GENERAL WAR MEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15948, 19 June 1915, Page 3 (Supplement)

GENERAL WAR MEWS.

j OLD AGE IN 12 SECONDS. Lceutenant-ColonHi Hadcock lecturing ai the Royal Institution, said that if an incessant stream of projectiles were fired fiom a 12-inch gun extreme old age would come and it would be worn out in 12 seconds. These huge weapons, he said, looked everlasting, but they " lived" only when they were being fired, and therefore their lives were extremely short, shorter than that of a butterfly, which lived to the age of 24 hours. FOOTBALLER? IN THE ARMY. The annual report of the Scottish Football Association shows a loss on the year of £2470, which includes a contribution of £1250 to the war fund. Over £5000 was also given by the affiliated clubs to the war fund, and collections realised another £1000. Fifteen hundred players have, enlisted, as well as over .2000 nonplaying members. The balance to the credit of the association, including property, is nearly £12,500. THE BIGGEST NAVY " RESERVOIR." The 8,000,000 of people in the metropolitan area can have no adequate idea of what is proceeding in these days at the Crystal Palace, says a writer 5n the Standard. It is now the biggest and most important " reservoir" of the navy in the kingdom. Already 20,000 men drawn from every part of the country have been I passed from this depot to the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve.' At the moment upwards of 4500 young Britons—Welshmen, Yorkshiremen, Midlanders, men of Devon, and battalions from the Home Countiesare training on the acres of grassy slopes under the shadow of " Paxton's Triumph."

HONOURED BY KING ALBERT. Captain Henry Ernest Nowell, of Accrington, has just had conferred on him a signal honour from the King of the Belgians. Captain Nowell was in command of the colonial detachment ,of the '3rd Regiment of Belgian Lancers,' on© of the crack cavalry corps in Belgium. For enduranco and devotion to Ms duties, more particularly during the course of the Dottles on the» Yser, notably on October 17"and 18, at St. Pierre Cappelle, he was decorated by King Albert on March 16 with tha Order of the Crown and the rank of chev.slier.

HYPNOTISM TO CUBE M SHELLSHOCK."

"Shell-shock" cases are being treated by hypnotic suggestion. Describing the treatment, a physician at one of the London Army hospitals, stated < " Ths patient is. seated in a chair and is brought by the operator into a slight degree of hypnosis 15 the ordinary way. He is told to clear his mind of all other thoughts and to concentrate on the single subject of his cqre. If, as often happens, his vision is affected, he is told quietly and firmly, by the operator that the defect has been cured and that once again he can see : clearly. In some cases a single seance is enough, in others tie treatment may have to be repeated several times. In practically cases, however, great improvement, if not a complete curs, has eventually resulted.'') 'v ' ; >

SAN AWAY FROM HOKE AND WON • ; 1 V.O. y/. • A boy, who ran away from Home, joir.ed the army and won the V.C., was one of the heroes decorated by the King at Buckingham Palace. \He is Private James Smith, 3rd. Battalion,'. Border Regiment. This was his deed of " con- 1 spicuous bravery" for which the . King pinned, the V.C. :on his breast :— V . "On December 21, at Rouges Bancs, he left his trench with Private A. Acton and rescued a wounded man who • had been lying exposed -against the enemy's trenches for seventy-five hour*. . Both again went out/ under heavy fire, to bring into cover another wounded man. They were under - fire for sixty m'nutes while eying the wounded men into safety. Private Acton was also granted ■ the Victoria i Cross." • j - wr: v j

. Smith's real name is Glinn. r He enlisted at seventeen under his mother's maiden name, fearing that his parents would not allow him to become a soldier.

DANISH CAPTAIN ,?INED. ' For having in his possession a camera, contrary to the Defence of the Realm Act, E. Vilandt, master of the Danish steamer Robert," was fined £10 at Blyth, Northumberland. - The evidence for tie prosecution showed that after taking his pilot ■ on board to go into, Blyth Harbour the defandt attempted to take photographs of .the Admiralty patrol boat and of | the river. When . the camera was examined two plates were found to have dropped, »but no pictures were taken as the shutter was closed. Captain Vilandt pleaded innocence and said that the camera had been left on the chip by, his son with a note asking him to take some photos. .He asked his wife to take it away, because he did not wish to arouse suspicion if any German submarines stopped his boat, as they had done many a time. He) did not think the Blyth people would have been suspicious of .him as he was a regular trader there. In fining the defendant the magistrate said that at the present time, when it was difficult to distinguish friend from foe, conscience was a dangerous thing. > ,

' A COLONEL'S REBUKE. Colonel Fetherstonhaugh, the College, Kirkoswald, Cumberland, who is now commanding one of the service battalions - of his old regiment, the Seaforth High- •' landers, has sent the following letter m reply to a request for a subscription to a social gathering organised _ for liquidi ating a debt on the church institute, of t •which Colonel Fetherstonhaugh is a trustee, he having given the site "Sir,— tho way in which the (eligible for service so carefully avoid ref- cruiting meetings, ancl the ridiculously phort roll of honour that Kirkoswald can only show, it is evident that a church institute is not so much needed there as en establishment to rid patients of the ' microbe of a fearful, unpatriotic spirit m •' time of war, which prevents them, from ■ taking on the risks of personal service. Money is scarce in these days, and I prefer to spend what I have spare amongst the useful. I have nothing for mere eaters of food; so, as far as I am corceraed, Kirkoswald will get nothing , out of me, and lam ashamed of being li resident of the place." ' PRINCE IN DISGRACE. There is considerable agitation in Roman Catholic circles in Munich owing . to further reports of the. misbehaviour of tho Crown Prince Eupprecht of Bavaria, ; the commander of the army which opposed the British forces at La Bassee. Many Bavarian soldiers who have re- . 1 turned wounded from the front declare that during the whole period of his stay ,in Belgium and Northern France, the !" •- Crown Prince Rupprccht indulged in > every conceivable and many unnamable •. kinds of diversions." His behaviour j;.: : /was rendered ■ all the more nauseous, so far as the Belgians are concerned, by the fact that his late wife was a sister of Queen Elizabeth. The whole of Roman fIK Catholic Bavaria is deeply incensed by these reports, which are of so definite 1 1 find specific a character as to make denial .■ practically impossible," and the Church authorities are urging on the Government the advisability of recalling Prince Hup-' ■' precht without delay. Were it not, in-4-vXldeed, for the fear that a bad impression |$$tS*rould be created, he -would already nave Sv'(j.fceen deprived of his command. . The $£I habits of the Crown Prince Rupprecht ;■<-<■& are well known in Munich and it is openly K'§ • declared that his ' conduct and-, that of " bis 6taff during their , stay in Belgium proved to be too disgraceful even for the ■ 1 ijaosfc indulgent of Bavan&ns« -w : , . i ••

| PETROL AND THE RED GROSS. The total number of Red Cross cars now working for tho British Army in France m 401. There are also 78 touring wins 32 motor-lorries, 21 motor-cycles, eight travelling kitchens, and flvo travelng , ™.ops- total of 545 motor , i? 0 drivers number 560, of whom 432 are paid and 133 are volimi li 1^ e ,military authorities now supply the Ilod Cross Ambulance Department with petrol and tyres, and provide for the billeting of tho men.

GERMANY'S PLAN OP INVASION. Germany's plan for tho invasion of Britain is said to be so complete that even the names of £tationmastcr« are written opposite to tho places they will take charge fir? 6 " th / arrive - The reward fund ior tho invaders, according to a Copenhagen mc0 ' amounts to several million marks, school children and house-to-house collectors being , employed to raise the wind. Germany's plan for invading Britain is really a weird device for raising that second war loan which does not an. peal even to misguided Gefnjans.

HAD A double SKULL. There is occasionally an advantage in Possessing ' thick head." Captain H. H. smith, of the Canadian Infantry*, was seriously wounded in the fight for Hill 60, and was removed to Boulogne, and, later, sent to London. He had been struck by a Hying splinter from a "Jack Johnson" on the forehead, and the missile ploughed a furrow across the top of his skoll. The . t the wound mrust have proved fatal but that tho captain possesses a kind of double skull, the shell tearing open the top layer of skull, leaving the brain untouched under the second skull.

SAID HE WAS A SPY. Remarkable statements were alleged against Michael Sberon, a Dutch seaman, who was charged at West Ham as a suspected person found in the Royal Albert lJock. Prisoner was taken by a constable for a German, but he satisfied the authorities that lie was Dutch.' He mentioned, however, that he had met some German friends at Leman Street. The police were communicated with, and a detective followed the man. The dock police, seeing him go on board a ship and examine some machinery, asked what he was doing there. He said that the police were very clever, but that before long the German flag would be flying over the dock. He went on to say that bo was a spy. Sberon was remanded.

HARD TO BE NEUTRAL. The difficulties and anomalies of the neutrals position are conspicuous enough evsn now. But the record is this respect, achieved by Galata in 1453, is not likely to be beaten. It must be remembered that the Constantinople which fell to the Turks was only the modern Stamboul, on the south of the Golden Horn. Galata, on the north of that harbour, was occupied by the Genoese, and, therefore, "neutral," especially as neither the Turks nor the Greeks'dared to make' an open 'Many of it But the Turks were on the heights behind Galata, and so their artillery actually fired right over the neutral territory upon their enemy. The question whether neutrality is violated by the passage overhead of a Zeppelin or aeroplane is nothing to this.

A LINK WITH . WATERLOO. ¥ The dea*;h was announced at Cardiff re* cently of Mrs. Edmond; at the age of 105. She was twice married, first to the well-known Oriental - scholar, Dr.': Marcus Sachs,, of the Frac-Church College, Aberdeen, ,and secondly to Dr. Francis : Edmond, advocate, whose 'gifts to Aberdeen University and Parities . reached nearly £100,000. . She tws left a, widow for the second at tho age of 83. Mrs. Edmond'remembered the arrival of the news of the battle of Waterloo, and in living to see the present war probably established a unique record. Since her 100 th birthday she . received each year telegrams of' congratulation from, the King. When the King and Queen visited Cardiff in 1912 they called at Mrs. Edmond's house. , ' ' ' '• " " i i t., J ' I FOILED INVASION. y - Mr. Fred. T. Jane, the naval author, lecturing at .Scarborough,. under the auspices of the; Navy League, said that a little before the outbreak of war there were British naval manoeuvres,' Some Cabinet Ministers wanted the mobilised fleet to disperse for what they described as, turning, the other cheek to . Germany," but Mr. Churchill threatened to resign if that were done. ; Eventually a compromise was effected, and it was agreed that to all intents and purposes the fleet should disperse. They went different ways and then " collected again somewhere else, , a fact which was only known to the Admiralty. All the German spies were thus deceived. Although it had never been in the newspapers, it was a fa# that at a very early stage in the war the Germans had 100,000 troops in transports and intended to laud somewhere on the east coast, perhaps at Scarborough. They put to sea and then discovered that the British Navy was waiting Tor them, and rushed/bade to harbour.

GEOGRAPHY AND STRATEGY. . - The geographical peculiarities of a country in which war is waging greatly affect the strategy of the armies, both for good and evil. The trend of the level country, o'r the river valleys, or the defiles, will determine the lines of advance. * Rivers (including canals), forests, hills, deserts, and marshes are 'serious obstacles. Rivers —although, like the Ourcq during Yon Kluck's retreat, they may have great temporary tactical value—are never unconquerable. Forests, as, for example, the Forest of Argonnit, are serious impediments unless there are numerous defiles. Hills vary in their power to annoy; at one time the hills along the Aisne proved a serious check to the French Army. Tho desert country thai, lies cast of the Suez Canal is a serious obstacle to the Turks who wish to attack Egypt. Marshes are tho greatest obstacle of all, for an army cannot entrench itself in one— fact well illustrated by the struggle of the Germans to traverse the district of the Yser. That failure, thinks Mr. Hilaire Belloe. whose recent, remarks before the Royal Geographical Society this paragraph briefly summarises, may seriously affect the success of the whole German campaign in the west. SOCIETY'S PROUD RECORD. The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children has 56 of its inspectors serving with the colours—37 in the army and 19 with the navy, says an English paper. In the army, with one exception, all hold official rank. One is a captain and adjutant, a lieutenant and adjutant, two are lieutenants, five hold the rank of lieutenant and quartermaster, four are quartermaster-sergeants, one is a company quartermaster-sergeant, another regimental sergeant-major, colour seigeant-major; there is a squad sergeantmajor, four are battery sergeant-majors, fire are sergeant-majors, another a comp?r,y sergeant-major, one a staff sergeant, two sergeant instructors, and five hold the rank of sergeant. Of the 19 inspectors serving with the navy the ranks include chief petty _ officer ' telegraphist, chief sick berth steward, yeoman of signals, quartermaster-sergeant (Marines), six masters-at-arms, seven colour sergeants (Marines), and two chief petty officers. Thb men are serving in . all branches of the service, embracing artillery, cavalry, mounted police, R.A.M.C., infantry, antiaircraft corps, and mine sweepers, 'ihus of tho 56 inspectors 55 cither hold His Majetsy's commission or are non-com-missioned officers. For one organisation this enlistment for "King and Country" probably constitutes a record in the matter of rank. Many honorary officials of the society are also serving . with the . colours in one capacity or another*