NEWS AND NOTES

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 18, 22 January 1916, Page 12

NEWS AND NOTES

Lord Inchcape, President of the Institute of Bankers, says: —"As certain as the sun will vise to-morrow, Germany and her militarism will be crushed, and the peace of the world, so far as anything she can do to prevent it, will be secured for another hundred years." "Germany," declares Sir James Crichton Browne "is not a species, but a mere1 political division—a beer-barrel the staves of which would burst when ihe dynastic hoop wan snapped, as it assuredly would bo by this war."

'The German Home Secretary is about to issue a circular to provincial authorities drawing attention to the constant increase in the number of boys committing suicide. According to the statistics, the boy isuicides have more than doubled since the war broke out, the average age of the suicides being sixteen. The circular will urge that measures be taken to avoid the practice, especially as boys may be needed hy the military authorities before the end of the war.

A panoramic periscope enabling _ the commander of a submarine to obtain a constant and clear view of the horizon in all directions has finally been produced by the French, who are putting it to practical use.-—Exchange.

"Thos<s who look below the surface- of things will find some justification for the quiet confidence which Mr. Bonar Law expressed the other day regarding the outlook and the general situation," says the Times military correspondent. " It is true that, as Mr. Churchill said, affairs ma.y be worse before they are better, bat we must not confuse the temporary aad- the accidental with the permanent. The foundations of the Allied strength are solid, and if correct principles of strategy guide our actions in future tb.ere can bo only one end to the war."

Earl Brassey, at the- Royal Colonial Institute, said, " the Germans had now got into such a difficult position in Russia that history might well repeat itself and the disastrous retreat from Moscow be experienced over again by the Kaiser's troops. If that were1 so we might have good hope that at some time in the coming spring the war might be brought to an.end."

This is an extract from a letter written by a British elementary school teacher in a mining district, and published in the Spectator :—"As one goes about in towns such as Rotherham and Sheffield, one wonders why the Government allows the manufacture and sale of such strong drinks which do such, enormous harm to the nation. I consider our Government is.to-Warns for all that little children' suffer on account /of their parents'- or guardians' drinking habits. It is a terrible' curse to the nation. If men and women cannot control their appetite's, the Government could stop this'horrible vice by prohibiting or curtailing its manufacture. • I.think I never saw co many women visit public-houses as are doing so at present. The religious communities try to battle with it, but if only the Government would they could stop'it." . . : ;■

"The German soldiers are pleading here and tihere for a temporary truce," writes Mr. Philip Gibbs: "The other day, utterly reckless because of their hideous discomfort, some of them crawled up on to their slushy parapets, sat on the top to dry their legs, and shouted, ' Don't; shoot! Don't shoot!' ' But we are not encouraging, truces this year."

"One cannot but wish that those persons who are spending money so freely and so gaily at ihe present time should be placed under the necessity of answering the- questions of how the country's great national expenditures arc to be met in the absence of private economies," says the Statist.

" Soldiers are not reluctant to speaJi well of their foes. The officer son of a friend of mine relates that beyond his line of trenches is a German commemoration of a> British advance in the shape of a carefully wrought cross, bearing the inscription : ' Sacred to tho memory of Lieutenants A and B' , of the Staffordshire regiment, who died like heroes,'" says "A Wayfarer" in the Nation.

Reverend John Flinn, aged ninetyeight, of Portland, Oregon, is said to ba the oldsst preacher in this country, if not in the world. He is still active, rises at an early hour, and ■ frequently walks five or ten miles in a morning. Dr. Flinn was born in Cork, Ireland^ and came to America' when a young man. He became a Methodist preacher in 1848, and. two years later went to Oregon as a, missionary.

"The justice of the cause in which the country is engaged is, after all;, for us the outstanding .consideration," says the Morriing Post. "It is this conviction that nerves our arm and strengthens our determination to see the struggle out; and therefore every pieco of cup plementary evidence that fortifies tho case and keeps our recollections fresh and clear is of value. : We who arc girdled by the clean sea know not what it is to livh next door to the GermanThere can be no peace nor progress in France any more until the German is put under." Dr. Jacks, in an article in the Hibbert Journal, quotes these notable sayings:—"l began to respect the immense," said a retired philosopher, "on the dajr when I ceased to explain it." "A distinguished preacher once said to me: T should have been a religious man if I had not had to preach so many sermons.' " "If you want people to come to church;" said another, "cease giving them reasons why they should-come."

"The Bulgarian Agrarian leader, Stambolinsky, who distinguished himself by his particularly vigorous attitude at tho. audience accorded by the King to the Opposition leaders, has been condemned to ' imprisonment for life on tho pretext of anti-militarist propaganda," says Reuter. "It'will be remembered, that Stambolinsky concluded his observations to the .King by this warning : 'Think 'of your« head,' and that . King Ferdinand' replied: 1 Nover mind about ' ray-. head; it is that of an old mar), but you are young. Think rather of yours.' "

Major-General William H. Carter, the last veteran of the Civil War on the active list of the army, has just pafised into retirement at the age of sixty-five. He had been iri'conunand of the Hawaiian Department. Henceforth he •will live in Washington. General Carter's record is onis of the most remarkable in the army. He was twelve years old only when be entered the Union, army from Tennessee. Ho was madts a mounted messenger under General Thomas, with the Army of the Cumberland, and saw more active servics than many soldiers far his senior. At sixteen he entered West Point, and on ■ graduation saw service in the Indian wars of the South-west.- There he won a medal ol honour for saving the Kves of several wounded men. Ho won rapid advancement for efficiency during the Spanish-American war. Much of the credit for the formation of the present General SUff system has teen given General. Carter.