GENERAL WAR HEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16026, 18 September 1915, Page 3 (Supplement)

GENERAL WAR HEWS.

- A HURRIED CEREMONY. While a lieutenant was being married |5 J Harlesden Parish Church a telegram plf ~~ as handed him recalling him on active ■ service. The marriage ceremony had to fw : be hurried to enable the bridegroom to catch his train. His bride went with him 1 * - to the port of embarkation. Kii DESTROYING GERMAN FLYERS. I® * Co far as accounts have been rendered k: Z to the public. 35 German flying machines I - not including Zeppelins have been brought I'-" to the earth and destroyed by French airs' men Roland Garros, previously held the ! record with three machine* to his credit, ' =' s~t he has now been surpassed by an- £ other French lieutenant who has brought down fourNEVER "SNIPE" A GURKHA. How a Turkish sniper's exploits came to' end has been tola by a wounded sailor - . £'. representative "< the Daily Chronicle t He had "winced" a (ihurka, who was - driving a mule-out behind the lines. The " ahurka calmly tied his mule to a tree, and, slipping t- his hands and knees began crawling cut of sight. In less than Ifteen minutes be returned, and there was Si more snipm.,' from that quarter. , ' 1 — remarkable cures. Remarkable cures of wounded French soldiers have been made by a new poly- ■ rant %erum. the discovery ot which was Enounced last March. Men who were ' terribiv mutilated are reported as com- ! ply recovered through its healing m- ffTe.-t* The doctors are at present unable :- 1 . toprepare more than 2000 flasks of it Hv'lv most of which goes to the base hospitals' where most of the worst cases are found. - DIAMONDS PROHIBITED. The Gazette publishes an Order in • Council prohibiting the importation into ' the United Kingdom from Aug. 4 of all unset, diamonds, except under licence from a Principal Secretary of State. This -A order is evidently intended to prevent r "~ money paid for diamonds in this country . „v —especially in the diamond market m Blackheath-yard. Whitechapel finding its - way into Gel-many. \'l BOTHALAND.

; "Mr. Bonar Law has taken soma preUr* liminary steps towards giving the GerU4. man colony in South Africa the new name "of "Bothaland," in token of the national .- 'sense of General Botha's splendid services to the Empire. It is improbable, however, -C. that the re-naming will take place before +he end of the war, when a similar ser- - -- vice will have to be performed in the case ' ,of other conquered territories. At the •> game time, there is likely to be an agree- , : ment for re-naming the ocean which sweeps pljthe colonics in southern latitudes.

|||= WATCH FOR TROOPS ON MARCH. ;* : There lias been invented by an Austrian a, novel "watch for the use of officers hav»X ing charge of troops on the march. On SNstbe face is a little arm (illuminated by : ,Vi radium for night use) which can be made • jto swing so many times each minute. V Thus, an officer wishing to bring his men sSi 'fo. a certain place at a certain time decides ' ' that thev must march 120 paces a minute. '• ~He then sets the arm to swing 120 times ■■ a minute, sets the pace to keep time with the beat! and so regulates the speed of

. .the march " SAVED BY A BIBLE. • A story of how a captain in tie Cold- ' stream Guards was saved from death was told by Bishop Taylor Smith at Harrow ' School* Chapel lately, says the Daily ■-Chronicle. The captain, he said, was vjL wounded, and the men who examined him found in his hip pocket a Bible given him hv his father, who had written on the • fly-leaf from the 91st Psalm:—"Thou, - •*" Lord, art my refuge. There shall no jjevil happen unto thee." The shell had jstrnek the Bible, cut through the leather - ewer, had gone through the pages as far as the 91st Psalm, and had then cut off at a tangent. The doctor said that but ' "A'Tor- the Bible that man would have been ' killed.'- ■

BLOOD MONEY FROM BELGIUM. --i? That German extortion in Belgium is - • continuing upon a large scale is shown by •\7--a letter • received from a correspondent of . the Paris edition of the New York Herald. It is estimates between £500,000 and ;-- y £600,000 a month is the total of the fines -/v'continually imposed by the courts of Geney; ral Von Bissing, the German Military Governor jof Belgium, upon Belgian towns, A tillages, and subjects upon the most futile pretests. These sums are extorted in ady dition to the monthly " war contribution" of £1,666.666. As, moreover, the Germans continue to deplete the Belgian factories ; ciOf their machinery and tools, which are being sent into Germany, it is foreseen that when peace is finally declared Belgian industry will be completely paralysed. V _ - _ GERMANS AND BRITISH GOLD. - -• Mr. R. McNeill asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the House of Commons -if he was aware that travellers leaving England for the Continent found no difficulty in taking with them as much of their _ money in the form of gold coins as thev * t desired, and that Boulogne was infested §iC by German agents engaged in collecting gold coins, and whether he would take : steps to secure that no passenger be al- -> lowed to leave the United Kingdom for 1 » the Continent with gold in his possession. -Mr, McKeima said he proposed to take immediate steps for closer supervision as - y';. to the proceedings of Channel passengers 'pi in this matter. It was very desirable for all families proceeding to the Continent . to exchange and British currency in their ' possession for the currency of the country .":=;':.to which they were going before leaving -* the United Kingdom. St®'* - • ■ ' fill AN EMDEN RELIC. ■? Considerable interest is being taken in ' the work of salving the Emden, which the ; " Australian authorities recently decided to -'do. Several boxes of relics have arrived, "'so.One of these is a gun, which probably ' i ; was among those which delivered the salvo thai, swept away the for" aid range-finder 'of the Sydney and went perilously close • to where Captain Glossop was standing. JsJJA'n instance of the damage done to the German cruiser by the Sydney's shots is _ to be found in one of these mementoes. It is an oblong piece of metal, fairly /. smooth on one side, and on the other pre- , - sents a ragged appearance like a piece of -M -Jigged rock. Tins represents a portion of il the fireproof safe of the Fmden, and some silver dollars from a drawer of the safe, r- The . explosion must have blown the dol- ■ .lars into the steel, and the terrific heat of h the flames which burst from the vessel " shortly afterwards melted the whole into • a conglomerate of silver and steel.

- SOVEREIGNS AND THEIR FORTUNES .Economy is advised, even among Cabinet Ministers and law officers, who - are asked v w> diminish their demands on the public j purse. But what of the monarchs and their income? We have heard something pi ot the diminution of the Kaiser's private fortune owing to the war. But even with * , - .I'® fifty royal residences and interests in gtp: manner of businesses, he has never been Itfe'l 0 "chest monarch in the world. The jgllll honour lias always belonged to the Tsar, Bill'' 0 °. n k's accession came into the RomanI off private estate, yielding about two mil- .■ lions a year. Beyond that his "salary" amou nts to another two millions, besides pf§ »any profitable investments abroad. There 'Were small expenses to be deducted, such as some £500, a year to Grand Dukes » !1 d Duchesses But, when everything had i%"+£ taken into account, the Tar remained F' che6t monarch in the world, far °* the Turkish Sultan, with his BfepSlWion an a-halt", or our own King who is the poorest in pelf and palaces of all plggr l6 014 World potentates*

Replace gun cotton. - U°rttan"rt eXP l oSive is even more ***- 0 than that made with the cotton. BIRDS' WARNING. Ga/ett^Tii 0 leave ' sa i' s the Pall Mall of a 1111 ", T birds warn the allies of the fn? Long before the 6mell trench*- T eS - Can be «ted in the birds nn-ai e , Is a 6 re &t clamouring o£ The birJ flu the ' l ni « ht Parches, fumes h,ft fly + bey ° nd the reach of the soldier • 111 he mea ntime the British soldier is prepared." SUBMARINES CAUGHT IN A NET. There is a rumour in London that the net which stretches from Dover to the I'rench coast has snared three submarines hin a week- There have been numerous accidents in this vicinity. Many German craft have been sunk by accident or bv lostile attack- since the beginning of tne war A conservative estimate of the Admiralty fixes the number at 29, although it is possible 35 may have been destroyed. SHELL ORDERS FOR CANADA. Orders for nine million shells of various calibres have been placed in Canada, in addition to orders for 100,000 cartridge cases 5,000,000 fuses, 2,000,000 primers, ft? 7(?non X} ° friction tubes. No fewer than 000 artisans are employed in shellmaking One hundred and thirty firms m the Dominion are now engaged in the work of machining and assembling, while , ' , factories are employed in the manufacture of component parts. HEROIC FEAT. There has just come to light one of the most heroic feats of the war. It was performed by a French chasseur at Gerbeviller. When the German Army entered the village he was posted with a mitrailleuse all alone at the other end of a bridge leading from the village. When the enemy started to cross he let them get half-way over and then raked them with his fire. For three hours he held the - bride -until is ammunition gave out and | it is estimated he killed 175 Germans. Bv his gallant conduct he prevented the rej mainder of his regiment being outflanked. GERMAN CREDULITY. A good story of German credulity comes from a town in the occupation of the enemy. A shopkeeper having fallen under suspicion of possessing certain documents, a party of German soldiers were sent to search his premises. After hunting all I over the place they determined on searchI ing the proprietor's son, who was ill in bed, and what should-they find but the object of their ouest next to his skin. Although unable to decipher the language it was Dome away in triumph, but when submitted to an interpreter the "incrimin- ; sting document turned out to be nothing , more or less than a certain famous brand of plaster!

WORKMAN AND HIS WEEK-END. Many employers are following the example of railway companies in refusing any but the statutory holidays to their workmen In London among munition workers the ban on regular holidays has produced the workman "week-ender," who takes a house at the seaside for his family, and either travels up and down daily or spends the weed-ends there. Exigencies of war work seldom' permit the former choice, but it is a standing instruction in most of the shops that all effort should be made to give each man a free week-end for recreation. To enable this to be done volunteer part-time workers are being employed. PONY THAT LIES DOWN TO SHELLS. The antic 6 of a Uist pony named Polly in Gallipoli are a source of delight to a Tobermory lady, who owned the animal before it was commandeered. To the intense amusement of certain sections of the transport service, Polly lies down when she hears the scream of a shell coming in her direction. She stretches out her forelegs, down goes her. head to earth, her eyes shut, and she is instantly "dead." She leans over to the left, and under that side is a safe hiding place for her rider till the shell has passed. Then Polly rises again. While many of her companions in the peninsula have really bit the dust, Polly from Uist only goes through the form, and still stoutly carries her gunner from Tobermory. AEROPLANES OF THE FUTURE. j Before long the 'Russian 3£-ton aero-1 plane, which can carry a dozen passengers and half a ton of explosives, will be coneidered a mere baby amopg flying machines, and there will be many thousands of great aeroplanes having a long range of flight and capable of weathering almost any kind of storm. The prophecy was uttered by Mr. H. F. Wvatt in a lecture at the Services Club. It was as certain as anything could be in this world, he said, that within a, Very few years, ten or perhaps less, the aeroplane would have undergone such a development as to substitute air power for sea power. Gasbags, in the Zeppelin and other forms, have no future, according to Mr. Wyatt t and it is possible, though not probable, that the aeroplane itself may be superseded by some other machine of which we at present have no cognisance.

MERCURY AND THE WAR. Quicksilver has risen from £7 to £20 or more a flask (751b). According to the Mining World, that is by far the highest price for mercury in modern times, The annual production is about 4100 metric tons. The United States and Austria-Hungary produces each about one-sixth of this amount, Italy a little more, and Spain nearly onethird. The war in Europe has shut off the Austrian supply, and made it difficult to transport the product of Italy and Spain It has also caused a greatly increased demand for mercury, which is now principally used in the manufacture of fulminate for explosive caps. Mercury is also used extensively in drugs and medicaments, and in thermometers and instruments of precision. Formerly a considerable amount of quicksilver was consumed in silvering mirrors, and in the amalgamation process of extracting gold and silver from their ores; but mirrors are now sil-! vered with nitrate of silver, and the cvajyde process has virtually supplanted the amalgamation process in metallurgy. A TALE OP CHAIN ARMOUR. A well-known "war correspondent tells a story apropos of bullet-proof armour. Whilst in Paris at the beginning of the war a fluent French inventor persuaded him to obtain 'an opportunity for demonstrating the usefulness of a thin chainarmour shirt which he claimed would resist any bullet or bayonet. A sample shirt had been hung up and fired at with satisfactory results, but it was "with a certain journalistic scepticism that my friend attended the official demonstration at Hendon later. Anyway, to oblige the inventor, he put on one of the shirts to show its comfort and flexibility. It was then that the French inventor achieved a dramatic effect, for he whipped out a Webley automatic and blazed away straight at inv friend's chest. He is still alive to tell the tale. Before lie had recovered enough breath even to swear, a War Office official grasped him warmly by the hand. "Sir." he said, "yon are a, brave man!" He then disappeared with becoming modesty. He had gone where he could get a stiff [ brandy and soda.