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Show If COMPARISON OF FIGHTING ABILITY. j English writers, among them Conan Doyle, present war statistics to prove ( the British are superior to the Ger- mans In every field of fighting, and, it must be admitted, they make a very good showing In substantiation of their j contention. I During the first stages of the war, the British landed about 120,000 troops in France. English, Irish, Scotch and t Welsh regiments faced the Germans J as they moved down from Belgium. General French's men were in the re-I re-I treat from Mons, suffering extremely heavy losses, Including 15,000 men I made prisoners by the Germans. Six ty guns were left behind, the great 1 majority of which were at Le Cateau, I where the Germans outnumbered the British five to one. Since then only 10 guns and 19,000 J prisoners have been taken by the Teutons. On the other hand, the British have i captured 76,000 Germans and approximately approxi-mately 400 guns. In April alone they captured 19,343 ! officers and men, 257 guns and how itzers, (including 98 heavy guns and howitzers) 227 trench mortars and 470 machine guns. The bulk of these, prisoners are Bavarians. All are active ac-tive or reserve troops. Many are Guard troops. The captured guns are almost all in perfect condition and one British corps alone has formed "1st, 2nd, 3rd Pan-German groups" of guns, each having a sufficient supply of captured ammunition to feed It. The village of Lievin was evacuated evacuat-ed on April 14 in such haste that immense im-mense stores were left. There was a great amount of engineering material, mater-ial, numbers of telescopes and peri scopes, much, electrical apparatus, nnmbora of railway cars and heaps of equipment for troops. At Lagnlcourt alono more than 1,500 dead bodies from flvo regiments of tho Prussian Guard wore buriod. Tho Guard flod In such confusion that they bocamo entangled In their own wire. |