YON HINDENBURG'S BIRTHDAY

Evening Post, Volume XC, Issue 82, 5 October 1915, Page 7

YON HINDENBURG'S BIRTHDAY

CELEBRATED THROUGHOUT GERMANY., BERLIN, 4th October. Field-Marshal yon Hindenburg's birthday was celebrated throughout Germany. The newspapers eulogise the " Deliverer | of East Prussia." ' Thousands of school children assemj&led before a colossal wooden statue in front J of the Reichstag and hammered nails into the idol, singing patriotic sodigs. i Zeppelins and aeroplanes paid homage i to the sfatue. [The ceremony of driving nails into a wooden statue is a common one in Germany and Austria since the war began. It >is not a heathen rite or an act of idolatry, but simply an ingenious means of raising war funds. A big wooden statue, called "the man clad in iron," is built, and the public endeavour to make the name fit the subject by driving tacks into the figure till there is no room for more. A small sum — often a mark — is paid for each tack and the use of the hammer.] INCREASE IN FRENCH SOLDIERS' PAY. CUIOS- AND ITDKBT CDX (Received October 5, 8 a.m-) LONDON, 4th October. The French Chamber adopted -with acclamation a proposal to increase soldiers' pay by twenty centimes (2d) daily. (MESS ASSOCIATION.) ENTERTAINMENTS FOR AUSi TRALIAN WOUNDED. (Received October 5, 10 a.m.) LONDON, 4th October. The Australian War Contingent Asso-, ciation has appointed a sub-committee, with Madame Ada Crossley as president, to arrange concerts and entertainments at the hospitals where are-the Australian wounded.