GENERAL WAR NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16823, 13 April 1918, Page 2 (Supplement)

GENERAL WAR NEWS.

TURKS WANT BOSPHORUS BRIDGE. According to the Vossische Zeitung, th( Turkish Government has introduced in the Chamber a Bill asking for a credit for examining the question of the con struction of a bridge and tunnel con necting Europe with Asia. EX-TSARINA'S MENTALITY. Thero was recently a widespread rumour in Holland and Denmark to the effect that tho German Government had been informed that the ex Tsarina has become insane, and was confined in a sanatorium in Tobolsk. MARQUIS SEEKS EMPLOYMENT, A marquis, who is also an army major applied to the Edmonton Education Committee for the vacant post of secretary under the committee The advertised salary was £450, rising in three years to £600. DECORATIONS FOR PIRATES.

A special war decoration for U-boat crews was created by the Kaiser on the occasion of the anniversary of the inauguration of ruthless submarine war, as

" a recognition for meritorious work during the war" It can be secured by officers, petty-officers, and crews of the U-boats after making three ,voyages against tho enemy. ROUMANIAN GOLD SEIZED. The Neue Freie Presse hears that the amount of gold belonging to Roumania seized by Russia was £20.000.009. The paper adds that Vienna and Berlin attach great importance to the confiscation, as the Roumanian States gold reserve is the chief guarantee of tho Roumanian debt with the Centra] Powers. PEER'S DAUGHTER A CLERK. The young daughter of one of Britain's wealthiest peers is working as an ordinary Government clerk. She obtained her position under an assumed name through a labour exchange, and soon became very popular w.th her fellow-workers. It was only upon investigating how the young wage-earner could afford to give her! companions so many presents that thei authorities discovered the real cause of ! their distinguished employee's independence. KILLING OFF THE AGED.

Mr Gerard's recent statement that the Germans would rot, in the event of necessity, hesitate to starve all aged persons has received confirmation from the Rev. Aloysius Daniels, a Roman Catholic

priest who arrived at New York recently from Germany. This gentleman savs Germany now only cares for those who! are engaged in the prosecution of the 1 war. Ibis has led to a brutal neglect of the aged. When persons go to a police station and ask permission to buy milk or eggs for sick persons, food 8 refused, if the person ill is beyond any age of acti\e service.

LIFEBOAT WAR SERVICE. | The noble put played in war service j by the hardy fishermen who man the I lifeboats round the Hiitish roasts was! emphasised in the annual survey of their] work issued by the Duke of Northumber-] land, president of the Royal National ' Lifeboat Institution. The ' number of 1 lives fur the saving of which the ititu- ' lion granted rewards in 1917 constituted • a record, numbering 134b. The total' number of lives saved sue the outbreak' of war is over 4000, and of these mote j than 1370 were the lives of sailors, sol- ! diet's. (Ihclmk, nurses, and others who have been rescued from His Majesty's ' ships and (i her vessels which have been ' mined, torpedoed, or otherwise in jeopardy from causes arising directly out of the war. Since August, 1914, the lifeboats have also been the means of saving over 150 vessel*, ' i

| FRENCHWOMEN'S PRISONERS. 1 Three peasant women of the neighbourI hood of Fau, meeting four escaped German prisoners, stopped them and held them I until the arrival of reinforcements. The prisoners were then taken to the gendarmerie. BRIGADIER GENERAL ASQUITH. Mr, Asquith took back from France at the end of January an encouraging report of the progress made by his son, Briga-dier-General Arthur Asquith, who suffered amputation of the foot. The symptoms of fever had subsided, and the patient was progressing as satisfactorily as could be expected. THE NATIONAL WAR MEMORIAL. Mr. Slunro, Secretary for Scotland, said recently that the question of a national war memorial in Scotland had been brought before the Government in connection with a larger scheme for the cieation of an Imperial War Museum in London. The War Cabinet had indicated general approval of the proposal to dedicate Edinburgh Castle to the purpose. FATHER AND SON D.S.O, Among the recipients of the D.S.O. at a recent investiture by the King at Buckingham Palace wire Lieutenant-Colonel William Oales, Sherwood Foresters, attached Royal Sussex Regiment, and his son, Major John Hates, also of the Sherwood Foresters. The King arranged that father and son should be admitted and decorated together.

COURSES FOR OFFICERS. As an experimental scheme a limited number of officers in hospital, who, in the opinion of a medic;, 1 board, will be unfit for military duty for not less than four months, are to be allowed to attend short courses of instruction at Oxford University. Preference will be given to those who, in all probability, will be discharged from the service without rejoining. HOTEL CECIL'S £55,000 CLAIM. The War Losses Commission recently ordered an immediate payment of £38,000 to the Hotel Cecil, which was taken over for the Air Board. The claim is for £55.203 a year, with an additional amount to cover rent and retaining fee to staffs, but the decision was adjourned for a point of law as to the contract between the Constitutional Club, which occupies part of the building, and the company ;o be argued. A QUEEN BESS WANTED. Miss Christabel Pankhurst, speaking in London, said that the average woman had ten thousand times more statesmanship in her than Lord Lansdowne. Women would have to he consulted on the management of the war and the terms of peace. " Sometimes,'' said Miss Pankhurst, " I wish that Queen Elizabeth could coino hack to earth and be included in the War Cabinet. She might even have proved a valuable accession to the War Council at Versailles.'' GOING TO BED IN THE DARK. A domestic servant was summoned at Scarborough for failing to screen a candle light in a bedroom. The defence was that tier mistress had not put blinds up. The Mayor, dismissing the case, said the magistrates thought it unreasonable to expect anybody to go to bed in the dark, and suggested that the mistress should be summoned. The chief constable said many people went to bed in the dark, and he had done so since the war began. OFFICER'S TRAGIC END. A wing occupied by officers at Kinmel Park, England, was burned to the ground. Among the debris were found the charred remains of Lieut. Arthur Lloyd, of Birkenhead, attached to the 53rd Battalion Manchester. By his side were the remains of a little dog, ' the regimental mascot. Lieut. Lloyd was 29 years of ajje. He was the first to discover the fire, and escaped. Then, remembering that the dog was behind, he returned into the burning hut, and was overcome. Several officers had narrow escapes. NINTH SON FOR THE ARMY. The application of Robert Redvers Dundonald Lovegrove for exemption before the Windsor rural tribunal was supported by Lieutenant-Colonel Archer Shee, M.P. The applicant, whose eighteenth birthday it was, is the ninth son of Mr. and Mrs. Lovegrove, of Sunninghill, who already have given eight sons to the army. Three of these have been killed and three others have been wounded, two of them three times. Robert is the youngest son, and, as he is only in Category 111., the tribunal granted conditional exemption on his undertaking work of national importance. GERMAN TRAP THAT FAILED.

The German naval authorities had an ulterior motive for a recent bombardment of Yarmouth. I am told, writes the London correspondent of the Daily Dispatch, that it was afterwards discovered that numerous mines were laid by the raiders in the hope that our ships would give chase and rush to their own destruction. But our naval officers were quite wideawake—although it was nigh'.— and did not fall into the trap. This incident may indicate to the public why wt sometimes " allow the raiders to escape."

QUEEN MARY AND THE TROOPS.

Since its formation the Queen Mary's Needlework Guild has sent to the troops no fewer than 7,736,911 gifts. The Queen takes a most active interest .in the guild, and by her command is furnished weekly with a list of the goods sent away, and is always consulted on matters referring to the despatch of parcels. Hear.ng from Lady Plumer that the troops under General Plumer's command in Italy were in great need of warm comfort.-, the Queen instantly commanded that ail the branches of the guild be made acquainted with the needs of the men in Italy, with the result that in six week? 21.000 gifts of woollen goods were sent to Italy. BEATING THE U BOATS.

A campaign aimed at increased food production has bean inaugurated in Northern France and Belgium behind the firing line. Ploughs distributed by the Agricultural Relief of Allies Committee in the Maine and the Meuse districts

are now playing their part in the extensive programme which is being carried out, as well as seed corn obtained from i grain contributed by British farmers ' through the medium of the fund. Every ] acre on which farming operations are , permissible and possible it is hoped will be made to yield its quota of food, and British farmers, who ire doing their ut- , most to increase production, havo also | the satisfaction of having aided the striken French farmers to do their part in the defeat of the U-boats.

! THE BEST GUARANTEE OF PEACE. I M. Paul Cambon, the French AmbasI sudor, speaking at the annual prize disi tributioii of the National Society of j French Masters at the Mansion House, London, said that France and England j were shedding their blood to conquer an ' enemy who had made the old barbarism : live again. It was well the young 1 people of Kngland and France should I learn their respective languages, as this '. would tighten and make indestructible , their alliance, which was essential t-u the . cause of < ivilisation and human. When j the war was over and peace declared j their enemies would have no other idea than to separate France and England. Their two countries were the bulwarks of the world's liberty, and the union of their coming generations would bo the '-beat guarantee of peaco, j