PERSONAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3334, 6 February 1918, Page 55

PERSONAL NOTES.

—ln addition to the late Lord Forester there is one other peer who enjoys the remarkable privilege of remaining covered in the presence of tho Sovereign. This is Lord Kingsdale, the holder of the premier Irish barony, dating back to the year 1181. The privilege was granted to the first peer— Sir John de Courcy,— who greatly distinguished himself in the wars of England, Ireland, and Gascony. King John granted him the uneque privileges, which his descendants have since enjoyed, although on one occasion it was somewhat sharply challenged—in ignorance, of course —by King William 111. The position was explained, and tho King at once acknowledged it. American Ambassador (Mr Page), speaking a't a luncheon in London recently, " and I speak with a profound feeling of gratitude at having the privilege of saying it,, that whatever years remain of my working lifo I propose to devote to this, and nothing else —to bringing about a closer damental and lasting acquaintance between the people of this Empire and of the United States.—(Cheers.) I take the applause of that sentiment to mean that every man is with me. We understand each other better than any other two great nations, and yet we, do not understand each other —the masses of our people, and even our rulers—half so well as we may come to understand. And since upon our united shoulders henceforth and forever, so far as we can see, rests the peace of tho world, I bee vou let us turn ourselves to that great task." , '• The unique distinction of having served for two years with the French army without having been once off duty for leave or through illness belongs to Mme. GerardMangm, who was recently appointed matron-in-chargo of the Edith Cavell Hospital at Versailles. It was owing to a mistake on the part of the French military authorities that this daughter of France first became connected with the army of our gallant Ally. Under tho impression that she was a man, they sent her, in August, 1914, orders to join the Twentieth Infantry Regiment, and it was not until she had reported to her regiment and was examined by a medical officer "that her sex was discovered. She was, however, billeted, and received the pay of a halfpenny a day, with tobacco allowance. Brigadier-general H. J. Elles, D. 5.0., leader of the tanks in the advance on Cambrai, will probably go down to, history as " Do-your-damndest Elles" for_ his signal on the occasion. Camberley, his home, is very nroucl of itself. A press representative called a't The Homestead, the general's pretty home, situated among pine woods, where ho met Mrs Elles and her two little daughters. Herself the daughter of a famous old Indian officer, Mrs Elles, while intensely proud of her husband's share in the victory, is. proud of all the '•'tankers," as she put it, from the lowest rank upwards. " They are just splendid," she says. Lieutenant-general Sir Edmund Ellee, K.C.8., when spoken to about his son's exploit, laconically remarked, " It's all in a soldier's work, you know." —An impression of detachment, gravity, and of the strength of chilled steel (writes Mr G. Ward Price) was what one brought away from tho house of General Diaz, the new' head of the Italian army, when he received the Italian and foreign correspondents. Hie shoulders are square and strong, and he bears them as if stiffened to support physically, as well as morally, the heavy burden of responsibility that has been set upon him. The general's face has a set expression of sternness; neither in play of feature nor in gesture dons ho show any of tho vivacity of tho Latin. His movements are few, deliberate, and slow. One felt the presence of a man who has cast his whole soul into a mould of iron resolution, to meet a maximum strain, and who, while recognising the sternness of the ordeal, faces it without dismay. —IM early every Labour member of tho British Parliament can tell of personal experience of black days when their pockets were emoty and they had hunger for a companion. Mr A. H. Gill M.P. for Bolton, who ■ began his working life by selling newspapers in the streets of Rochdale as a preliminary to working as "halftime" in a cotton mill, had just taken to himself a wife, when, as he tells us, "Fate seemed to take a sudden and violent dislike to him. My wife fell ill. I had an accident at tho mill. For a long time I was out of work, and everything went wrong that should have gone right. However, ■ I don't know that these buffetings of. Fortune did me any harm. They impressed on mo tho value of thrift and the virtues of independence." Sergeant George Julian Howell, who won tho Military Medal and Victoria Cross for exceptional acts of bravery in France, recently returned to his home near Sydney. He gained the V.C. at Bulleeourt. where he displayed most conspicuous bravery. Seeing a party of the enemy likely to outflank a battalion, Howell, on his own initiative, single-handed, and while exposed to heavy bomb and rifle fire, climbed up on tho top of a parapet and proceeded to bomb tho enemy, pressing him back along tho trench. Having exhausted his stock of bombs, Howell attacked tho enemy with tho bayonet until he was severely wounded. Howell's prompt action and gallant conduct in the faco of superior numbers was witnessed by a wholo battalion, and grea'tli inspired the men in a subsequent successful counter-attack. Ho succeeded in capturing 60 of the enemy, besides bayoneting a number of others.

During 48 hours of incessant rainfall in Sydney, "which ended early on January 13, 9.4 in was registered.