HERE AND THERE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12726, 22 August 1919, Page 4

HERE AND THERE.

Must modern woman, taking her example from Ruth, follow her husband wherever he choose to go? The question was answered in the affirmative by the Stratford (England) magistrate, nhen a demobilised soldier was summoned for desertion by his wife, who asked for a maintouaaee order- It was seated that tiso husband obtained wofi--111 _ mining district and could not live in bis borne in Loudon, which his wife had got together during his Army service. H-o lived in apartments and had not contributed towards her support. . chairman said a husband had the right to elec-t about his work, and it was the wife’s duty to go where he works. ‘‘lt is a serious thing to a, j o\v a wife to dictate where a man shall work and live,” he added. “We will adjourn the case to see if some arrangement cannot be com© to.” There is an epidemic of murders says a, Berlin telegram. This vear there have been recorded sixty oases pf tuer and attempted murder. In about fifty of them the victim died, and* in the majority of cases soldiers or exsoldiers were implicated in some way. Discussing the epidemic, a crime expert said the explanation was comparatively simple- There had always been an outbreak of murder cases after a war of any magnitude. In a war of the magnitude of this one, the after-effect is hound to be apparent. It has caused a great mental disturbance and a nervous tension which must find an. outlet. This feeling does not end with the cessation of hostilities. One might liken it to a sort of mental momentum winch goes on when the cause has ceased to operate- It will take four or five years for the mental disturbance caused by the war to disappear, and in the meantime, unless it is directed into peaceful and useful channels, this epidemic of personal violence will continue more or less.

„ Tillage of Hare, near Buntmgtord, Hertfordshire, has been the scene of a remarkable demonstration by the inhabitants. At midnight xecently a special constable saw a mau m uniform leave the concentration camp used for Germans employed on the neighbouring farms and enter a house close by. He ascertained that one of the prisoners, a. German officer, was missing, and went into the house, which is occupied by a discharged soldier, his wife and two children. He found tho husband, who served iu Salonika and was invalided home with malaria, upstairs with the children. He is, it is stated, in practically a helpless condition. Downstairs the “ special 1 ' found the German, wearing a British uniform, with the wife. The German was arrested and taken hack to the camp. To show their disapproval of the_affair, the villagers next evening • revived an old-time custom of “tin kettling.” Armed with kettles, pots and pans, and other utensils, they collected outside the house and emulated the efforts of a jazz hand very successfully for about an hour, when thev were dispersed hy Hie police. The following evening a similar demonstration was made, but owing to the' intervention of the police it lasted only half an hour. The demonstration, however, apnea rod to have the effect intended by the villagers, as the family have left the house. A Canadian soldier, Wilford G. Oakes, who returned home after a remarkable record of service in a Canadian artillery regiment, had the experience near Ckmhrai of viewing his own grave, with his name inscribed on a rude slab over the last resting-place He took a snapshot of the grave as ai souvenir. Oakes was severely wounded, several times- In one battle, when he was wounded, he lost his identification card. His jaws were shot away, making it impossible for him io communicate his identity, and, as be was missing from his company, his death was finally reported. Some other soldier was buried under his name. Formerly a curate at Bassaleg, neat' Newport, and recently curate at St" Stephen’s, Cardiff Docks, the Her Sidney Valentine Allen, is in custody charged with extensive thefts from tradesmen, says “ Lloyd’s News.” The goods, which are alleged to have been stolen from Newport shop?, hiclud-,; - • Curtains, rugs, hags, linen, quilts, an. oak-cased clock, pictures, a plated tea tray, Japanese candle-sticks, mirrors* entree dishes, spoons, fire-irons, bronze dogs, shears, rolls of cloth, ladies’ di e?:? articles, and *n electric iron. A '.ait-O number of articles recovered Lom h-3 house are still unidentified. •'When, tho case was called at Newport, prisoner’s solicitor explained that it had been, found necessary to remove him from the police cells to the local poor law, . infirmary. Ho was not in a fit condition physically to he in court, added the solicitor, and he was not fit mentally to plead. Application for an adjournment was granted. j For the student of politics a memorandum by the late Lord Kitchener, ■ recently published, is of more than passing interest. The memorandum reveals *the fact that Lord Kitchener , was the real author of the great principle “ dilution of labour. Here, m , February, 1915, he urged that in order, to secure the essential output of mumtions, the Chancellor of the Exchequer! —Mr Lloyd George—should devote his persuasive powers to obtaining a suspension of trade union rules, so as ta enable unskilled labour to be introduced into munition factories, x/veryone was under the impression that Mr Lloyd Georgo himself was the original of the “dilution of labour,” and until this memorandum was published no onet ever dreamed of attributing it to the great soldier. A case-reminiscent of a comic song about a doctor having recovered nmepence from a boy who had swallowed a shilling was heard in the Melbourne Police-Court the other day, when a voung woman named Dora Gray was. charged with .the theft of a sum ot One Albert Hall said he was accosted money under unusual circumstances, by accused in Exhibition Street, and while ho engaged in conversation with’ her sho pnt her arms under his coat. As soon as she wont away he missed 20s from his hip pocket. Ho gave infernation to the police, which led to the woman’s arrest at midnight. On her way to the watchhous© she was seized with a fit of coughing, with the result that she coughed up three single shillings and two sixpences,-while in the watchhouse itself she coughed up four two-shilling pieces. A further sum of 8s 3d in silver was also found upon her. She was committed for trial. Do you own the bit of air over your back garden? asks an Australian paper. Has an aviator any more right to fly over your cabbage patch than a stranger has to trample over it? Similarly, may foreign aviators fly as they please over this copntry ? and vice versa, do British aviators enjoy a similar liberty and privilege? Freedom of the air is a question as vitally important as freedom of the seas. A nation’s the sea are supposed to extend three miles into the ocean from its coasts, and ownership of land to whatever is beneath it for' half the distance through the earth. Now Hie Peace Conference says that each nation owns the air above its own territory, hut that it can only own it on condition that it allows free passage through it for all other countries. “ That means to say,” said Mr Handley Page, “that aerial alliances will have to he entered into with all foreign countries, and until they are ratified we have no more right to fly over other kingdoms than we have to free nso of ■ their railways and ports,’’- It is an ! interesting fact that up to the outbreak j of the war our Government - always I maintained that every - State should; claim full and absolute sovereignty- in * the air above its territory. ■ This prin- ; cipl© was recognised by practically , every country except Germany,