TABLE TALK.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 308, 28 December 1915, Page 1

TABLE TALK.

The post-office business at Christmas time was greater than that of the previous Christmas. The Frer-vU liner■ Ville de la Ciotat was torjjedofid and Bunk without warning ia the ilediterranean. The hospital ship Maheno, with 317 soldiers aboard, is due at Auckland on Friday or Saturday. Timara was visited by steady rain yesterday, -wliich spoilt the holidays,-but did good to the country. The weather was fine for Christmas in Sydney. The crowds were normal _-nd trade was unexpectedly good. Sanguinary feuds between the Bulgarian and German, troops, including the officers, are said to he of almost' daily occurrence. Mr. John C. Lane, teller in the Xational Bank at -Ghristchurch, dTied from, heart failure yesterday morning while he .was on his. way to th_ pffice. . • Reuters Teheran correspondent states that a great diplomatic yfefdry has been gained by the Allies in Persia by the fall of the pro-German Cabinet — 'A -crowd of soldiers. ;:and civilians wrecked four German shops at Ltsmore, in northern Xew South. Wales. The damage is estimated at £1,000. A "motor lorry carrying a crowd, of picnickers at Day's Bay, Wellington, yesterday, took fire, and had to be. run. into the sea to extinguish the .flames. , The behaviour of the Germans at Nisli is declared by a correspondentr to -have rivalled the unspeakable outrages - perpetrated in Belgium by the Htm invaders. Christmas at the camps. At the -Allies in-Salonika was celebrated with boisterous merriment, by games and competitions in the day time., and sing-songs at night.- .'..'. The' rector of St. 'Margaret's; in the course of A jCbristmas that the imost paiafui lesson of this yar'was Britain's lackr of strong intelligent leadership. Forty carloads-Trf German -uniforms which have arrived- in Southern' Bulgaria are believed to be intended to disguise Bulgarian contingents advance on SalonikaySome reports say that Bulgaria has lost 120,000 men out of 480,000"mobilised, and refuses to cross the Greek "bordere nffw- -unless—Germanypossession of all territory occupied*! jVIr. Ashmead Barfclett declares that the'support- alone of AusfFalia and Xew , Zealand proves that Britain is. on the high road to victory, and-thattthe lasting unity of the Empire is assured by the blood spilled on Gailipc-Vi. Mr. Bonar Law says that the brightest spot of the whole war , -is the attitude s of the self-governing-dominions towards-the -Mother Country." " The--;respoi_fe was greater in every respect than any of : "us could expect it to -haye-been," he_ said/ The "Daily Chronicle" remarks: "The need for mobilising the economic' resources of the Empire and the • Allies is more urgent because Germany, by her conquests has at last succeeded in mitigating the rigour of the naval blockade.* : There was no Christmas truce in the trenchee ;this year. The had suffered too much to forget and forgave. They everywhere remarked: "WefwUl war." while the general rtoastwwar's r ' ,f 3lay we beat the Germans before another Christmas." Herr Ballin, chairman of directors of the Hambnrjr-Amerika Company, in complaining of the diasppearanee of German ships from the seas, says, "To make a free route from - Berlin to Bagdad would be reverting to a purely Continental policy, which would seriously prejudice Germany's prospects regarding the future shaping oi her political economy."