Sidelights On The War

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 245, 13 October 1917, Page 15

Sidelights On The War

Two hundred pupils and teachers of Homsey County School have been fruit picking In Cambridgeshire.

The Prussian Minister nf Education has announced that 10.950 public school teachers bare fallen during the war and that their places have been tnken by wumen. Mabel Chambers, assistant at the Home and Colonial Stores. Hoxton street. London, wns at Old Street fined £15 and £3 5/ costs for Imposing a condition on the sale of sugar. Private Ernest Sykes. one of the now V.C.'s of the Northumberland Fusiliers, a regiment which has been without such an honour since T.uoknow. has been presented with a silver tea service by the officers ot Ms battalion. "This is how you help to w'n the war. Disgraceful'" said Mr. d'Eyncourt, at Westminster Police Court, to Alfred Barker and Roland Hugo, who pleaded guilty to stealing shell metal from a munition factory. Kach was sentenced to four months' bard labour. PERPETUAL RUMOURS. "Ir" you take drink every time there is _n air raid rumour yon trill always be drunk." remarked a London police court m_-i-rr_ f e to an offender who offered this excuse. ANXIOUS TO FIGHT. Cncle Sams armies will be augmented by some 3'V.ouo Poles end other friendly aliens. If rhe Tolish Federation of America Is granted permission to raise such armies. A resolution .vas last month sent to Preside.t Wilson asking that permission. CATS AS FOOD FOR HUNS. Berlin papers announce that several German communes intend taxing cats In order that those who are unwilling to pay the taxes may be enabled te surrender them to tbe commnnal slaughter houses. A number of slaughter houses have been organised for cat meat. DUTIES OF PRUSSIAN SPECIALS Orders have just been issued by the High Commander in the prnvir.ee of Brandenburg that mounted patrols of special civilian police are to be formed for the purpose of keeping guard over the military prisoners employed outside the prison camps on farm and other work. These "specials" are to prevent sabotage and arrest any prisoners who may try to escape, and arc also to keep an eye on civilians who might steal from the fields. They are to carry arms, aud have orders to make nse of them without scruple if necessity arises. TEXTILES FROM NETTLES. Owing to 'he fad that cotton, hem;', and flax .-an no longer be imported, the fibre of neMles is now to be used in Germany in rhe manufacture of textiles. A special process has been invented for utilising the thread-like substance contained in nettles, and the Imperial Federal Council orders that all nettles not less than two feet in length shall be collected, tied In bundles, and sent to the collecting stations and then-e to the Nettle Fibre Company, Ltd.. w:th headquarters In the Wilhelmstras=e. :"• rlin. The maximum price is Eeven marks per cwt. BATH RATIONS. Although t:ie Ge-mans do not habitually Indulge in c_ 'essire bathing, a lively discussion Is pro-reeding in Berlin over tn_ proposal to save coal by limiting the hot water ptipply next winter to two days _ week. Three-fourths of the population ot Greater Berlin live in flats, tenants depending f r warmth aud hot w-ater on tne central hearing supplied by landlords. Tne papers print many letters of protest agaln-st the introduction of "bath rations" on this li__ited scale. Physicians write that serlu'js hardships will :>o inflicted upon Invalids. A goo. many Berliner, use their bath-tub:? for coii idns. THE TERRITORIAL BALANCE SHEET. Here are the estimates of the gains and losses of the Central Towers up to about May Ist. Germany has gained territory as follow-: Square miles. Belgium, 11,200; Poland. 30.000; France. S. 100; Serbia, 35.00(i : Montenegro. D.OOO. aid Rumania, -or.*-,. L "p t o April Ist the Allies had recovered about 1.000 square miles in France. Germany's losses are: Square miles, Togo 1-and. 33.700: Kamcrun. 101,000; Southwest Africa, ::i_._.m; Klao-chau. 200; South S=as. iie.lOK:. and South-east Africa. 394.150. Int.il gain. HP .".'Hi; total loss. 1.017.005. Turkey has lost about 177,_00 square miles. HEIRLOOMS OR LOOT. Adverti.-em, nts \ery often provide Interesting sidelights on matters in Germany. The following extraordinary one appears in a Ont.-h pap»r:~ - Large e,-,:]e.-ri ... ~f old pictures. Dutch. Ger-r.an. Flemish. Italian. Spanish. French. and K-,_l!-!. and in addition, old Gobelins and rare Persian carpets for sale. Above at present rime in Germany not far from Dutch frontier." The advertisement closes by informing "on:-- solvent buyers'' to address themto a hex number in care of a firm at Cologne. Has some wealthy I-"atherlander decided tr, s,.;i bis heirlooms for food, or Is some aristocratic burglar from Belgium endeavouring to unload his spoils' 1 NO CAKE WITHOUT COFFEE. I'l nappy is the life of a cafe proprietor In ::,■• lig towns of Germany nowadays. The manager of the famed Cafe Bauer has been accused by the Crown prosecutor of profiteering, because his waiters had been charging ~ pfennigs f_d) inste: d ef the maximum price ~f OS pfennigs i-jdj for a slice ~f maize meal cake. He was also accused of the grievous offence or having refused ro serve customers with this cake unless they ordered a cup of so-called coffee a; the same time. After a long discussion the manager was acquitted, and it was decided, to the great satisfaction of cafe proprietors throughout Prussia, thar customers, if they wish to ear cake, must he willing to drink coffee. WHAT AMERICA MTJST REALISE General Tersblng mid the Associated Press on August ;s that the war f.an t>e Won only by ; ard arid forceful Mow. de-_!v*.-;..i .... r _ W eil trained American army working in conjunction with the Allied armies. Deploring the lukewnrmness of the American people in regard to the war. General Pershing added: "Every man. woman and child should support the Administration in its determination lo arm and equip the American army and to keep up its moral and that of tl:.- Allied armies. This war will not he won by talk or by subscribing to the Red Cross. The American people must come to a full realisation of what tbe war means. It can be won only by striking hard and forceful blows, not otherwise."

St. Pancras (London) policemen are to be provided with picks. shovels, and other tools, for rescuing persons burled in the debris caused by air raids. Advertising is all right if it is done properly, but no return coi-.'.d be expected from a poster recently tacked on the fence of a c-metcry in Brooklyn, which rt-uds "Awake—Your Country Needs You." The Kaiser has decided that all Gorman officers and soldiers who are prisoners will receive the Iron Cross on their return home I after the war. if they can prove that they did not surrender to the enemy voluntarily. THE GERMAN HARVEST. Numerous German girls employed in Switzerland as nurses aud servants have received an official call to return home for harvest work. others who are now in Germany for the holidays are prevented from returning to positions in Switzerland for the same reason. AN TTNTTSITAX REFUSAL. The Paris newspaper, "Libre Parole." refuses to Increase Its price to two cents provided by a recent Ministerial decree. The paper says the order Is without legal hase. and that higher interests command resistance to such Intolerable encroachment on the liberty of the Press by the State. FORD, JR.. CLAIMS EXEMPTION Edsel Ford, son of Henry Ford, the American multi-millionaire manufacturer, was examined by a military board last month, and It was announced he passed the physical tests. Kord claimed exemp tion on industrial grounds. Ford is one of the officers of his father's automobile company which is now working on orders for the Red Cross. NEGRO TO BE ARMY COLONEL. Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Young. Tenth I l -S- Cavalry, has been ordered to Columbus, ohi,,. and to report to the AdjutantGeneral of Ohio for duly. Colonel Young Is a West Point graduate, and the only negro who ever attained the ' rank of lieutenant-colonel in the regular army. It is understood that he is to be j put in command of an Ohio regiment of ' negro Infantry, National Guard. SAMMY'S HELMET. I am told, says a writer in the "Pall Mall Gazette." that tbe American troops In j France are to have the very latest in hcl- j mets. Officers ou Genera! Tershing's staff : have decided that the best trench head gear for "Sammy" is a steel helmet, combining all the strong points of the French and British headpieces, but also of the German helmet. It will bear the coat or arms of the United States on the- front. ; AMERICAN DECORATIONS. King George has approved the granting I of permission to officers nnd men of the British forces to wear on their uniforms decorations and riband, given by the I'nlted States for war service. Sixty-one i per cent of the first unit of the American | legion in the Canadian army hold Amerl- | can decorations or ribands for service in the I Spanish war or In the Boxer uprising. Many I of the men lv the later units also have decorations. EVERY MATCH COUNTED. | Two munition workers were hned £.0, or eight weeks' imprisonment, am! £1-. or ! seven weeks' imprisonment, at Walt ham - Abbey (Esscxl, for carrying matches Into the Royal Gunpowder Factory. Colonel Fisher said that in the whole of ! the factory there were only two places ! where matches were kept officially, nnd the j keys were held by highly responsible | officers. The matches were counted with the utmost care, and the stick of every spent match had to be preserved and accounted for. HOW AMERICAN CHILDREN ARE HELPING. Boys and girls .writes the "Westminster Gazette") ns far away a3 the Pacific Coast are "doing their bit" to solve the world food problem. In beautiful Los Angeles, the fair garden city of Southern California. there are under cultivation about 1850 acres of land, and upon this land 14,011' elementarary school children are engaged in agricultural work out of school hours. Thus, indirectly, at any rate, the American scholar may be helping to feed his new war comrades of London or Paris. BOOMING THE WAR LOANS. Mo r e than £100.000.000 worth of free advertising was given ro the I'nited estates Government yi its campaign to float the Liberty Loan, according to estimates made by I." S. Treasury officials. This does not include the hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of space given In small country newspipers, wfclc. never reached the attention r »f t lie Government. Whole newspaper pages, moving pictures, millions of posters, signboards, hand-dodgers, paper bonib*. and hundreds of other means of bringing the bonds to tlie public were donated to the Government by patriotic citizens. Thirty-. , six different languages were represented In ! the hundreds of foreign language papers which came to the assistance of the Government. GERMANS AND BREASTPLATES. I was shown today a specimen of the new body armour worn by the German infantry, which was found on the battlefield north of Ypres (writes Mr. Percival Phillips). It is a steel sheet covering the chest and abdomen, supported by curved plates, which rest on the shoulders. The weight is considerable, and storm troops forced to add this encumbrance to their heavy kit would have great difficulty In getting out of a muddy trench and in moving over slippery ground. The nrmciir can be pierced by rifle bullets, and does not appear to afford great protection to the wearer save from shell splinters which might fall against the front of the body. In appearance it recalls the breastplate of the Middle Ages,! and, as ~ne soldier said to mc, tbe sample I saw to-day might have come from the Tower. ■ MONKEY CAPTURES THE 1 COLOURS. | Monkeys can go "over the top" of a battle trench as well as scale a hand organ. An American paper publishes a story from lis correspondent in lhe battle-rocked Carso, in tbe Alps, where a monkey captured the Austrian colours unaided. | "Rcbe" was the pet of an Italian cap. tain. Holding the line against the Austrians, the captain's command faced an j enemy position on the top of which the Austrian standard constantly flew. | Italian troops brought it down, but up it came again. When its master went out in the dead o.,nlght tn bring back the ting the monkey went with him. As the monkey cleared the last strand of barbed wire below the Austrian parapet, "Belie" flashed like a wraith over tbe top, tore the flag from its staff, _._,d scooted back. Both (returned to the Italian lines safely.