupulous; unable to secure a living on their own account, they prey upon. the more hard-working of their fel- lows. Such is the dodder, a most virulent parasite. which. apart from the first few weeks of its ex- istence. has no roots or leaves, and exists as a bletedsueker on other plants. The :teed of the dodder germinates in the suit. and from New Caledonia, is an island in the south Pacific, lying to the south- west of the New Hebrides, -with an area of 7,650 square miles and a population of 50,608. Other islands in Oceania belong- ing to France are the Society Is- lands, with an area of 600 square miles and a population of 11,000; Morea, area 50 square miles and population 1.600; the Leward, the Tabivai Islands and the Raivavice Islands, with an area d 100 square miles and ,a. population of 1,700; the Tuamotu Islands, population 600 and area 6 square miles; and the Marquises Islands, with a, pop- ulation of 4,280 and an area of 480 square miles. TJIlF; FR1']frC'lll FRONTIER. Verdun. 'foul Epinal and Belfort Formidable Camps. this arises a curl{.us threadlike • growth. Now it is of vital impor- - For many years the French have tanee that the ;hung • dodder been fortifying their lines between should be able to seize hold of Verdun and Tout and between some suitable host, such as a clover )a that and Belfort, plant, for instance. It is strange 7, Verdun, Toul, Epinal and Belfort to watch the :manner in which this 1) ,by French Guinea on the are not now the forts •they were i threadlike growth :works in and out west south by the Ivory Coast, Gold Coast, Togoland and prior to 1tir0, but formidable e.n s among the grass stalks, seeking for Dahomey, and trenched camps with outworks ex- a victim When it comes within a on the east by a line running north tending fur miles in the form of Iun- certain di..ranee of a• clover plant from Lake Chad. It includes part ettes toward the German frontier. the dodder gi o ee forward at a very of the Sahara and the 'Upper Sene- The routes through the northern rapid trace unt:i a held is secured. t nn + st• gal, The colony includes the milt- gap lead in the first instance into even the stur. ...n .t p, t" t g. taffy territory of the Niger, divided the somewhat rugged and rough down before the a•ttaeks of the eruel he two districts. Timbuctoo and Lin- country of Argonne. Here the ap-parasite. The threadlike shoot is der. The population is 4.500,000, proaehes frons the German side are within a few weeks multiplied by and the area 370.000 square miles. narrow, quite too narrow for the the thousand, and fro rn every point French Guinea is in South Am -deployment of even a single corps. are pr„dnr e•:f nck�r which draw erica on the Atlantic coast. bounded The gap between Toul and Epinal, away the !:t'-:' —et' yap. on the west by Dutch Guiana. and un the ether hand, serves as a gate- l'.Al Fa 19F 11A(x:Ani_A. Brazil on the south. It has an area gate" - way into the upper basins of the of 34,500 square miles and a poptt- Meuse, the Marne and the Seine, a lation of 49.000. broa,cl, undulating country eminent- john fisher Narrowly Lst•aped Go.. Guadeloupe consists of two is- ly fitted for military operations, ing Qver the Fails. lands, Basseterre and Grandterre, conducted by great masses of men.'Niagar has been the scene of separated by a narrow salt water if the German forces succeed rn man; a ,lase heneh with death 'riser, with five :small dependent is- forcing this gap, it is here, .ars plan -since, and zrefore, with: lands, all situated in the leeward ned long ago- by Gen. 1)e Giviere, ebb's brave life was beaten out group of the lesser Antilles. The t+hat the deciding battle should be by its fierce waters. Four times area is 680 square miles and the fought, for here great lines of rail- population 212,430. Graham, ahanm, the P}ti'ade.phia cooper, way converge from both Germany has come arr.srr*r�Pti. in his barrel, Martinique is a \Vest Indian Is- and France. through the : t n the rapids; land of the Windward group, with • But, having provided an inviting• tl , Iienca'. B''''."'-'.1? leo:iceman, an area of 390 square miles and a field for the Germans, General De luta male !ate same sereeus journey population of 184,00.1. ' Giviere did not leave it unprotect that kr e : ls �b;•. tec`tPd Lie; St.. Pierre and Miguelon are the ed. He expanded the works on the by a c a ifs .ti..s+ Ver, and many chief islands of two groups near the Toul side, extending the fortified ih rs rt•:t ,.a:ns; a roan, Miss south coast of Newfoundland. The line, with secret lunettes. known Sa,die ' ?en, ; a star tlr:4 "vary area is 93 square moles and the pop- only to the engineers who built age of . rrr a n aa, .e: or tiny ulation 4,209, them, almost .a far as Lunneville. boats. ly ac` r-rr •-•,, int alt ear: • No German, it is said, knows the quite ;... recti tr >.r;a.a_o't a. john Asia Colonies. width of. this gap. Evidently it is Fisher, w:to, w;ten rri;a three less than forty miles. • mile: ttrb,, e tare t'a'il, pursued a Owing to the character of the swim""Ig bar '""4•11.n :, rn.,re clead- gronncl, the line between Epinal lv wera,pon than fish -spear. The and Belfort is held to be secure. and beat turned r eve:' :, lrarrir. the Belfort is se close to the Swiss throat, 'ti50 {eel t ae spear ,•ut of frontier that there is for practical Fisher's ;ta vd and then deliberate - purposes no gap at this end, unless ly climlreai .ever the ;sitar .,f the l Swiss neutrality be violated. But and took up a commanding position the..section between Verdun and in the atty. The boat was drifting cwiiftTy to the fails, the thunders of which were growing ominously near. In vain did Fisher try to use the oars; at every attempt the bear growled ierceiv and threaten - en to spring on ham. In his ex- tremity he shouted for help. Every moment the current was carrying him more and more swiftly to de- struction, Happily his shouts came to the ears of a sd eler, who rash - ed with 'his gun • te-rlie river bank and put •a load of buckshot .into bruin. A 4eve desperate strokes of his oars tools the apparently doom- ed man to the shore, within a few hundred yards of the brink over whiclt'he would have swept bat for the timely shot of the settler, . of about 4,000,000. Reunion, an island 420 miles east of Maragasear, ;has an area of 970 square miles, and a population of 173,822, In French Central Africa. French Equatorial Africa, bound- ed on the northwest by the Camer- oons,, on. the north by Wadal, one of the Soudan states; on the east by Bahrel-Gihazal, on the southeast by the Congo Free State, and on the west by the Atlantic, has an . area of 66,000 :square miles, and a popu- le do n of 5,000,000. French West Africa. This 'includes, Senegal, French Guinea., the Ivory Coast, Dahomey, the `Upper Senegal, Niger colony and the civil territory of Mauret- ania. French territory stretches inland from the coast to the upper and Middle Niger, thence eastwards the area of which is about 196 -square miles and the population 282,386. Indo China is the name given to the French possession in the Anna - mese peninsula—Cochin 'Ohina, An - nam, Cambodia, Tonquin and Laos, with the I£wang-Wan=Chau terri- tory :and the islands leased with it to France by China. The area is about 308,900 square miles, and the population 16,500,000. • Annam, a French protectorate, has an area of 6,500 square miles and a population of 5,513,681. Cambodia has an area of 67,500 equa.re miles and a population of 1,193,534. Cochin China comprises the whole of the . Mekong delta, having an area of 20,000 square miles and a population of 2,870,514. T•onquip, lying to the north of Annam and south of the Chinese to Barrawa, on Lake Ohwd, north province of Yunnan, has an areaof Toul is not regarded by the French General Staff as equally satisfac- tory. Sending Power Under the Sea. The mut�h dischssed project of an under -sea, power line from Sweden to Denmark appears to be on the way to execution, for according to recent reports the two countries have now authorized the laying of t'he cables and work is to' be soon be- gun. The object of the scheme is to make use of water power in the southern part of Sweden, employing the fall of the Lagan river, and to bring this power by under -sea cable to the island of Zeeland, where it can be employed to advantage.