MISCELLANEOUS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2447, 28 April 1915, Page 8

MISCELLANEOUS

LORD HUGH CECIL JOINS THE FLYING CORPS. ■'' ■ London, April .26. Lord Hugh Cecil (Unionist member For Oxford University, and a soil of . tlio ■ late Maiquis of Salisbury), has been appointed a lieutenant in the Royal ' Flying Corps. / BRITISH WAR RELIEF FUNDS. (Reo. April 27, 10.55 p.m.) London, April 27. | The Prince <)f Wales's Fund has (reached £5,000,000.'' "' ' . The Xing has/inaugurated a National : Fuild vfor-. Belgian relief with a dona: " tion of .£SOO. ; • THE ALLIES'SPRING _ "OFFENSIVE

; TREMENPOUS PREPARATIONS. The Associated Press Agenoy, in one of 'its messages to the American Press dated Paris March 5, forwarded the'following interesting-information:— ■ The French and British general offensive will begins.as soon as the fields are' dry and artillery caii be moved over them, according to ' present 'plans'. " A moderate offensive was begun early in •'•Hio new,-, year, to .keep the. Allied troops in . spirit and : the' Germans engaged'Jon tie defensive. . " The long interval sinoe the German advance into tho north-western part of Fiance and southern Belgium . was stopped lias been employed by the French in assembling vast ; quantities of ■munitions; so, that when'the real offensive begins it can be carried m with sustained jwwer for', two or three mentis, with. an. enormous expendi-, tnro of small arm ammunition and shells. 'It ' appears likely that the French artillery has a store of twentyfive millions of shells'. , Automobile Transport. A . long and rapid pursuit • could not be .sustained with the railways tern, up behind retreating ahnies without adequite automobile transport. For this reason, the French and English have gathered tens of thousands of automobile trucks. All the maohines in, a prooossion of new aiitomlobile trucks seen on a coiintry road this week were American built. . Four hundred were counted' in one line. It' is'understood that .English and French Army orders in America for automobile trucks amount to upwards of £6)000,000. , . •The,qne hundred divisions of French troops of a normal strength of 20,000 each have been brought up to beyond the. full war strength, so that regiments of 3000. men on a regular war footing frequently have 3500 men. ' Not only has all the wastage been repaired, but considerable additions have bean made to .the'full fighting strength.

.British Force 750,000. The British troops now on this side of the Channel are said, to number 750,000, and they are reported to have , been' coming over during recent weeks ' at-the rate of one or two army corps : a. week. Some weeks 100,000 men have crossed the Channel.. , General Joffre is reported to have; asked that the number of beds in the hospitals in Paris be doubled in preparation for (the forward- movement. 'All the boys' schools in the city are to be taken immediately for hospitals. The French Sanitary Corps now has 100 hospital trains fully equipped.' Each tram can transport 500 seriously wounded, so that the hospital train capacity is now 50,000.. The exact number of automobile ambulances at the front is unknown, but there > are several ' thousands. ■ : Dr. Carrel on Lessons Learned. Dr. -Alexis Carrel, of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research,, who has been given exceptional facilities for observation of the workings of the sanitary department at the front and in the different hospitals, in 'a statement to the Associated Press,- asserted that thus far surgeons have not learned much from the war. Some preconceived notions of the effect of modern projectiles have been exploded, howI over, he said. At the beginning of the war ■ the theory was credited that the greater speed of bullets, creating intense heat, would cauterise the wound and prevent infection. The speed of the bullet at the. point of contact, however, varies with-the range of fire and at long range its reduced speed is insufficient /to.create.the necessary heat. • When' all' conditions are favourable tho bullet wound is less serious than formerly, but in this war the conditions are seldota favourable. The consequence.. is the infection of the vast majority 'of .wounds—the worst cases being caused'by shrapnel. Anti-tetanus serum has been quite effective. Bv the Omrah there arrived in" Melbourne last week two prominent London musical comedy artists; Ethel Cadman and Thel/na Raye, who havo been brought out by J. C. Williamson, Ltd., to appear in "The Marriage Market," to be played' by a specially "organised company- at- Her" Majesty's, Melbourne, on-the conclusion of the run of "High Jinks.' l - : : -