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Show IIIIIIIIIIINllNTIIfT inilliilll lllir How England, for More Than 100 Years, Has Been Thrown Into Occasional Spasms of Terror by Suggested Plans of Conquest AT the present moment a large part of the population of Eng land la tn a state of acute alarm over the possibility of a German Ger-man Invasion of the Island The form In which the Invasion is feared varies from the possible Zeppelin raid to the most fantastic schemes The English newspapers are filled with cartoons Intended to suggest the fantastic character of a whole sale German Invasion but the prep aratlons made show that the English take the danger very seriously One picture shows the German army marching under the sea to England In divers suits This con solingly suggests to Englishmen the difficulty of reaching their Island and at the same time acknowledges that the Germans are a people who take an enormous amount of trouble Ever since the Napoleonic wars the English have been in times of excitement aocustomed to discuss the (possibility of Invading their country Many Britons have loudly declared it impossible but eome excellent au thonties including Lord Hoberts have maintained the possibility Napoleon planned to Invade the country with the aid of a great fleet of barges loaded with soldiers, and propelled by oars and escorted by warships A storm interfered with the first attempt and then events elsewhere made a renewal impos Bible Old prints of that period show that the English then discussed the most fantastic projects of invasion just as they are doing to-day An ingenious print, published in 1 98 6hows a huge French raft propelled by windmills conveying thousands of French soldiers This was Quite a hensive method of invading England and they the English have made their arrangements to deal with It The ordinary Englishman thinks of two possible methods of invad ing his country Zeppelin raids not being ranked as an invasion. TheBe methods are (1) the seizure of one or more English ports by a tremen dous German fleet and the landing of troops at them and (2) the landing of troops from transports in small boats at some open unprotected part of the coast Englishmen were consoled by the assurance that these methods were practically hopeless first because the attack on a port would give the English plenty of time to concentrate troops In that direction and second because the placing of troops in small boats would exoose them to destruc tlon by comparatively small forces ashore There is however a third method which promises better success Its .revelation came as- a shock to some Englishmen This method is by means of shallow lighters carrying BOO or 1 000 soldiers each The men would step directly ashore from the lighters' The practicability of this method was first revealed some years ago by Ersklne Childers in a remarkable novel called The Riddle of the Sands He worked out down to the last details the supposed German plan of invasion The lighters would be assembled secretly in the rivers that flow from Germany into the North Sea behind a fringe of islands They would be piloted by German sailors thorough ly fanril ar with the British coast The British fleet would be crushed or drawn In another direction by a German fleet and an opportunity to I clever idea as steam was not then tmderstood and wmd was the best ipower known Another print shows Napoleons army marching to Dover through a submarine tunnel which they have constructed unknown to the English Sixty years later progress in en Igtneering made a tunnel between England and France quito possible The British military authorities then vetoed the plan on the ground that 4t would destroy the security which the sea gave the country To-day the tunnel is being built, and the authorities know that if it were completed it would be of im mense value to England in co-oper attng with France The truth seems to be that the Eng ish authorities believe that the Germans have planned out a compre slip through would be seized Explaining this scheme the author says The only logical alternat ve is to dispatch an army of infantry with the lightest type of field guns in big seagoing lighters towed by power ful but shallow draught tugs under escort of a powerful composite squadron of warships and to fling the flotilla at high tide if possible straight upon the shore Such an expedition could be pre pared In absolute secrecy by turning to account the natural features of the German coast No great port was to be concerned in any way All that was required was sufficient depth of water to float the lighters and tugs and this Is supplied by seven insig flcant streams issuing from the Fris ian littoral and already furnished with small harbors and sluice gates All of these streams would have to be improved deepened and general ly canalized ostensibly with a com mercial end for purposes of traffic with the islands which are growing health resorts during a limited Sum mer season Seaward the whole of the coast is veiled by the fringe of islands and the zone of shoals Landward the loop of railway round the Frisian Peninsula would form the line of communication in the rear of the seven streams Esens was to be the local centre of administration when the scheme grew to maturity but not till then Every detail for the movement of troops was to be ar ranged for with secrecy and exacti tude many months in advance and from headquarters at Berlin Above Is a Curious Old Print Published in London in 1801, When Napoleon Was Preparing Prepar-ing to Invade England This Shows the French Army Se cretly Approaching (England's Shores by a Tunnel Under the Channel, While Balloons and Warships Aid the Attack rhe Author of This Old Print Had a Clever Idea of the Possibilities Possibil-ities of Future Warfare On the Left U 0n the Right I. a Anothe r Old , . Print of Napol Cartoon of To day eon Time Pub ln the London By 1 thed. in 1798 , Showing the tnder Fantaatie French Army Car ally Imagining the ned to England German Army U.L!3"pw Marching to Eng eHed" by 7 Wind land Unde- &e Sea m lis and Bearing in Divert SmU a Great Fort la and Protected by li iiPS"'bIB Submarine. Some Shall See a Battle P . - .hip or Floating J""" This Fort as Large u Scheme Are Not Thii? Incredible It is said that the publication of this book led to a complete change ln British naval policy The Brit ish fleet was concentrated in home waters instead of being scattered over the world and two naval bases on the North Sea one on the River Humber and the other at Rosyth in Scotland were constructed espe ally to watch Germany One oddly ingenious scheme of invading England has been an nounced during the present war A dispatch from Copenhagen de clared that the Germans were build ing a fleet of huge submarines car rying one thousand men apiece The idea of a fleet of submarines unexpectedly popping out on the shore and landing an army Is a striking one but experts say that it is impracticable p W j " V ivAawbTu l SMS rapil Emperor William's Submarine Infantry From London Bystander I use of various heavy metals in the manufac ture of nursing nipples and small rubber toys affords an instance of a possible unsuspected danger to the health of infants who tend to extract soluble products from such articles in the mouth or by the gastric juice when small pieces of the rubber are accidentally swal lowed Obviously they should be free from soluble toxic substances The government chemists state that the occurrence of ant mony in black rubber can be explained only on the hypothesis that rubber scrap or recovered rubber has been used in the compounding We are told that the use of miscellaneous scrap and especially of recov ered rubber or shoddy is objectionable be cause of its nknown chemical composition The se of lead compounds in rubber prepara tlons is common and salts of mercury are used to some extent Either of these ine 1 would be highly objectionable in a compo i to be used for nipples or children s A study of the solubilty of the antWOW r found in rubber nipples particularly w red variety was made undei confl tiona . PTOximating what might exist wi uu , They showed an extraction of quantities w , timony of 20 per cent of an emetc ao . normal saliva of an acidity commonly i in an infants mouth It is apparent w , fore without further discussion of FdoS '. bilities of a cumulative action of sll8f BSl ' ings resulting from the absorpt on m amounts of antimony over a consider w nod of time that the use of antimony j in nursing n ppleS teeth rings ana o ber materials used by young tawnis least undesirable J |
