SIDELIGHTS ON THE WAR.

Patea Mail, Volume XL, 20 March 1916, Page 4

SIDELIGHTS ON THE WAR.

. GERMAN OFFICERS ESCAPE. Two German officers have escaped | from the internment camps at Tikmaar, I Holland, namely, 'the commander of the aeroplane which recently landed in the Freisian Islands ami the commander of the. submarine which a fortnight ago was brought to Tcrschelling. LORD ROBERTS’ PROPHECY. , ‘■’Only give him the chance, and he will prove himself a great general,” was Lord Roberts’ comment years ago on 'i General Haig. ‘T believe,” added the veteran, “the war with Germany will ccme well nothin his time.” ONE-LEGGED RECRUIT. f After having served through the South ('African war, Mr. H. Ridlcr, a grocer, of Marrow, Surrey, who has only one leg, wrote to the War Office ollcring his services in any useful capacity, and has now been given a position in the Army Ordnance Corps. i AUSTRIA’S YELLOW ARMLET. ' Civil servants, merchants, manufacturers, teachers and professional men generally under arms in Austria are now allowed to wear a yellow armlet to tdisitinguish them from soldiers of inferior social position. Those wearing the yellow armlet arc entitled to live outside barracks, and arc exempted from menial (tasks, THE HUN’S WIDOW, The Berliner Tagcblatt, in an article on German losses, declares that from the time of a soldier’s death to the moment of its notification to his family two months elapse. The same paper remarks that domestic troubles are caused by widows being too eager to re-marry [ before making sure that their first husI bands hav c really been killed. The’ German courts declare that in such cases the second marriage is not valid. THE “ DERBY BRIGHTS.” I The readiness of the British Tommies with an apt name has been frequently illustrated. The latest example is furnished in a letter from the front, in J which Lord Derby’s recruits arc re- * ferred to as “Derby Brights.” * DARDANELLES ONCE FROZEN. An ancient chronicle states that in !thc year 763 the cold was so intense that the Strait of Dardanelles and the Black Sea were entirely frozen over. The snow in some places drifted to a depth of 50ft., and the ice was heaped in such quantities on the cities as to cause the walls to fall down. OXYGEN THE HEALER. 'A ease of hand wound which “healed with marvellous rapidity” after an acci-, dental oxygen bath is described in the British Journal of Nursing. The patient, who was suffering from tetanus, was being given oxygen when the endpiece of the tube fell away and the oxygen went on the wounded hand. The unexpectedly rapid healing of the wound, which was covered only' by a thin layer of gauze, was presumed by the su-geons to be duo to the effect of the free oxygen. •■■■' MV THOSE FRENCH MATCHES. Tn his book. “With Our Army in Flan--1 ders,” Mr. Valentine Williams says that humor is probably the largest component of the spirit of the British soldier. “A Jack Johnson burst close beside a British soldier who is lighting his pipe with one of those odious French sulphur matches. The shell blows a foul whiff of chemicals right across the man’s face. ‘Oh. dear! Oh, dear!’ he exclaims with a perfectly genuine sigh, ‘these ’ere French matches will be the deat hof'me!’”