MISCELLANEOUS.

Evening Star, Issue 16049, 28 February 1916, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

LONDON, February 26. ? r ' S Best, the- secretary of the YYomens Anti-conscription League, lias been sentenced to six months' Imprisonment for circulating leaflets containing mendacious statements calculated to prejudice recruiting. 'Jhe. Royal Commission permit the importation of pulp to the extent of twothirds the quantity imported during 1914. ine Commission can deal with papermakers unreasonably refusing to supply customers with paper to the same proportion. The Retrenchment.' Committee recommend an eight-hour clay for Civil, servants. There is too much overtime, nav at present. .. PETROGRAD, February 25. ' Lussias new war loan of £200,000,000 will probably bo opened on March 20. J no syndicate banks have, taken up half the amount. BROTHERS HONORED. [Special to the ' Star.'] CHRIBTCHURCH, February 26. Mr George Harper, the well-known Christchurcn solicitor, who is prominently connected with the Citizens' Defence Lorps, received a copy of the London gazette' this morning, showing that his sixth son, Lieutenant Gordon G. Harper, of the machine- gun section of the Ist (Canterbury) Mounted Regiment, m the Main Expeditionary Force, received the Distinguished Sen-ice Medal before he was promoted from the rank of sergeant to a commission. A cable message received some weeks ago stated that Lieutenant Robin Harper, of the same unit, had received the Distinguished Conduct Medal while he was yet a lance-corporal. The 'Gazette' shows that both brothers received the. honor. A SLIM DEFENCE. Summoned for not keeping a'register of alien lodgers, Richard Sims, boardinghouse- keeper, pleaded at Willesden (Lon-, don) the other day that there was only one alien in the house, a German, -who was on Government service, making munitions. Magistrate: " A German in tho service of our Government at this time':" Defendant: "Oh, yes. He wears a what's-its-name." Clerk: "An iron cross?"—"No, a war service badge. He also acts as clerk and bookkeeper at my boarding-house, and he should have kepi the register." (Laughter.) The police said it was true that the German was on Government service, .Sims was fined 40s and costs. HONGKONG POLICE ENLIST. Even war-jaded Londoners took interest on the morning of December 30 in the arrival at Scotland Yard recruiting 'office of tho men of tho Hongkong police who had travelled some 12,000 miles to enlist. They wore neat navy blue with white facings, and pith helmets. They were all either Englishmen or Scots. Thev had not the faintest notion what regiments to join, and they said they did not mind what job they were put to so long as they were not asked to twiddle their thumbs. An exception to this accomiiKxhting attitude was one df tho .Scots, a lad originally from Dundee, who said there was nothing but the kilts for him : " I am for joining the- Black Watch." tome of them were formerly policemen in England, and there wero a good many tough old soldiers among them. The Hongkong community took great interest m their journey, and gave them a dinner before they set off, and played them away to the waterside with the pipo and brass bands of an Indian regiment! RECRUITING DOCTORS' FEES—THE LIMIT. There has been a curious misunderstanding in many recruiting centres as to tho fees payable to doctors for work in connection with tho Derby recruiting scheme. Many doctors, it 'seems, have | charged against the recruiting committees the usual attestation fee of half a crown per case, and in the last days of the rush I to join the Derby groups these, half ! crowns mounted up so Tapidlv that at an j important centre in tho home "counties, one ' doctor, working continuously for many ! hours, at the end of the week was able' to credit himself with having earned £BO by the examination of Derbv recruits. Colleagues working with him in the same town on a. like calculation earned £4O, I £SO, and £6O in the same time, and they | sent in bills for these varying .amounts. But their reckoning was badly at fault. It is true that the War Office allowance is a minimum of half a crown per case, \m\ there is a, proviso which limits a doctor's earnings on work of this kind I to two guineas a day. The same blunder has been made by doctors in all parts of I the country. ' I