Sidelights on the War

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 240, 7 October 1916, Page 15

Sidelights on the War

. Tier* Uβ 2,268 members of the London County Council teaching Btaff serving with, the Forces.

'British soldiers are marrying French. wdmen in Normandy and Picsrdy Iα Increasing numbers. The Greek labourers round about Salonika have christened the British soldier ■.Excavations at Verdun have apparently shown that the original name of the place was Firdun—"the impregnable fort" in Celtic. The German overseas colonies are stated IB the "Almanach de Gotha" to be "under tie provisional administration of the French and British." The Navy has always Deen popular with toys, but since the Jutland battle, says a Service paper, the number of candidates tas largely exceeded the vacancies. One of the strange midsummer features of- the war on the Italian sector Iβ the sight of .soldiers being brought to hospital for treatment for frozen feet. "One of the appellants before the Rochdale tribunal appealed for exemption on the ground tbat he was supporting his mother-in-law, to whom he gave 6d a week: Lieutenant-Colonel -"llousset, In the' "Gaulois"—"The British have one supreme quality—tenacity. When they are yoked to their work they never rest until it has been completed." The "Saarbrucker Zeitung" states that the Crown Prince made bis debut recently as a military airman, when he flew over the French lines at Verduu. The flight only fasted 15 minutesM..Maurice Barres on Britain's part In the war:—"That four millions of men should offer themselves to the perils of such a war is proof of a very remarkable social sense and social conscience." THE CROWN PRINCE'S DOPE. What Jβ "Crown Prince's" Mixture with which. German troops are said to be doped ' before going Into action? it is alleged to I be a compound of arrack and ether. Arrack, strictly speaking, is made from palm tree tap, but the German variety is distilled from a medley of molasses, rice, potatoes, and sawdust! Ether for a shoxt time inspires optimistic views of the universe— and the foe. But only for a short time. BIRD'S NEST IN FIRING USE. 'A Staff officer writes:—"A blackbird's nest with three young- birds in it was found in the ruins of a village which had been.captured Tjy us some days previous. .This particular village is situated practically right on the old German front line, and thus the old bird must have sat on its nest during the whole of the preliminary ibombardment and the subsequent terrific flghtleg. 'Everything around the Best -was smashed to atoms." GERMAN TRICK THAT FAILED. ■ Tie German submarine menace has not appeared so formidable lately, but feays a ■writer in the "Evening Standard") I hear from a traveller that Germany Js making •great efforts to attain another "success" like the Lusitauia. With this objee:, it is aid, a man recently jumped overboard from a certain liner. The captain, however, refused to stop his ship. Afterwards the unin's cabin was searched, and it ttas discovered that he lad plunged overbcarJ for the Fatherland, In order to slow down the ship, and co present an easy prey 10 the lurkinc submarine. ARMY'S PETROL CONSUMPTION The British advance north of the Somme is said to have increased the petrol consumption of the Army at the front by 3,000,000 gallons a week. Th e "Motor," .from which paper this statement is taken, gives as an example of the need of petrol lor the advance the fact that the huge j "caterpillar" tractors -which are used for hauling up the big suns -with every forivard movement consume a gallon of Petrol' iper mile, and have a tank capacity of 90 gallons. That is only one item, and a comparatively insignificant one 'by comparison with the h-jge demands of the transport and air services. TWO SORTS Or FITNESS. Four Liverpool recruits went before a military medical officer, and were duly certified In the usual way and simply according to their physical condition. As several of them did not realise the limited scope of the examination, they expressed surprise on toeing informed of the results. « amazed a tmrly navvy (the "Liverpool Post" remarks) to learn that he was fit only for garrison duty. Greater, however, was the astonishment of a powerfol docker, a casual labourer, when he received a certificate for sedentary occupation only j 'What's that?" he gasped. "Clerical 'work," replied the corporal. "And what's that!" The corporal's definition was "Writing." The Docker: "Xever wrote a etrote In my life." STORIES OF THE TRENCHES. Such scraps of conversation as these may be heard. "That dug-out on the left got a 'ole in the roof tlie other night. A timeexpired man who was goln.' off to Blighty fie next day went in .there ana Jay down to tip. A. whizz-bang 'it the roof, and the poor bloke went West." '•The Germans occupied these trenches at one -time; the Guards charged them, ana not a man escaped. You'll see their dugouts all along here." "A sniper -used to play 'ell with, this bay a month ego. 'E used to send the bullets Into the trench. It took the men some time to discover Then they got 'im. '15 was up on the top of a chimney-stack in the Wlitge behind the German trench. Our artillery brought the chimney down and the Wiper with It." RECTOR AND OBJECTORS \ Sit a patriotic meeting at Bath the Rev. .c. W. Wilson, chaplain to the forces, rector /of Waloot, who has been through the Gallipoli campaign, said that as a clergyman Of the Church of England, as a minister of the Gospel, as a Christian man he denounced the conduct of the conscientious objector as utterly cowardly aud unworthy of manhood. Let them put .their consciences in their pockets and come up aud lie on tbe bare ground under shot and shell, sweat under the blazing sun, be covered 'ltVfllth and grime till no friend could recognise them, chew bard biscuit and bully beef, be scorched in the Eastern sun, and ■cc if such treatment did not produce a manhood which was absolutely absent from tious objector bad the face to stand up after and say be was not a coward there »as no hope for him; it must be tUc lunatic •sjlum that hfi needed.

The Germans' lore for the Fatherland v so great that they should not object t* the Allied efforts to push them a little closer to it.-"Neiv York Pbck." M. HanoUux: "It is not enough to .ay of the British offensive that It % a ne* £~\3S haß * » -Uy thl .. Th . e . f aleer werets VULt an inscrutab'.e Almighty won't let him flght In the trenches. No such restriction were placed Lambeth exempted the son of a baker's oven mender because the father, a tre mendous man,.said he had become too blr Tl d o n uf etheOVenS^ndhlssoa^ A rag, bone, bottle and v metal dealer told the Lambeth tribunal, that hie excess profits last year had been assessed at £400 due chiefly to supplies of. fat for munition" purposes. A money-lender, whose claim for exemption was disallowed by the London City Tribunal, said he started business with a capital of 4Jd. and last year lent the Government £750 by investing in the » ar Loan, ' Strange are the Jumbles «r war. a German, an Englishman, a Frenchman a Russian, and a Pole escaped from Germany and reached safety and civilisation together on Dutch soil. They were all the best of friends. (And to leave hie Fatherland the German was gladdest of all. ..t yo ™? e man Ot ' oreign a PPM»nce asked Mr. de Grey, the West London magistrate, for a summons against a man for assaulting him aqd calling him a German spy. Mr. de Grey: "Who Is the man?" Applicant: "My brother." Mr de Grey: "Oh, your brother! Well, you' are certainly a German. Whether you are a epy or not, I don't know. Go away!" A LOST BATTLESHIP. Dr. Macnamara has announced that it does not seem desirable to say more than that the Court of Inquiry found that H.M.e. King Edward Vdl. sank at about 8 p.m. on January 6 last, from the effects of an external explosion, and that no officer or man of the ship was .to blame. BAD FOR THE KAISER. The remainder of the year holds out no hope of any revival of the German Emperor's fortunes, says the ;'Occult ■Review." The planets are uniformly; threatening, Saturn coming to the conjunc-. tion of the Dragon's Tail (the moon's south node) close to bis ascendant In September and the sun arriving at the conjunction ot Neptune in bis horoscope by primary direction a month or two later. NOT OK THE MENU-YET ! An officer lunching at the SaToy told a friend how be wished he could get roast lizards and snakes jn u l/o.ndan..o In the Bast, where he had'been-fighting, he said the natives had introduced them Into the mess of hie regiment, and he remarked that in all his experience of culinary delicacies— and it was an extensive one—he had never eaten anything so tasty before. A WIDOWS PRATER. "How I wlrti that I were a man, ao that I could take my place, or had. other soils to flght for the dear old flag." Thus writes Mrs. Emily Kennedy, a -widow, or 14, Emerald 'Street, Collingwood, who has just received word that her eldest son, Private \v. Kennedy, who was attached to the headquarters staff of the Kind Infantry Battalion, has died of wounds in France. Her other boy, who also volunteered, Is reported ill in England. MESSAGE FROM THE DEAD. There was something pathetic and impressing in connection with the death at the front of Corporal W. Allen, of Bulkington. A few days before death he wrote a long letter to the vicar of his parish, iv which he asked the reverend gentleman to "tell the people of Bulkington to fear God." The vicar delivered the message from the pulpit, and Allen was then dead, so that it amounted really to a message from the dead—"he being dead, yet spealtetb." BERLIN'S TALUS FOR THE UNITED STATES. The staff correspondent of tae "Self York Times" in Berlin has t>een permittee to cable to America to the effect tbat the Berlin food kitchens are not so well patronised as formerly, whence it is inferred In Germany "Berliners are able and prefer to make their own home cooking. arrangements, thus showing that Germany's food problem is not go bad as lias been suggested." The same correspondent also says that he lia9 authority for stating tbat Germany "has plenty of reserves; to fact, over ■four million between eighteen* and arty would be available.' " Other correspondents are far less optimistic, and say tbat many German youths under eighteen have already been taken prisoners. INDISPETfSABLE ! •Many men are waking nowadays to flnd themselves, if not famous, at least Indispensable, and arising out of this last there is a good story told fcays the London correspondent of the "Liverpool Courier"). ■An employer pleaded hard at a tribunal for one of his men. The man, be said, had charge of a branch of the business which couid not toe done by a woman; it was 'work requiring special knowledge and experience, and it was impossible to get A substitute. ißesnlt, a couple of months' exemption. Some days later a -member of the tribunal met the employer, and reminded him that when the time was expiring be could appeal again, ■ The reply was delicious. "Not likely." he roared. "That chap came In late this morning and gave mc a lot of old buck, «o I racked him on the spot." A STORY OF TRE ZEPFEMHS. Ad amusing story comes from an East Coast town in connection -with tbe Zeppelin era {says the "Liverpool Courier"). An elderly man, presumably with some countrified Ideas, informed hie wife that If the Zepps. came she was to follow tbe method he would show her. One night tbe Zepps. did come, and the good woliian obediently looked to her husband for counsel and example. He heckondil her to follow Jiim Into tlie garden, and this she did. And while tlie ajrsuips hoverea abore. the perspiring man, followed by his dutiful spouse, ran In a circle round the garden. For half-an-bour they ker.t tbis up, and tben the signal was hear J that the Zepps. bad gone. "Why did you \\o tbat?" tlie poor wife asked in palpitating, toues. "Don't you sec," came the''reply,,; '•by runftjng about we contused tfte' befears. That's the way. to dodge 'em!" .