GENERAL WAR NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16258, 17 June 1916, Page 3 (Supplement)

GENERAL WAR NEWS.

THE IRONY OP IT. - , A' conscientious objoctor was unable to ; V appear before the Law Society section of ! - :• , the Appeal Tribunal, because he was suf- ''• ■"•' fering from German measles. m PAPER SHORT IN GERMANY. The evening edition of the Berliner ; ■ v \ Tageblatt, which in normal times is an £iv.i ?;" imposing-looking paper of many pages, Wh - now consists of only four small.pages. m PERHAPS! M • A wireless press message from Rome P jays that at a recent conference of Gerp ; man bankers the Minister for Finance de- ■■.' clared that Germany will impose on hor ,' enemies a war indemnity of not less than £2,500,000,000. AUSTRIANS WANT DOGS. ; ,' ' A Zurich message says the Vienna War .'/ Office makes a public appeal for dogs for i service in the field in scouting and sani- | tary work. Airedale terriers are mcn> y tioned among other breeds. A COMPARISON. m If King Alfred lhad burned a £5 note |f', every hour from his day until now the M sum destroyed would not have been more if, than had been added in a fortnight to [.<"' our national debt said Mrs. Hudson Lyall [M at a meeting of the Woman's Patriotic League. J, PAPER SOLES. -' - Three army contractors at Buda Pest ['.•■ have been sentenced to four years' imprisonment and heavy fines for furnishing boots with paper soles to the army. In I'; Austria this offence is now punishable i " with 16 years' imprisonment. BRITISH FROG-EATERS. I A telegram from the British headquar- ;?: ters at Salonika states that our men have learnt from their French comrades the value of frogs as a supplement to the bill of fare. The men-enjoy the sport of |, catching the frogs with bits of meat tied to the end of a string. I j MERELY PROMISED. ?;; " The Austrian Government has renewed H for 12 months its lease of the Embassy ♦ J '; building in Rome and of its Consular I % offices throughout Italy. Prince Chigi, WA who owns the Embassy building, put £2400 on the rent, payment of which was cheerfully—promised. "SYNTHETIC" CAVIARE! ,'••;: Owing to the sale in Berlia-of coloured herrings' roes as " genuine German cavimP-: are," the Deutsche Tageszeitnung warns |JL? the public against the counterfeit goods, I§| reminding it that " not even our brills \ liantly resourceful German chemists can ;'" / make synthetic caviare." A PRUSSIAN HUMORIST. IV , Under the heading, "A Peculiar %"; Legacy," the Koelnische Volkszeitiuig %m "The Prussian Budget for 1916 | contains a strange item. An official named m& Elsener. who died recently, bequeathed £500 to the State, with instructions to let ||g it accumulate at interest until it attained |P the amount of the State debt." (The If Prussian debt in 1906 was £360,921,000.)ft GERMAN e CHEEK. fpt It is officially announced that Germany '; > : i' has authorised the German shipping com- - panies to lease' to Brazil for coastal service '\/v, arid for the; duration of ,the war only v : ; three of the German liners detained in , ; Brazilian ports on condition that Brazil ' ;| obtains from the Governments of the allies ; '/•'< * guarantee that these vessels shall not be captured, or attacked. The ships would be used to earn profits for Germans while they were immune from capture. THE SEXES IN PRANCE. *■,''•■ ' Somebody in France has written a book ...• and published it on the art of the chase. ;i ; 2 " Comment trouver un Mari apres la '■• /';/: Guerre," is the title—-that is, how to get .'".„• yourself a husband after the war. The - , - difficulty of the problem is illustrated by ; ,•. the statement that in 1906 there were „■£'•';' 640,000 more women than men in the - population of France. The casualties of ~ the ■■ war must make this excess still greater. Hence it is presumed the "finding of a husband" will be a task of increasing difficulty. WHERE THE 'BUS GIRL SHINES. ( V';'l The male 'bus conductors who are trainI m ..'; ing women for the work on special omni11..!■;'■' buses in the London streets each day have, t.-y{ some strange experiences. " One of my -, most promising pupils has never been on J ;< a ; 'bus in her life," said one of them. ~j "But as she has spent most of her time ' as assistant stewardess on a liner she is the steadiest hand of the lot. There is < a tendency with some pupils to use the puncher as they do a sewing machine, I I , ' and several cases of punching the ticket accidentally in three or four places have ' been cured. But where they beat the 'male novices is in the matter of giving .. - change. The women never make a mis- ;■ ji <•;;';.toko there." l ; '" BRITAIN'S FUTURE QUEER. 1',, v ,." .It is curious how all society is teeming [|•'• with talk about the marriage of the Prince | ;,: 'of Wales. There is no obvious reaspn ■ why the matter should be discussed at -;>: present, and yet suddenly it has cropped ';•,,: up in all sorts of usually well-informed '■■■j ;, quarters. Naturally, says " Club Memjjjljjs her" in the Liverpool Post, the inner : j; court set shows its customary reticence, i but even individuals in quite high places ._. hint that there is no smoke without fire. t ;C r On the other band, it is most unlikely | ill* that the engagement of the Heir-Apparent ra|| would he announced during the war. Of I '■•; . Course, the previously privately-settled arI "'. | rangement of an alliance with a daughter [■'■■; ,'■? of the ruling house of Itonmania waS abanmfft doned on the declaration of war. The i ' Prince of Wales will certainly marry a vr> ; .. Russian Princess. * ' CROWDED BERNE. Though Kwigß hotels are almost everywhere suffering from the cessation of the |$P, tourist traffic, those of Berne have been :V: for some time past as crowded as at the height of the tourist season in time of , t peace. The visitors have even overflowed i ~ into lodgings, and fiats, and furnished ■; v'ij rooms are now scarce. Berne was formerly the least cosmopolitan of the Swiss cities ; , low it is more so than any of them. A ' considerable section of the foreign element is said to consist of refugees from mili„,yf! - tary- service; another is made up of the - ' cosmopolitan and occasionally questionable floating population which throngs the |. great, tourist routes and centres in ordinary years, and is now crowded out of , -v, them by the war. tiv, • . ■ What they THINK at THE front ~,J':'p The following is an extract from a letter appearing in the Morning Post, re- •• ,: cently received from one who is serving his country at this moment, and has been §?<; doing 80 lor many years, the excerpt fur- :\ nishing a good example of the opinions of tkose .who are acting and not talking : ■'$>•;;%- ■:,.. .1 expect you have read, as one hopes ;', everyone in the country has done, the report on the brutality of the Germans at the camp at Wittenburg. Then in the neighbouring column to that atrocious record you see the trumped-up story of a • • ,*o-caltad conscientious objector, which swl^ a s one really feel at times that the' country has lost its reason" which can WW such twaddle. If a thing has been parsed as law it should be enforced withBlv' any of this humbug. Next we ob- ; a serve that many are still concerned in racing, a nd when you see this side by •me with the list of casualties it makes °n*-i.ick. They talk, talk; and talk about' fS^?-9. to stop the war, and yet they, *Uw all this to go on,'.'. - I'-

NEW FRENCH HOWITZER. i» ! ?w^A- fif W l of French engineers be in all £££^f i \ WI £ h *f said to man WifcSJi - e(^al to *o giant Geruwei of similar dimensions.

GERMAN DESERTERS. in A the rd G n e?man tt" %?*% P« blished last; o fThom4r ng the , mo " th of M arch wereAlsaSs ' """"fr half the total,

SALONIKA DISCOVERIES. thai'an^ellrmon? Wire s from Salonika tine mar-IT ?U8 vns * and man y ByzanThere are »& °P eiat ] on s at Salonika, *«ere are also traces of works-2000 years

A GERMAN WAR DRAMA. W. #r which a denur a Call^ d "™*™- fenfl;! Be^cor^

A MOMENT TOO LONG. ad!S S ha°d r fCorporal A. J "in^rucTorlt fh» {«■ • f nn taneou s death owinc to he received from theHplo"

THE KILTED CONSCIENCE. fully C a o nuelTed o $*? who success. of & P t P .i° the i Law Society section laJj e cosC -tribunal, appeared in High land costume. He was a Chelsea artist ?aLrV\7 J 1 * iot - .1" seven foolscap l&r%lXll VhlChh6oCCX^da

HUN WANTS MORE POOD. an K alii^ U^ h M d; *t° was -remanded as served at Newport, said that he had served m the German army for 17 months a prison Camp 2" the coast. He escaped, and came as a stowaway on a ship from Dieppe, hoping to have more food in En£

TEA-PARTY TO DISPLAY SOUVENIRS »i£ well-known London society woman who has been nursing in France and Servia gave a tea-party recently to display her souvenirs collected while abroad There were a silver flask with an Imperial h»H,ifiu hlch ha * d b^ n P icked "P <*»» battlefild an Austrian officer's beauty case, and a handkerchief with an embroidered coronet. LESS PAPER FOR BERLIN.' A private message from Berlin states that on account of the great scarcity of paper in Germany a central office will be established in Berlin to distribute regularly to all newspapers and periodicals certain limited quantities of paper. Within a very short time the quantity of each paper will be considerably cut down, and the issue of any new papers prohibited. CHEERY OPTIMISM. " I have just had to knock off to attend to a great Grenadier Guardsman who is coming put of choloroform. .Heis a metropolitan policeman who keeps quoting scripture in an awfully funny way. I an i sorry to say, though, he will not do any more police duty, for he has had bis left leg amputated, but he says : ' Never mind twenty-five bob a week, and half a crown for the youngster I'm all right.* " This example of optimism in distressing circum- < stages appears ip a letter' from an' B.A.M.C. dresser m a casualty clearing station in Belgium to a friend at home. THE BELL OF NAY. Superstitious people are talking of a curious incident which happened at Nay, a little Pyrenean village far from the noise Of battle. Twice m the history of France the big church bell of Nay has fallen without being damaged. It fell from the belfry exactly three months before the Crimean war ended, and it fell from the belfry again three months before the end of the war of 1870. It has just fallen a third time, again without damage, and the superstitious are wondering whether this time again the fall of the church bell in Nay belfry is an omen of peace. " • t CHINESE FOR FRANCE. France is going to try the, experiment »f introducing Chinese labour, in the hope that it may be possible effectually to take advantage of the liberty of the seas and bring about a revival of French industry and agriculture during the war. It is expected that within a few months some j 5000 Chinese will be imported on a three years' agreement, with the stipulation that they may be employed in various parts of the French colonies. The French' Ministry for Labour is co-operating in the scheme, and steps are being taken to train Chinese already in France, in order that they may give the necessary instruction to the immigrants. NEW TEMPERANCE DRINK. Experiments have been made for some months under the auspices of the Board of Control in the preparation of a temperance drink suitable for sale in munition areas, and the members of the board are satisfied that the end desired has been i achieved. It is understood that about a dozen firms are prepared to produce the new liquor, which resembles light beer, but is warranted not to intoxicate. Specimen bottles from one of the makers concerned were to be had from the refreshment department at the House of Commons on the Tuesday, and those members bold enough to make the experiment declared the drink satisfactory. The board is prepared to push the sale. GROUNDS FOR COMPLAINTS. In a small village " somewhere in France," a famous British regiment was billeted for a few days prior to going into the firing-line. The medical officer attached to the regiment was making his usual daily tour around the village to inspect the sanitary conditions of the billets, etc., assisted by the regimental sergeantmajor, the latter person being a typical Irishman. Everything was apparently satisfactory until they came to a small cafe, which the soldiers frequently visited. Here the M.O. was annoyed to find a considerable amount of refuse, and turning to the R.S.M., he demanded to know who had put it there. After some hesitation he replied, " Share, sir, it's these French people; they do nothing else but brew ' Cafe au Lait" all day, and then they throw the tea leaves out on to the pavements !" "THE WOODEN CITY." The Central News Zurich correspondent quotes the Weser Zeitung for some interesting information concerning a newspaper entitled the Wooden City, which is issued in the British war prisoners' camp at Goettinncn. The paper contains a full "list of visitors" —i.e., the names of all the English prisoners in the camp. The news columns are mainly occupied with accounts of the various sporting events that take place in the camp, and '" are written with all the seriousness which the English put into these events." The tone: of the other matter is " light." but a few articles of p. more intellectual calibre appear. The Wooden City generally issues an illustrated supplement. It is noted that, whilst the English prisoners do not mind their names being published in these journals, the French prisoners object most strongly.