GENERAL WAR NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15900, 24 April 1915, Page 3 (Supplement)

GENERAL WAR NEWS.

WAR BREAD GETS WORSE. TnrsTwonTHY neutral travellers returning from Germany say that the war bread is becoming worse and worse. It is doughy and indigestible, through being made of a mixture of rye, wheat-bran, and potatoes.

OFFICERS' NEW EQUIPMENT. The War Office has decided to equip officers of infantry on active service in the field with the same accoutrements as the rank and file, instead of with the "Sam Brown" belt and sword, which make an officer conspicuous. It includes rifle and pack.

BREAD CONSTABLES. The Berliner Ta.;eblatt announces that the Council of Greater Berlin has appointed 12.000 special constables to guard the bakers' shops against "irregularities" by the public. Trouble is apparently feared on account of the shortage of flour and bread, in Germany, Hundreds of these guards have already returned, as many shops have closed their doors.

GERMAN'S SEVEN SUBMARINES A correspondent in the Tageblatt states that since the beginning of the blockade seven British merchantmen have been sunk up to March 6, but admits that according to news received from neutral countries more than seven German submarines have been sunk in the same period. The German Admiralty does not publish any information about lost submarines.

"THE SMALLEST DONATION." A newspaper in Jutland give the following either as a joke or in earnest :—A well-known citizen of Horsens, a Dano by birth, received recently from his family in Hamburg, with whom he had had no communication for some years, a letter urgently requesting him to "send 'some flour and sausage. The family wrote that they would be satisfied at getting even as much as could be sent in sample envelopes.

ALIEN PRISONERS IN CANADA Canada has her alien prisoners as well as the Motherland; and there the difficulty has been to find them empoyment. The authorities have now announced the location of the principal intern camps in Ontario. They will be Petawawa, where the military training grounds are to be put in order; Kopuskasing, between Hearst and Cochrane, and at Hurriteanaw, at Lake Abitibi. At the two latter places land will be cleared for experimental farm purposes, and the alien prisoners will be paid for the work.

MILITARY SNOBBISHNESS. The London correspondent of the Dispatch says:—"l hear that the War Office is being simply besieged by men wanting commissions, and that ' waiting lists' have now leached huge proportions. This thirst for commissions is not good for recruiting. At present tho surest way to the officers' iness in the new armies is through the barrack room. An officer told me the other day that he was disguested by the demands for commissions from men who had absolutely no qualifications, but were inspired by a certain suburban snobbishness."

MARINE SAVES THE KENT. Sergeant Charles Mayes, H.M.S. Kent, has been awarded the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal for the following brave deed : During the Falklands fight a shell burst and ignited some cordite charges in the casemate; a flash of flame went down the hoist into the ammunition passage. Sergeant Mayes picked up a charge of cordite and threw it away. He then got hold of a fire hose and flooded the compartment, extinguishing the fire in some empty she)) bags which wore burning. The extinction of this fire saved a disaster which might have led to the loss of the ship.

VINEYARDS FOB CORN. The Berliner TagebJatfc states that the Government of Baden has decreed that all neglected vineyards are to be given up. The vines are to be burned and the land prepared for the cultivation of foodstuffs. A friendly neutral traveller who has just arrived from Berlin says that the food question is generally regarded as being grave. The war bread tastes fairly good so long as it is fresh, buT when it is only two days old the eater is apt to break his teeth on it. A very strict watch is being kept on the Danish frontier because of the discovery of attempts to smuggle Danish bread and other contraband into Germany.

GERMAN LOSS OVER 3,000,000. An examination of the German official lists of killed, wounded, and prisoners, says the Temps, shows that in five months 10 regiments of infantry (the 132r.d, 172 nd, and 105 th, belonging to the 15th Army Corps, the 131 st and 174 th of the 21st Army Corps, the sth and 29th Bavarian, the 3rd and the 59th, belonging to the 20th Army Corps, on the eastern front) lost 36.281 officer-, and men, being an average of 725 per regiment per month. As the German Army comprises 675 infantry regiments, their total losses at this date must have exceeded three millions, unless, which there is no reason to suppose, the losses of the 10 regiments detailed above were exceptionally heavy. There is also no allowance for the losses among the cavalry, artillery, and engineers, or from illness. NO LUXURIES FOR GERMANS. A London correspondent says:— French contemporaries are unanimous in expressing satisfaction at the decision taken by the French authorities to accord to German prisoners in France a purely reciprocal treatment. For instance, since i*. has been ascertained that French prisoners in Germany were inadequately provided with food and bedding, and compelled to work in the fields and on fortifications, the dietary of the German prisoners stationed at Brest has been correspondingly abridged. Boards have taken the place of mattresses, and " hard labour" is being found for them in the outskirts of the great naval fortress. Will British Ministers not take a hint and apply this wholesome reciprocity to the pampeied inmates of Donnington Hall, and to the second and tfiird class "passengers" of that luxurious "converted" liner, the Royal Edward—the happy "prison ship" off Southead?

THE GERMAN SOLDIER. Th.' narrative of the British "Eye-Wit-ness'' published towards the end of January made some allusion to the available evidence as to the physical and mental state of the German Army. On the whole he thinks that the idea that Germany is going to gain anything by the war commensurate' to her losses has to a large extent disappeared. At the same time, to judge from the remarks of prisoners, there are few Germans who contemplate the possibility df defeat and invasion. As regards physical' well-being, the " Eye-Witness' thinks that the conditions are less favour able than in the British Army. The German soldiers are not so well clothed, and hot meals are not always available, though there ".ppears to be enough food. Many physicians without surgical knowledge . re employed, and when two of these wire within the British line they were allowed to operate on their own wounded, with such results that they could not be entrusted with surgical" instruments again. All points of inferiority are, however, " more than set off" by the general efficiency of the German machine, the excellence of the staff work and the high discipline. The minute detail with which everything has been thought out is proved by orders which have been captured.

SAVED PROM POUR ZEPPELINS

. A wireless telegraphist named Spieler is said to have emerged unhurt from the wrecks of no fewer than four Zeppelin airship. He was in the LI, which was wrecked in the North Sea, in the L 2,' winch was destroyed by fire near Berlin, in the L 3, which was wrecked on February 17, and in the 1,4, which was destroyed almost immediately afterwards,

YEAR IN PRISON FOR A SONG. , The Countess Dobrila de Vidovic, who is 28 years of age and is a member of ono of the noblest families of Dalmatia, has been sentenced to a year's hard labour by a military tribunual at Marburg for singing a national Servian air in her apartment with the window open. The court declared that such conduct was calculated to excite tho sympathy of the public for Servia.

PET NAMES FOR GUNS. An officer serving in Franco states that a few days ago the Prince of Wales paid a visit to the British lines at •—, Ho inspected some of the heavy British guns which have been doing great execution I on the German positions and upon which - the gunners have bestowed various " petnames." The Prince was much imj;™ bjr a great gun nick-named 'Teddy," and was amused on being preI suited to George," "' Mary," "Mother," and "Baby."

GERMAN PAPER TRADE CRISIS The German paper industry is suffering more than most industries' from tho war, states tho American Consul-General at Berlin in a report to his Government. Tho chief difficulty has been to obtain raw material, particularly wood, most of which formerly came from Russia. The present price of such raw materials as sulphatetell stuffs is almost prohibitive, and with thoso for glue, oil, felt, and other manufacturing materials, as well as the lack of labour, furnishes insuperable difficulties.

10,000 FLIGHTS. Official statistics of the work of the flying corps from the beginning of the war until January 31 show that the total distance covered ' by the airmen of the old and new squadrillas in this period is 1,125,000 miles— i.e., 45 times round the world. About 10,000 reconnaissances were made, involving more than 18,000 hours' flying. Thes-2 remarkable results, the official statement concludes, have not been obtained without sad losses, comparable with and often superior to those of other arms, as regards killed, wounded and missing.

CROWN PRINCE TO HIS WIFE. M. Joseph Reinach publishes in the Revue Bleue some extracts from a notebook found on a Westphalian non-com-missioned officer, who appears to have served for a time on the field telegraph staff, as his notes include tfTe following copy of a despatch sent by the Crown Prince to the Crown Princess on September 3: " After hard fighting, forced passage of Meuse. Enemy invariably found fortified in fresh positions. Costing us terrible losses, but advancing. Papa last night at Marville, very sad, Wedel killed. Stenay very prettily situated but knocked about, Am living in pretty house belonging to old lady. Remembrance.— William." .

PIANOS FOR AUSTRALIA. A Toronto newspaper announces that the first shipment of pianos from that city to Australia was made recently. " Hitherto," says the announcement, " Australia has depended largely on Germany for her high-class pianos. The present war troubles have settled the selling of German pianos in British colonies in mors ways than one. The quest/on Australian firms dealing in thoroughly high-grade instruments had to meet was how to fill the gap. The selection ol the Canadian pianos has come as the result of personal investigation by experts who recently visited Toronto. Our sister colonists were particular not only that they should secure a thoroughly high-grade piano, but also that it should come from a house unquestioned in its British spirit."

A CHANGED DISTRICT.. There is probably in all the Metropolis no locality which bears so clearly an indication of the existing state of war as Sol.o. In normal times it is possible to hear French spoken there as freely as in the Rug St. Honore, in Paris, and to bo reminded by the notices in the shop windows of Hie capital of the French Republic. Germans, Greeks, and other nationalities were also fairly prevalent in the district, but all have departed. The restaurants remain, but they are evidently having a moribund existence, though the women left behind make a brave show of keeping business as usual. Belgians, who were rarely seen in Soho before tho war, aro becoming increasingly in evidence there now. These have tho appearance of being fairly .prosperous burgeoise from Brussels, Antwerp, or other Belgian cities. They aro mostly middleaged or over, and the men with their wives resort to Soho to sit in tho cafes, apparently because it is in a sense the nearest in London to their own home and habits. The East End, owing to the large 'exodus of Russians, Poles, and Germans, is also in a way changed, but nowhere is the change as marked as in tioho.

* THEATRE CROWDS. There .'s very little to indicate that tho nation is engaged in a tremendous war on the Continent ;n the appearance of tho West End streets. These are as thronged and busy as at any time, and especially are tho signs of activity apparent in the neighbourhood of the theatres. There are about thirty theatres now open, and few of thoso have any cause to complain of limited patronage. Most of them aro giving matinee performances several days of tho week, and .these, as a rule, are better attended Ulan the evening performances. Crowds stand waiting for admission during cold, cheerless days, and it ,'s difficult to find room for tho afternoon audiences, which, as a rule, aro large. This is tho result of the Btreetdarkening regulations and the early closing of the publichouses, though tho theatres in the evening are also fairly well attended, chiefly by visitors and people living within easy reach. Most suburban theatre-goers take advantage of the maii'ioes in order to get home before dark. But while the West End theatres are doing well, the suburban places of entertainment are suffering except where afternoon business is done.

CAPTURING A GUN. How a Russian soldier, named Bilikoff, captured a machine gun from the Germans is related in the Bourse Gazette. '■ he company to which Bilikoff belong-! tad rushed a German trench at the point of the bayonet, and the Germans attempted to save a machine gun, which was being drawn by dogs. Bilikoff rushed in pursuit of the gun, and, outstripping a few of his comrades who had joined in the chase, tried to turn the dogs back. All this occurred under a furious fire from the enemy. A number of Germans having already been killed in the struggle for the gun, 15 Prussians hurried forward to the rescue, whereupon Bilikoff removed the gun from its carriage, and, placing it on his back, where it acted as a shield, he made a, dash for the Russian lines. Two bullets struck the gun, but Bilikoff retained his heavy burden until he reached a place of safety. None of his comrades returned to their lines, and the gun carriage and the dogs were recaptured by the enemy.