GENERAL WAR NEWS

Levin Daily Chronicle, 1 November 1917, Page 1

GENERAL WAR NEWS

CIGARETTE CARDS. There is sad news for small boys. The' Tobacco Control Committee is considering the advisability of stopping the practice of giving away pictures with ciragettes, and little doubt is entertained that the cigarette picture is doomed, says the Daily Express. DRS. "SUGAR" AND "MUSTARD." A recent issue of the Gazette recorded military decorations awarded to surgeons named "Sugar and "Mustard." These, however, are not the only condiments in the profession. A glance over the Medical Directory shows that the profession also has its "Salt," its "Pepper" and its "Curry." ONE DOG OFFERED FROM BERLIN. The Deutches Curicr announces that the Prussian War Ministry's appeal for the voluntary handing over of dogs for the army service hsis had shameful results. The appeal was made six months ago, and in the whole of Berlin the response was one dog for the Fatherland. The oifer was gratefully accepted. THE YEAST AND THE VEST. Two aliens met in the East End the other day. "Vy is der new war bread like der sun?" asked one. "Me donta know," replied his companion. "Veil, I'll tell yer. It's like der sun because it rises in der yeast, an' settles in der vest!" GERMAN FARE. The quality of the fare served to the German troops at present is shown by the following scale of rations of one regiment in the Gth Bavarian Reserve: — At breakfast. —Coffee and dry bread. At mid-day. —One litre (1$ pints) of soup, with boiled or cold tinned meat. No vegetables. In the evening.—Dry bread and cheese, or bread and butter and jam. A drink of brandy now and then. A captured officer of the 221 st Division thought our men more cheerful and "wide-awake" than the German troops, who are "now very tired of the war, and have by 110 means the same enthusiasm that they had even a year ago." ROMANTIC WAR WEDDING. A Clitheroe hero has just married a young French lady under romantic conditions. Trooper Smethurst won the D.C.M. by carrying important despatches under heavy shell fire while serving with the Hussars in France about two years ago. Subsequently he was sent to Attin, near Calais, to recuperate, and while there he was billeted at the home of Mdlle. Constance Reginer, whose father was a farmer. So attentively did the young lady look after tiie needs of Trooper Smethurst that he fell in love with her, and they became engaged. The young couple were married in August at the French village church by an English priest. WHAT IS A lIYDRO-AERO- . PLANE. Strictly speaking it is incorrect to call an aeroplane designed to rise from and alight on the surface of water a hydroplane, which word indicates a motor-boat with a stepped flat bottom that enables it at hi£" speeds to rise partly out of the wafer, skimming along on its planing surface only. In the early days of aviation aeroplanes used over the sea were generally termed hydroaeroplanes. Not infrequently the. "aero" is dropped and the word hydroplane used loosely to indicate the sea-going aeroplane. At the present day the word seaplane is generally employed to indicate a hydro-aeroplane. The former word (seaplane) is now used as a collective noun, including both aeroplanes fitted with floats instead of wheels, and Hying boats. MONS MAN SWIMS THE RHINE. Corporal H. Wilson, a Hull man, who had been prisoner of war in Germany since October, 1914, has escaped and reached Switzerland. Wilson, who belongs to the Coldstream Guards, states, in a message to his father: "I ran away from Germany on July 27th, swam across the Rhine, and arrived in Switzerland, f am now in service, and hope to return to England." Wilson was in the Moris retreat. AEROPLANE'S TERM OF LIFE. Writing on aviation at the front, a correspondent of the New York Saturday evening Post says: —The average life of a machine at the front is only a few weeks —1 might even say a few days. Those not dropped or shattered by enemy fire wear out with the terrible jarring of the powerful motor. As soon as they begin to show signs of wear and approaching breakdown they go back to the shops to be overhauled or entirely rebuilt. For that reason there are usually two or three machines under repairs to every one flying. We do well to remember that fact especially—we Americans — when we think of equipping not only our new armies, but those of our allies. We must think not in terms of hundreds of machines, but thousands and tens of thousands. GERMAN ARMY WASTAGE. M. Henry Bidou, the most erudite French military critic, writing in

the weekly jouriiiil published by the Government for the men in the trenches, shows how rapidly Germany is using up her man-power. "The more her resources are exhausted," he says, "the more costly do her battles bocome. Verdun cost her s(i divisions in a year, and the Somme S)(i in six months. In -two months this spring she lost 112 divisions, and since then, j/lic battle of Fland-' ers has added to the wastage. IIow : can she face this expenditure?" M. Bidou, however, believes that Germany will hold out to the last, and that "she will die erect and collapse suddenly after a last defeat." STANDARD CLOTHS. In order, that officers may buy their uniforms at a more moderate figure, and also in order to conserve wool supplies, a scheme has been prepared by a War Office Department, in consultation with representatives of the trades affected, for the production of standard cloths for officers' wear. There will in all be some 15 or so different kinds of material, for breeches, tunics, and greatcoats, and the prices will be controlled from the raw wool stage to the completed garments. The cloth will be supplied by the woollen merchants to the tailor at a fixed rate, and the latter will not be allowed to charge his officer customers more, than a certain maximum sum for each garment. All the details have now been settled, even to the yellow and white stripe on the selvage, which will distinguish the naw standard cloths. No restrictions, however, will be placed on the prices he may ask for uniforms made from cloths already in stock, these materials being unaffected by the new proposal.