GENERAL WAR NEWS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 73, 23 February 1918, Page 3

GENERAL WAR NEWS.

A RETURNED SOLDIER.

Sydney, February 21

A returned soldierj mimed Joseph Manliffe, alias Joseph Henry Turner, was committed for trail on a charge of knowingly signing a false name to a military pay sheet. "Accused, in a statement made to the police, said bis name was Manliffe. He enlisted at Auckland in December, 1914, and, went to Egypt, thence being invalided to England, where he met an Aus-

| tralian soldier named Maxwell; who was detailed to return to Australia, i . , but did not desire to return, and gave Manliffe bis boat ticket and papers, with permisisou to use the papers and sign the pay-sheet in Australia. He signed- Maxwell’s name and obtained £2. PRISONERS. IN TURKEY. : London, February 21. i Corporal A. Shoebridge, 10/ (504 Wellington Battalion, New Zealand, was among the first prisoners to arrive from Turkey. He states he was engaged in the attack on Anafarta in 1915. and when the Anzacs were forced to retire he was left on the field shot through the elbow. Ho i was taken, with other New Zealancl- . ers, from Gallipoli in a jolting cart. When they stopped on the roadside, old Turkish women belabored them with heapy sticks, killing his mate, who was .suffering from a serious bayonet wound in the stomach, his body being left on the roadside. Shoebridge was sent to a good hospital at Constantinople for a few days, but was told the British were ill-treating Turkish prisoners, and as a reprisal he was sent to a building like a stable The windows were boarded and the place was dark. He was laid on a dirty floor, a blanket being given to each prisoner. His wounds were not attended to. Later, he was sent to various hospitals for treatment. The food was wretched, consisting of bread boiled wheat and potatoes. Other prisoners state that British prisoners died like flies and were buried unclothed and uncoffined in holes holding four. The condition of prisoners from Kut was indescribable. At first they could not believe they were British. Some were clad in a shirt only. Prisoners received £4 monthly from the Americans, and then the Dutch consul was permitted to buy food, but the prices were terrible. The prisoners stayed ten weeks in Austria en route. Food was worse and more scarce than in Turkey, but the conditions in Turkey were now much improved, MEMORIALS TO SOLDIERS. London, February 29. The War Graves Commission has announced that Bndyard Kipling has agreed to write, suitable memorial inscriptions for the monuments to fallen soldiers. T* r HOIST WITH OWN PETARD. A high military authority comments upon the fact that the Germans, who first used gas t now find we have obtained the superiority, and have deadlier gas and bettor protective measures. Therefore they have begun a propaganda to give up the use. If we now voluntarily abstain from its use what guarantee is possible from | Germany that she will not spring another surprise on us. GERMANY AND THE FAR EAST. Paris, February 20. j M. Marcel Hu tin expresses the opinion that the danger of Germany’s expansion in the Far East is accentuated by Russia’s break up. When the republic of Siberia is constituted we shall have an energetic representative there, for the enemy will permeate Siberia and establish himself at Yladivostock. The Entente Powers, including America, had confidence to the last in the Bolsheviks, but President Wilson’s eyes are now opened. Japan will now play an important part, but will the Entente allow her to accomplish it? ARGENTINA AND THE ALLIES. Buenos Aires, Feb. 21. Details of the convention concluded with the Argentine and Allied Governments show that the latter purchase the surplus of wheat and other cereals to the extent of two and a half million tons, to be exported by the Ist November next. The minimum price for wheat is twelve and a half dollars per hundred kilos. Argentine opens a credit of 100,000,000 dollars each with the British and French Governments for the above purpose.