General War News.

Levin Daily Chronicle, 8 December 1917, Page 1

General War News.

POST WOMEN'S GUARD OF HONOUR. Postwomen formed a guaTd of honour at the marriage of a postwoman at Weybridge with, a member of the Royal Flying Corps. THE CURSE THAT CAME HOME Theoclitos, Archbishop of Athens, has been sentenced to two years' confinement in a monastery and degradation from his office for interfering in politics in proclaiming an anathema on Veninlos. Other prelates were sentenced to various penalties. The tivals took place before an Ecclesiastical Court. CONCESSIONS TO MARRIED MEN. The new. Canadian income-tax makes material concessions to married men. The tax starts at incomes of 2000 dollars (£400) for the single and 3000 dollars (£600) for the married. !hc rate is 4 per cent., with a super-tax on incomes over 6000 dollars (£1200,) or from 2 per cent, to 10 per cent. SEVEN YEARS AFTER. James Robert Russell, u Dunfermline lawyer, who, seven years ago, embezzled £4600 of his clients' mouey and ut'ed it in paying losses on the Stoc:< Exchange, was sentenced to three years' penal servitude at Edinburgh recently. He disappeared at the time of his offence, but was found recently working in a London recruiting office. CONDITIONS IN PALESTINE. Serious news regarding the situation in Palestine filters through neutral channels. Economic life is at a standstill, and a large proportion of the stricken population are without the barest necessities of life. In addition, the Turks are instituting a reign of teiror. Most of the wealthy natives have been transported, and their possessions plundered. Massacres and summary executions are of daily occurrcnco. THE USUAL HUN TRIGS. The following is typically Runnish. A vastly superior number of Albatross scouts were engaging one of our formutiony, when Captain B — and a r.aval pilot arived on the scene, write:? a lieutenant in the R.F.C. The latter drove down one of the Albatross scouts, and the enemy pilot waved a white handkerchief. The naval pilot ceased firing, but the Hun waited his opportunity, and darted off cast and was pursued, but eseaped. BOMBERS' EQUIPMENT. Bombers are always lightly equipped. In tho case of grenade operations the men who are actually to throw grenades do not carry rifles, but are armed with revolvers or a bayonet or some special stabbing weapon for hand-to-hand fighting, such as an axe or knobkerry. In a general attack all men carry rifles and bayonets. Bombers are, therefore, taught to throw with their rifles slung over their left shoulder and arc also taught to throw standing, kneeling, lying down, and with both hands. USE OF SMOKE BOXES.

With regard to smoke-cloud defence, in addition to smoke-boxes many merchantmen are carrying a special smokefunnel which, requires only fuel for continual use. Once the smoke-boxes arc thrown overboard they cannot be recovered, but skillfully used they completely baffle U-boats. The Navy Department in the United States is causing the manufacture of huge quantities of smoke-boxes, and the Department states that tliey should be carried on every vessel. GERMANY'S HUMAN MATERIAL.

A neutral diplomatist says that Germany 's supply of human material will not be able to withstand much longer the onflowing tide of the allies' offensive, helped on, as it will be, by the American hosts. Moreover, financially Germany is ruined. Her financiers are looking with extreme inquietude not only to the future, but also to the present. A peace on the basis of "status quo,'' in accordance with the Pope's Note, is thought among educated Germans to be the least onerous way out of the situation.

DRESS WOUNDS WITH SAWDUST. Roumania is so short of medical supplies that wounds of her soldiers arc being dressed with sawdust, says a cablegram received in New York from the American Red Cross Commission to Roumania. Conferences with Roumanian ministers and parties just returned from the Roumanian front, the cablegram reads, '' find conditions there urgently require immediate supplies, medical, surgical instruments, hospital supplies, equipment of every kind, including bandages, bed linens, and clothes for patients." The cablegram adds that the Roumanian railway system is badly crippled and that there is urgent need for ambulance transports and mechanics. BAVARIA'S FOOD SUPPLY.

Reuter's Agency is informed that the Bavarian Government has issued stringent orders placing considerable restriction upon the entrance of strangers whose visits arc in any case to bo limited to one week. Strict Customs search is to be made of all luggage and postal packets, to prevent any export of Bavarian food. All businesses engaged in promoting infractions of these regulations will be closed by the police, and individuals illegally obtaining provisions will be summarily sent out of the country. These measures have been rendered necessary by the inroads of strangers, especially North Germans, who have bought milk and fat products to an extent endangering the food supplies of the kingdom. WHEN AUSTRIA GAVE IN.

On Juno 10, ISG6, the Austrian Emperor had to send out a manifesto announcing that Prussia was the victor in the six weeks' war, and that Napoleon 111. had offered to mediate. Bismarclc, in a secrct despatch to the Prussian Ambassador in Paris, said: — ''The King has only agreed to an armistice with great reluctance and out of regard for the Emperor Napoleon, and his consent was made conditional on his being secured a considerable acquisition of territory in Northern Germany in the event of peace being concluded. . . • He values, above all, annexation of territory. ... I send you confidentially for your personal information and guidance, the following words of His Majesty: 'I would rather resign than withdraw without acquiring a considerable amount of territory for Prus-

sia.' " The Prussian was over the same. Material gain in the form of money and land made war worth while. SOLDIERS AND CIGARETTES. The results of an inquiry into the relationship between cigarette smoking and the "soldier's heart" arc given in the Lancet. The immediate effect of cigarette smoking upon tlic circulatory system was observed in 30 smokers, of whom 20" were cases of "soldier's heart'' and 10 were healthy soldiers. Each subject smoked either four or live cigarettes during a period of 40 minutes. A demonstrable effect was recorded in 17 of the 20 patients, but it is interesting to note that the three unaffected were non-inhaicrs. Nine of the ten controls, all inhalers, were influenced in the same fashion, though not to the same degree. Generally the observations show that in health the smoking of a single cigarette by an habitual smoker usually raises the pulse-rate and blood pressure perceptibly; and these effects are a little more pronounced in cases of "soldier's heart." Moreover, the smoking of a few cigarettes can reader healthy men more breathless on exertion, as was shown by the case in a large proportion of the patients under examination. The results show clearly that the soldier should be warned against inhaling, and, of course, he should avoid excess. COST OF LIFE IN THREE WARS Twenty-two thousand four hundred and fifty men fell in the whole Boer war, 290,000 in the Franco-German, and 559,900 in the Russian-Japanese. BERLIN'S SMOKING BAN. The Morgcnpost,'Amsterdam, states that the Berlin police intend to prohibit smoking in the streets, the x ,ro " hibition to be general and irrespective of sex. The measure is proposed in view of the rapid decline in tobacco stocks, and is to bo extended to the whole of Germany. AN AERIAL FEAT. Whilst watching the result of a heavy counter-attack at a very low altitude, a service machine was struck by a shell. The observer was wounded, the wireless transmitter destroyed, and al most all the controls shot away. In spite of this they wrote out the information thev had gained, dropped the mes' jage at headquarters, and then returned to the aerodrome in the almost unconHUNS CLAIM 2298 AEROPLANES. According to the Tagliche Rundschau a summary of German Avar booty shows that in the war up to July 20 the Huns have secured 2298 aeroplanes, 18(3 balloons, and three airships. It \s as well to note that these figures include those machines immediately re-employed in action. The Rundschau does not give the dissected figures as to the nationalities of the aerial booty claimed.