WAR MISCELLANY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16593, 17 January 1916, Page 8

WAR MISCELLANY

NEWS FROM ALL SOURCES. (Fbom Ocb Own Cokbespondeht.) ' LONDON, December 7. Di- F. M. Sandwith, Gresham professor of physic and senior physician to tho London School of Tropical Medicine, has been appointed consulting physician with his Majesty's troops in the lYlediterranean, and intends leaving shortly for Egypt. For many years Dr Sandwith held the appointment of professor of medicine at the Egyptian Government Medical School. INSURANCE COMPANIES WARNED. Tho Secretary of the Admiralty has just mado the following announcement: —"Considerable mi&appreiiension appears to exist in regard to the permissibility of British insurance companies communicating particulars of risks on Government work to companies or persons other than British companies or British subjects with whom they may havo been in tho habit of effecting reinsurances. In order to remove this misapprehension, it is hereby notified that any person or company so communicating any information that may bo of valuo to tho enemy, either by way of reinsurance or otherwise, in connection with insurance upon such work, to any firm or person other than a registered British company or British subjcct, is- liable to prosecution for enabling important information to,reach the enemy in regard to works and materials in this country existing or in preparation _ for the conduct of tho war. Such prosecution may also be instituted in the case of any such particulars being passed out of this country to countries other than those comprised within the British Empire, whether to branch establishments of registered British companies or otherwise. This notice is to bo read as applying to all work or materials in preparation or in stock for any Government department or Government oontractor. It should bo observed that it has already been found necessary to remove the name of more than one insurance company from the list of companies who may participate in Government insurance on account of failure to take due precautions in regard to tho secrecy of particulars of Government work." EVERY PICTURE TELLS ITS STORY. Tho War Office announced yesterday that pictorial post-cards of all kinds, addressed to neutral countries, will in future be stopped by tho censor This order has naturally upset tho picturo post-card trade, but, as Sir Adoliph Tuck- says:—"We realise that, on patriotic grounds, we must cheerfully accept the edict, because the country is engaged in a big war, and wo must do anything that tends to help our country. The prohibition will affect our firm directly. We aro the largest publishers of _ picture post-cards, but of course, it will interfere with everybody. I would counsel others to accept this edict, and not attempt to mako any move to upset it." It would be unwise, he considered, to go into tho reasons which had actuated the authorities in arriving at this decision.- He assumed that the prohibition would not interfere with the wholesale exportation in bulk to neutral countries, which also formed part of their trade, though it would apply to Christmas greetings for posta,ge abroad, which were in post-card form, a big trade in which was being done just now, A GERMAN IN THE HUSSARS. _ Mrs Joan Mowat Baker, of Goldalming, is tho heroine of the latest war romance. Born in Argyllshire, she married Squadron Sergeant-major H. W. Baiter, 11th Hussars, who served 19 years with his regiment, and was killed in action at Messines, in Octobcr, 1914. Eight months later she discovered that her dead husband was born in Germany. Consequently she became an alien enemy, and had to register and forfeit her pension. Last week the Homo Office granted a certificate of naturalisation to Mrs Baker, and her nationality has been restored, together with arrears of pension. Mrs Baker learned her husband's nationality through reading in a newspaper that a Mrs Leibold had a son, a squadron ser-geant-major in tho British army, who in the name of Baker had served in the 11th Hussars, and had been killed in action. Mrs Baker afterwards found that her husband ivas brought to England by his mother before ho was three years old. He always appeared to dislike anything German; he even objected to his little girl having tops marked " made in Germany." He was killed while taking a message from his squadron to the headquarters. In recording his death the regimental magazine stated that he was a fine type of soldicv a capable N.C.0., a crack shot with rifle and revolver, and a splendid horseman and swordsman. QUARTERLY INCOME TAX. An important change has been made in tho new Finance Bill with regard to tho proposed quarterly assessments for incomo tax. This system, according to the original proposal, was to apply to all "employed persons," but the clause was so altered, at the instance of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, that the quarterly assessments and payments will be confined to '' weekly wage-earners employed by way of manual labour in respect of the wages arising from that employment," and will not apply to " persons employed as clerks, typists, draftsmen, or in any other similar capacity." A further definition was inserted to the effect that " a weekly wage-earner" means anyone who i 6 paid wages at less intervals than a month. The proposal 'that employers should deduct income tax from the wages of employees was abandoned by the Government as a result of conferences between Mr M'Kenna and representative employers and workmen. PHANTOM BRITISH AT KRUPPS. For the past few years a sensational btory has been going the round about hundreds of British workmen who found employment with Messrs Krupps, at Ivsen, after dismissal from Woolwich Arsenal, when Lord Haldane reduced the staff. Attention has now been called to the matter in thej-xouse of Commons. The facts aro that German agents appeared at Woolwich in 1907 and made efforts to engage skilled men dis charged from the arsenal. In all some ,73 men verc engaged and landed at Hamburg, whence 30 returned at once on learning that they were required as strikebreakers at Dresden. Twelve returned later eight die-tl. and at tho end of the first 12 months after they left Woolwich 28 of the men referred to were shown on tho books of their respective unions as being still employed in Germany. S'nce then all trace of these men has been lost. In 1910, an effort was made to trace tho mysterious British workmen employed by Krtipp; but rybody seemed > to havo heard of them, and it was ascertained that conditions of employment at tho works did not permit of foreigners being engaged in this way. In the meantime the 28 men presumed to be employed somewhere in Germany have grown into hundreds, and have been located at Krupps, where, according to tho story, they are emplovcd under conditions little differing from slavery.