GENERAL WAR NEWS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11332, 9 March 1915, Page 3

GENERAL WAR NEWS.

GERMAN WAR MATERIAL. The " llaudelsblad " learns from Berlin that the German ammunition works are manufacturing some three million to mi of shrapnel monthly, and that their highest, capacity ot production Inks not yet been reached. BATTALIONS EACH 10*20. An. Army Order slates thai, tho fourcompany organisation \sill now bo adopted in 'lei-ritorial battalions. Lite war establishment of an infantry battalion will consist oi -HI officei stall" sergeants and sergeants, drummers or buglers, 028 rank and file; total, J 026. ~ * * FO R RID DEN* LANGUAG E. AMSTERDAM. January 7—A messngo from Strasburg stages that anybody using ihe French language in siiop window signs, etc., wjll bo uablo to one year's iniprisvmmenf. Tno prohibition applies also to !>usiitP;--« letters, accounts and receipts. —" ( entral News." PRISONER SHOT BY SENTRY. In the case or Private Owen Ross, of tfm Bth Middlesex (Territorial.-!), who afc. Gibraltar fatally a Gorman prisoner ol war named Ernst Mihn, a verdict of '' Justifiable homicide" was returned at the inquest, a? tho Jury believed that Palm was trying to escape from the Windmill Hill prison. Military honours were rendered at tho funeral of the man, a British regimental barnl attending. FIRING-LINE ENTERTAINER. The members of Mr Seymour Hicks's party who have been entertaining the soldiers in France have returned to England. Unfortunately, the strenuous experience has laid aside several members of the party, and both Mr Hicks himself and >vr.?s Olga Hudson were pro vented from returning owing to attacks of influenza. Hudson is resting in Rouen. Mr Hicks had to stop at Southampton on the doctor's orders. ROUMANIAN ATTITUDE. The " Petit Parisieu.' which lately prophesied that. Hon mania, will come into hue wh'.h tho Allies, how says the intervention ol the Roumanian Army is assured, at latest when the seas->ll of great cokl is passed, and when the neeotsarv ammunition has been received. A'fleet of Roumanian monitors will bes able to go i:p the Danube and threaten Buda-Pesth. Five hundred thousand Roumanians will then enter Hungarian territory. UNDER THEIR OWN GUNS. A curious story is told by a French artillery officer who was in the fighting near Rheiins. He writes that tho other dav, after his battery had abundantly shelled a German trench, the French infantrymen advanced to take possession thereof. r S hey lound two German machine guns which t-hft French shells had partly smashed and half-buried, and these they tried to remove. Great resistance was experienced, and suddenly they heard shouts for assistance. tt> was discovered that the shouts came front the German e:utill ers, who were, actually entombed with their guns. * * TWINS DIE *TOGETHER. The tragic rate of the twin sons of Mrs Russell, of ('rev,o. \va* revealed in a communication which readied Crewe recently. The boys volunteered tor service immediately war broke out, and were attached to the sick berth division of- the unfortuate br.ttleship Formidable. Thov were thiity years of age. Only a. few hours before tho disaster to the Formidable they ( both sent letters to their friends. Their bodies hare .recovered linked together. and the two coffins arrived at Crewe and were conveyed to the church, almost opposite their homes, where they remained until interment. " TIPPERARY '* IN GERMAN. There is alreadv a French version of Tipperary," and now there is a German translation. It runs as follows; —■ Es ist sehr weit zu Tipperary, J£s ist sehr weit zu geh' n; I3s ist sehr weit zu Tipperary, [Tm den lieben Swiatz zu selm. B'hutt Gott Piccadilly, Adieu Leicester Square. Es ist sehr weit zu Tipperary, Und mein Herz ist, so semver (oder " hehr.")

The translator, in sending 0 copy to a Dutch newspaper, adds:—"l hope those who sing this delightful song will be able to forgot the terrible war. and that in the end a four-fold friendship will spring up, or, better still, a European or world friendship. This is not alone my wish, but the wish of millions of others.

ARMY DOCTORS' SKILL. The French have published some statistics. which prove that either the fire weapons of to-day are extraordinarily humane, or that the army doctor possesses remarkable skill in the treatment of wounds. Taking any hundred of the French wounded, Ave find from the figures published that over 54 per cent are able to return to the firingline practically as soon as their wounds are dressed, that scarcely per cent die from their wounds, and that something less than per cent have to lie discharged as unfit to serve again. These are very comforting figures to us, who have seen day after day the appallingly long lists of casualties, and who are now able to assure ourselves what a very large percentage of the injured recover from their wounds. % * EAGER TO GET AT 'EM.

The London correspondent of tho "Despatch" says:—"lt is, of course, quite true that there have been a few desertions from the new armies and the Territorials. now and again, But you must not run away with, the impression that a soldier deserts in the«e fateful times because his heart fails him. Far from it. The geoieral character or some desertions that have taken place is very well illustrated by the following story of an officer whose battalion will now soon be going over: —One of the men in his company joined in August and deserted in September. High and low thev hunted for him, but without success. Then one d'ay recently they had a letter from hiin. He wrote from the front. He explained that, seeing no chance of getting -out to the front till the New Year, he had deserted in order to join a regular battalion, which gave him the opportunity of getting at the Gen-ma-Tin without any loss ot' time.''

RUBBER " SAUSAGES * FOR GERMANY. " The possibility of German transport being handicapped by lack of fuel is fairly generally recognised (says a writer in "Country Life"), but it now appears at lea-st equally probable that difficulties -trill .arise owing to the failure of supplies of raw rubber. Very stringent regulations have been issued forbidding manufacturers to supply dealers with rubber tyres and forbidding supply by manufacturers or dealers to the public unless express permission lias been granted. Such permission can. it is stated', only be obtained when tho tyres are required for vehicles on Government service, for cars the operation of which is essential to the maintenance of industry, or for doctors who?e practices are such to make motors a necessity. Another indication of shortage is that, in gpito of the very severe penalties which follow unpon detection, various > [Torts are being made to get consignments of raw rubber into Germany through neutral countries. For example, a quantity of supposed sausages, while being load'ed for shipment to Germany at ?u Danish station near t-lio frontier, was discovered. in fact to consist of raw rubber, carefully shaped and tied up to conceal its real diameter.