BREATHING THROUGH REEDS SIR,—The report from Stockholm to which "
Janus " refers, that Germans in the Kuban have taken to lying under water and breathing through reeds in the hope of escaping their Russian avengers, is an interesting reversal of fortune. The sadly persecuted Slav peoples of a thousand years ago fell upon the same device. According to the chronicler " Mauritius," When suddenly attacked, they dive under water and, lying cn their backs on the bottom, they breathe through a long reed. They thus escape destruction, for the inexperienced take these projecting reeds for natural: though the experienced recognise them by their cut and pierce the body through with them or pull them out so that the diver must come to the surface if he will not be stifled.
Slav peasants of 1768 are also reported to have lain under the Dneiper for half a day for the same purpose. We have heard much of the Germans being " bogged down " in Russia and " thrown on to the defensive." But for the Herrenvolk to have to adopt this peculiarly passive form of defence marks, surely, a new level of strategy in their submarine warfare. And even if my good friend " Janus " prefers to believe that the purpose of a periscope is to breathe through, I still have
[Janus writes: " I wrote of the principle, not the purpose, of a periscope. The principle is that of obtaining access to the -upper air, whether for vision or respiration, while remaining submerged beneath the water."]
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