The reports that the Germans have established been brought into operation will occasion no surprise. It was always believed that the Germans would engage in this sort of activity, and early in the war reports were current that when invaded Holland they would be able with e lly big guns to throw shells into London. Nothing of that sort appears to have been attempted up to the present, though there is always the possibility that they will do something of this nature. But the real question is whether the effects produced by such shelling is really worth the time, trouble and expense of producing such weapons. Big Bertha which shelled Paris at intervals during the last war had no more than a nuisance value, which the French came to take quite calmly. Weapons of that sort very quickly wear out, and are not at any time particularly accurate, The firing which is reported to have taken place across the Channel and upon shipping proceeding along it is said to have failed to do any harm to the British vessels under convoy. Its escort was able to lay down a smoke screen, and the British demonstrated that the German claim to be able to dominate the Channel by artillery fire from the French coast, was just another story made in Germany,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.