SIDELIGHTS ON THE WAR.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11359, 10 April 1915, Page 8

SIDELIGHTS ON THE WAR.

j Tho Gorman field poib *lon.lr, with | about oighfll million letters per (lav. j Tho price fit food ni Austria 's 11 '--ih dai'v, and tho -!1> lonf" of whii-e broad now costs a .shilling. » * The Royal Naval Plvitiß CUrps has a retriever for a mascot. Wo should hove suggested a Skye terrier. —" Loiv dou Opinion." # » I*l,o fani(ni« warehouse of Wort-hoi»i ip Berlin has been converted into barracks, and more than 5lK:l! 1,-a.ndwohr are quartered there. * » The bitterness against the Germans in Peking is such that, the-Gorman Roman Catholics am forbidden to attoncl church. * * * Owing to shortage of petrol, toxicals have disappeared from Berlin. But tho number of growlers" doubtless increases daily. An official statement issued in Petrogrnd gives the number of Turkish prisoners taken wince, tho war with Turkey tag-an as 50,000. ' ft Only bread made of grey flour is sold in Brussels, and tho making of pastry is forbidden. While bread is. ontv obtainable for invalids on ,a. signed declaration. Hero's a cheer for the man in the trenches, A cheer for tho sailor at sea, A hearty salute for the man who can shoot In defence of our Land of the Free.

The " Dagblad voor Holland " learns that a "cabby" in Berlin has been condemned to two years' penal servitude for expressing his disgust at the behaviour of tho German troops in Belgium.

An old Army pensioner named Sergeant Lawrence, of Harley (Lancashire), died from excitement caused by watching several detachments of Highland troops his window. The n Taeglioho Rundschau" learns from Copenhagen that "packed trains are still running from the coast to London. Yarmouth is .deserted of twothirds of her population. _ Only the poor and the officials remain!" *** Tho German ships in the North Sea fight are said to have been commanded by either Admiral Hipper or Admiral' Fundi. As ' the battle developed in an easterly direction," it nrnst have been Funck. * * * On account of the scarcity of labour, the manager of the Newcastle tramways is consideaing the advisability, with the committee & sanction, of employing women as conductors in singledeck cars on certain routes.

The Berlin newspapers declare that the restrictions imposed upon bakers, and especially the proliibition_ of halving at night, have had practically no effect in checking the consumption of fresh broad.

At the outbreak of war British waiters enlisted in large numbers, sixty-six from Frascati'a and over forty from the Holborn joining the coloitrs. We should expeot a Waiters 1 Brigade to carry all before it.

"Tommy has a brilliant new deooration,'' writes a lieutenant in the Rifle Brigade to his home in Wandsworth. "I gavo the body bait which you eo kindly sent to our thinnest corporal, and he has just been up to thank me for what he called 1 the _ dado round the dining-room ' —-his nickname for your body belt." %•

A " naval expert" In tho Vienna "Neue Freie Press© " declares that tho battlo in the Nortli Sea cost England £7,500,000 and Genu any £3,000,000. As he insists, however, that England lost Hie Tiger and three destroyers, and that the Lion, Princess Royal and New Zealand were severely damaged, tho value of his calculationa may bo gauged.—Renter.

Mr Joseph Hocking, the well-known novelist, spent three days the other week acting as a Y.M.O.A. chaplain to the tro'opa in the training camp 3 at Bramshott and Witley, Surrey. Mr Hooking addressed the men eaoh evening, &nu was particularly impressed by the earnestness with which the men listened to serious appeals on moral and religious grounds. % # Writing home from the front a Baptist officer, whose letter ia quoted in "The Baptist Times," says:—"Seymour Hicks told me that ho was approaching tho War Office to know if they oould send out one or two humorous men and singers with each regiment, os ho considered that it wns ns necessary to have a humourist with each regiment m it was to have a chaplain 1"

Ten thousand bales of wool were, at tlia instance of the % British Government, accorded priority in. unloading over other consignment# at Liverpool docks, in order to avoid the imminent danger of shortage. There have been difficulties in the West Hiding with respect to the wool supply, causing delay in the manufacture of Army oloth.

Tho R-er Jeremiah Brown, of the Gospel Mission Hall, Old Windsor, was charged befoie the Berkshire Magistrates with refusing to billed two soldiers. Me pleaded lack of suitable bqdrooms in his house, illness in the family, find that disorganisation of tho household would impede his ministerial work. The charge was dismissed.

Regarding a statement made in iho German wireless that tho Queen of uulgaria sent 50,000 cigarettes to the Austrian army, Reutor is informed that a telegram just received front Bofla states that at the same time her Majesty sent 30,000 cigarettes to tho British wounded and 60 ? 000 cis.arot.tea to the French. _ The German report omitted to mention this fact. U * * Vbcount Midloton, speaking At Godaiming Constitutional Club, said that, considering how tho Goverjimont had had to multiply hundreds of orders given in otlmr years, the equipment sent out to France would bear comparison not only with that of the Allied armies and foreign armies., but with that of any armies that went into the held, ft had been a maavel'lous performance. Let them give honour were honour was due. * * Hew is this for a record? A Scot in Canada to serve, and was accepted, travelled from British. Columbia (Vancouver Island) across Canada, then across the Atlantic, arrived in Scotland, got orders to proceed to Southampton en routo for India left for India, and arrived there after six' week's continual travelling, having" covered nearly 13,000 miles (or more than half-way across tho world) in the King's service! l)r Saleeby, speaking at Stoko, on OUgeiiio aspects of tho war, said that actuaries put tho average cash value of a British soldier at £3OO, as far as hia work and productive capacity were concerned. Franco was now paying tho long debt of war, because alio had not the grand-children of the strong mrm lo;vt in the Napoleonic wars. Under the voluntary system in this country, the men who want to war were no't' physically but psychically the lifc--tes-i.. 'tines d-Virabh' that meu who (■nli.st«d .ch'-.uld be rncouragod to marry boforo they went to the front.

A FOirm HJilDOfi STORY. An oflieer t«>Hs of an in tercsi jng sidelight on til-.: falso d ion of ncu.-. ui (icnnaii.v id'ordcd by an incidri! 1 iliat occurred on one of the ships convoving prisoners att-er tlio recent naval b;uile to Edinburgh. Steaming up tlio Forth tlio bridge eanio insight, and attracted tho interested atleution of the rescind (.'eifnan seamen, who ir,<>iiirc(l : "What, great strucluro is that?" <ln being informed that it was tho celebrated Forth Bridge "the nun expressed their hiirpri.so and incredulity. and remarlvOvl -Suvl that was i.mpoHsible, afl tlio Forth Bridge had lieeu blown up by tho Germans months :l £° ! SAXONS V. ANOLO-SAXONf>. A" remarkable incident is reported in a letter received by tho Mayor of Soulhport from Captain Armitage (chief ce.nstabio of (.ho town), «'ho is on service at the front wiLli tho 2nd Worcestershire Regiment. Captain Armitage writes:—"The Saxons bore are not at all anxious to eontimio the war. Thev put up a notice on their trenches a little north of us, paying: 'Wo are ftnxons; you are Anglo-Sax-ons. Keep vour bulicts for the f'rii.-;-siana who relievo us tonight/ Afterwards they sat on tho outside of tlio parapet smoking, and doc lined to go back til! bullets wore fired over their heads. Wo, of course, uso any household articles wo want from ruined houses, and it is amusing to see ammunition going to tho iiring-lino in nib b cr-1 yr cd p eranibu ] atoi - s.'' » *• A ULTND FATHER'S LOSS. A peculiarly sad ease has just como bofore the Geneva bureau which deals with prisonors of war. An old man named Chopard, who becamo_ blind Komo years ap;o, lives With his aged wife in tho village of Chauffaut, near tho Swiss frontier. When tho war broke out, they sent their seven eons, four of whom were married, to servo in the French army. As nothing had been heard from any of them since tho end of tho year, the father applied to tho bureau to know if they were among tlio prisoners taken by the Germans. Tho bureau mado inquiries from tho French headquarters, and, one by one, letters have boen received roporting tho fata of each man. All the seven liavo beon killed at- tho front, and the blind old man and his wife are childless. The sons leave four widows and fourteen orphan children.

CURIOUS HOSPITAL CASE. Great interest has been aroused in medical circle# by the case of ft young soldier, who fought in Prussia, ana is now a patient in a Petrograd hospital. The interest of the case lies in tho fact that tlio patient falls into a deep lethargy at exactly nine o'clock every morning, which ends on tho stroke or noon. During this time the pule© and temperature remain normal, and the breathing regular, but tho body loses all sensitiveness, and. becomes inert. This phenomenon began when the soldier was in the trenohes, where his comrades, thinking he was shamming, tried to rouso Iviin with needles and bayonets. HARRY LAUDER'S PATRIOTIC SONG. This is the ohorus of Mr Harry Lauder's now patriotio song, which lie lias introduced at Glasgow:— "It's a dear old laud is the Motherland, Her eons are ever true, Her boys in the far-off other-lands Will seo her through and through. It's a dear old home is the Homeland, It's as good as in days of ypr©; Wo are steady, aye, and ready, Whilo the British bulldog's watching at the door!" The son g_ has already been done into Russian, with "Russian bear" substituted for " British bulld'og," and will presently be heard in Moscow, Petrojjrad and Archangel.

MAIMED MAN'S APPEAL. When the aged Emperor Francis Joseph ceased visiting the Vienna hospitals, it wa.s stated that he had beeai taken ill, but that the fact was being kept a secret. Through the indiscretion of a doctor tho reason for ending these visits has become known. The Emperor arrived in a ward one day and approached a soldier who had had both legs and one arm amputated. The soldier, when he saw the Emperor, said: "I have a petition to present to your Majesty, who is -all-powerful." "What can I do for you, my poor fellow?" asked the Emperor. " Give them orders to kill me and to put me put of my misery," said the man. The Emperor, who is not easily affected, turned a ghastly colour. He had to bo helped out of the ward by his attend*-n.nt-3. Since then his Majesty, who was haunted by the' incident all night, has not been seen in the military hospitals. AIRMAN SAVED BY SUBMARINE?. G. H. Hallam, Harrow, in a Letter to the " Spectator," recalls an extract from a letter describing the way in which a submarine picked up and "saved a boat's crew after the battle of Heligoland, and says: "You remarked that it was not a page from one of Jules Verne's stories." He adds: " This was no isolated feat. In our navy such an event appears to be quite an ordinary sort of thing, which just comes in the d'av's work. Yesterday I received a letter from an old pupil, who write.;: 1 Yes, one of the Cushaven raiders wa» my brother. He had a very exciting time. The cruiser which had taken him out had had to leave him behind, and he was compelled to land on the sea(!). As a German boat was after Mm he sank Iris aeroplane and was swimming about when up popped a submarine, andtook him on board. Then it dived again and brought him back. 1 "