GENERAL WAR NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 13967, 28 September 1918, Page 2 (Supplement)

GENERAL WAR NEWS.

CHIEF OF TOMMYWAAOS. One of the women lost in the torpedoing of the . ambulance transport Warilda was Mrs. Violet Long, chief controller of the British women's army auxiliary corps, better known as the " Tommy Waacs" who, with her sister, Mrs. Long, started the work of the corps early in the war. PARENTS AND THE STATE. Father Bernard Vaughan, at a London meeting, said it was not the business of the State to feed and clothe the children. It. was the duty of the parents, and on that account he demanded a living wage. Every man in the Empire should be cble to find not' merely a shelter or a shakedown, but a little home in which he might bring up his offspring as worthy children of God and membors of the greatest Empire the world has ever seen. THE WAR HORSE. Despite the vast numbers of motor vehicles used on the European battle fronts, the horse is still important as an engine of war. The armies in the field

have already used 4,500,000 horses, and America's new army will require 1,500,000 moro. Wounded horses are easily handled. They seem to know that the surgeons are trying to help them and they submit to having their hurts dressed with wonderful fortitude. LITTLE METAL IN HUN STATUES. The search by military authorities for copper and brass to be used in making, munitions have disclosed that most of the supposedly statues in Berlin are notiling but extremely thin metal shells, similar to some of the trophies presented in pre-war days by the Emperor. It has been decided that it will not be worth white to dismantle the statues because of the small amount of metal to be obtained. DANGER OF PROPHECY. America will not be able to save France from the terrible fate Germany has prepared for her, says the Essen Gazette. It says:—"Whence could our enemies obtain the means for another offensive? From America, perhaps ? Have we not already shown in these columns that the aid from that quarter cannot but be of the slenderest and most insignificant for our enemies, and notably the French, for whom all is at stake and for whom a terrible time is in store. In all probability they will defend themselves to the last man. That, however, will help them nothing. The inheritance which Poincare and Clemenceau will leave to their successors will be a fearful one indeed. Both these men 'have - sowed the wind; both, and France with, theas, will gathet the whirlwind,

7goo POOD SUBSTITUTES. There were 7000 substitute foods known to the authorities at the end of last October, says the Berliner Tageblatt. A few are described, e.g., a "stretching flour " of powdered hay, " jams " of es-sence-flavoured gelatine and water, and "meat cubes" of similar origin to tno jams. GERMAN POO DETECTOR. German scientists have perfected an instrument known as a " fog detector, according to a correspondent of Reynold s newspaper. The instrument, which is said to be already in use in the German naval and aviation services, indicates the gathering of a fog, its density and duration, about ten hours before it settles down. TOMMY'S CHIVALRY. A pretty story is told by a correspondent. He writes:-" You will like to know that some Austrian prisoners taken on the Piave, who were being sent to thft big camps in Southern France, travelled for a considerable part of the journey with some British troops. On arriving

at Nice they sent for an English interpreter, and stated that they wished the English to know how splendidly they had been treated. They added that they could never have believed an enemy could have been so chivalrous, and, af. they had read in the German papers of such tales of cruelty, they made this protest with their grateful thanks." i AFTER THE WAR IN BELGIUM. Attention is called to the fact that in the district of Liege after the war the coal mines of the basin of Liege will reorganise in still greater proportions the food service which they had created for the miners,-but which the food shortage forced them to suspend, says the Belgian Bulletin. The syndicated coal mines in question will open establishments to furnish to the workers food, clothing, shoes etc., at the cost. WHAT FRITZ SMOKES. What the German soldier thinks of-the Ersatz-tobacco which the Government is now forced to supply to the troops is reflocted in a letter published in a German paper. The, correspondent writes •- Reading in your paper so much in praise of Ersatz-tobacco, I sent a small packet to a brother m the field. I have just received from him the following letter -1 One more request : For. God's sake don't send any more Ersatz-tobacco. All the fleas flies, lice, mice, and rata came out of their hiding-place when I lit a trial pipe. Most of them fell down dead. We have survived, but only because we Clapped on our gas-masks. If the Govern, men supply any more.of this stuff troops they will poison the lot of 1 U*"-