WAR JOTTINGS.

Press, Volume L, Issue 15158, 23 December 1914, Page 8

WAR JOTTINGS.

>*EWS AND NOTES FKOM VARIOUS SOUKC'ES.

Tho following cable rces=a»o was sent io General Gouley at Cairo yesterday Vγ Mrs Guinness. Mayoress of Timar.i, on behalf of the women of South Canterbury:—"Christinas greetings from mothers, vives, sweethearts, sisters and iriendo of South Canterbury boy?.. -.

Among the latest war news is a mesiron; the F;sr Kast announcing that tho Crov/n Prince of Japan has pr«-«.-T.ted to the British troops. o«<:r----;iting with the Japanese before 'laingiau, a. supply of .sake (writes Sir Henry Lucy in th«- "Sydney Morning Herald"). It would bo intonating to know ■what Tommy Atkins thinks of this form of liquid jefreshment. My recollection i<! personal acquaintance made with it during a visit to Japan is that it ta.-it.-cl rvomethin;; lik<* tho u:it;hiri£-oiit of v de-canu-r. Tiio sturdy farmer .irked how lv* liked a nip of oid brandy :-urvod in a liqueur gla.ss, said he wouia

"ink iomo more in a moog." The national .Japaiifrse drink would have to lii' served out to Tommy in a. bucket before ho realised tho homely feeJi-ig itl "getting forrader. , '

Amoni; those who offered for active service in Samoa was :i well-known orofessor in the Otago University, who lint; taken an active part in tho rei ruiting movement, but he was not able to meet tho medical requirements.

Lieutenant Rex Osborne. of the Lancers, n. New South Wales boy. tho only son of -Mr Hamilton Osborne, late of Ifang.'iroo, Canowindra., but now resident in London, has been decorated by General Jofire with the Cross of tho Lejp'on of Honour. He has been mentioned for bravery in action in tho British despatches.

"H.M.S. Iron Duke.—Dear little Freda.—l must write a-nd thank you for your kind thought for t'ho sailors. The hoy io whom I gave your »»ufiler was k> much touched. Thank you. dear.— Yours, J. ]{.. Jellicoe." This charming little Jotter lias been received by Freda I'den, aged ten. a Godalmin<x schoolgirl, who. after knitting a muffler, sent it to Admiral Sir Jolin Jcllicoo, and a?-ked him to give it to one of our briive sailors. Freda's father was or.cc a handyman.

General yon Meyer, of the Bavarian A liny, was killed by a steel arrow <lrn,j--jmml from an enemy aeroplane. The arrow struck him as he was getting out of his motor-car, and it probably went right through him, for it is said that Mich arrows, dropped from a moderate height, will transfix even a horso (says v writer in an Australian paper). This is not the first or second time that accounts of those steel arrows and their w-ork have been cabled over. They aro *hort things, shaped something like a very long pencil, pointed with a barb, a:ul prooably feathered at tho other <-!id. They aro dropped, not singly, but in showers. The airman or hs. assistant loads an armful of them into n cylinder, and h? tho working of some devico they are let fall through holes in its bottom as poon as anything t-eenis worth killing is snied immedi-nt-ely beneath. The arrows travel ffraight, and with great force, as every small boy knows, who has shot eve-f wood on arrows up into tho air and watched them rush down and pierce the galvanised iron of his neighbour';, roof and stand there quivering.

Sir E. I\ay Lankesier, writing on ' The Man of Science versus the Superman." says:—"A dull-witted, ignorant, Kontimental nice has. by the childish impertinences of Bernhardi, Treitsehke and the Emperor William, been hypnotised into the belief that 'war is tho greatest good. , and that the mere IoNire for wealth and power justifies unlimited slaughter and torture of mankind, calculated treachery, and meanest falsehood. By audacious, and none tho loss stupid, misrepresentation of J>arwins theory of tho survival of the lavoured races by natural selection in tho struggle for existence, the sanction of science has been mendaciously claimed for this religion of murder German nicii of scionco who make this false claim know as well as we do that in Aaturo the fit who eurvivo are not iier-eesarily the bloody, murderous and faithless bullies, but far more often those who by unaggressive adaptation to conditions of life are able to obtain nourishment and to multiply 'J'h o great ca mivora have not. and never have boon. th o masters of tho earth. Hio development of men from ape-like ancestry has boon tho result not of increased strength of limb and jaw, but of those qualities which result vi mutual trust and love amongst the members of a community. Tho «orilla and the ourang are left'behind as failures in the general advance, skulking in tropical forests, whilst man has.o£ rupied tho world, discovering tho beauty and worth of truth, fair play, and loving kindness—sources of 'strength' other than that which Gerin their passing madness now worship. .

Inferring to the ten battalions of Territorials quartered at the White Uty. Shepherd's Bush, a writer in the London "Evening Standard" says:— '•Theso men have ambition, and it is certain that a large proportion who unlisted for "four years, or the duration of the war." intend to mako an army career, and to this end are qualifying themselves with the utmost care and thoroughness. Not a few can bo seen during the evoning studying textbooks on tiottes and strategy, while others spend fruitful and useful Lours - wring over iraps of tho Continent. They are confident, these scldiere of tho King, of ultimate victory, and they :»ro enthusiastic in the routine work of their new calling. Asked what was Their motto, a roan of one of the bat- ; Talions replied TV/ Berlin. , "

Wh.it he saw of tho Indian troops was iold recently by a senreant of tho King's Own Scottish Borderers: "I watched them one day under shell lire, and I was astonished at their coolness. 'Coalholes' wero being emptied around them, bat they didn't seem to. pay tho slightest heed, and if one of them did' go under his mates sim-

jph* went on as though nothing bad happened. They make light o f wounds, and I have known cases where mo.i

haw; fought fo- days with wounds that might have excused any man dropping out. When wounds were very bad I I have seen a man dress himself in the ; firing line and then spring forward like ; :* panther to overtake his dusky rouirndes advancing to the attack." One day 1 questioned one chap about it. and his anstver. given w:th a s»milf, was: 'Wo must be as brave as the English.' They are astonished at the coolness of our men under fire; and it is amusing

to hear them trying to pick up our

rarap songs. They wero greatly taken t with "Tho Match of the Cameron Men. ,

\ which xhe.v heard on© night. They ; "have a poor opinion of the Germane i s»s lighting men, and are groafcly in- . forested when we tell them of the hor--5 rors perpetrated on tho French and .'■ Belgians. The Germans will £efc no raercy from them."