WAR MISCELLANY

Grey River Argus, 27 December 1915, Page 3

WAR MISCELLANY

THE STsi£L HELMET LONDON; NoWniber 5. The new steel helmet now '■■ being served to our troops in the fire- • trenches is perfectly plain/ and re* sembles in shape a pudding .basin. It is lined with soft leather,- is not • very heavy, and is extremely warm,> Tim* helmet gives the wearer ait added sense cf security against hand-grenade and shell splinters and shrapnel bullets. It is stated that in one section of the trencnea. in f our days no fewer thaikW men were saved head wound by these helmets. "When, the men, wear .th». new sted cap." says a correspondent, "over a Balaclava woollen helmet coVering .ears and head, they look like Crusaders. But the psychological importace of the steel 'helmet, in increasing tiie sense of security of the weWerJ is so undniably important, that it is to tie hoped that no time will be lost in serving out these caps to every man. fa. the trenches. They .undoubtedly afford protection against hand-grenades, ai& so long a,s % trench warfare ' continues the British soldier must be a grenadier as well as a rifleman.*' . EFFECT OF "NO TREATING." The "No trating, •' ' order has now; been in force in the London district for three weeks, and there is dear evidence that it has had a marked effect oil the habits of a considerable section of the people. The following is 'ux.6 official re poryt lor the Metropolitan Police District as a whole, which, wiih an area of practically 692 square mlfes and a population of. approximately, 7^ millions, contains 6168 fully licensed - houses, 27373 beer-houses, and* 3568 premises with off-licenses; There is, a con. sensus of opinion amog • the' superintendents cf all divisions that drunken. ness generally, and among women in" particular, has decreased. A marked diminution in the number, oi ' women. and children standing outside public-hi-uses drinking has been noticed «md in miay districts" the practice has. ceased altogether. Police have riiYafit&ly found fewer people on licensed premises and a tendency to make shorter staffs bas been observed. Practically 'io breaches, of thle order have occurred and licensees and their servants ha^ve shown at all times their willingness io assist the police. " ' :*'■ ' ' TWO CHARGES EXPLAINED The recent fighting (writ eV Mr Valen tine Williaias, from British' Headcfuarttrs; has afforded the Oppoiftrinity of clearing up a little mystery i^cl has given rise to the hardly credible sf ory that German omeers are in the habit 'of chaining their machine gunrfers to their guns. There is reason 1 "to believe that the chains which have often #eea foundattached to German machine guns are for the purpose of transpdrtatiiJn. Ifie chains are hooked to the Bett# Of tie gun-teams so that the weight oir* tne gun is evenly distributed amjbng seve iai [men ,thereby facilitating stria! expediting trarisportafion. M& Wafialfis 1 sitS he takes the opportunity of dissrp\&£n£ another error based on the fWi ? fnat "cat o' nine tails" have 'sometime^ been discovered in captured tfetfeiies. These whips are poifited to £s conclusive evidence of the brutality of Geffiran. officers towards their men. As a matter of If act, anyone who has lived in, a German garrison town, knows the Ausklopf or, or elotheS-fceater, consisting of a 'number of leather thongs Attached ,to a shaft, Whfd Ms an indispensable part of the equipment of fKe frugal-minded German officer ior beating the dust out o£his uniform. There n quite enough evidence of the brutality of German officers towards their' men in the field without its being neces sa»y to fall into errors wnich are vigorously exploited by the Germans in neu tral countries in order to bring, general discredit on well-authenticated examples adduced by the Allies of the tfrutality of the "cultured" Hun.