GENERAL WAR NEWS

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1730, 26 June 1917, Page 4

GENERAL WAR NEWS

RUSSIAN FLYING MEN. A hundred Russian cadets and twenty officers have arrived in Reading for a month’s instruction in flying. They were met at the station by the band of the Royal Berkshires, and were greeted in the streets with hearty cheering by a large crowd. UNIVERSITY PREPARES FOR WAR. Kansas University will turn its campus into a field for*the cultivation of foodstuffs, abolish athletics during the period of the war, and establish daily military drill for all students. An executive war committee of, the university has-per-fected plans for carrying out these measures. KAISERIN’S JEWELS. Among the Kaiserin’s jewels which have just been sold in Copenhagen, is a magnificent diamond necklace, consisting of 375 large and small brilliants. It was a gift from the late Mr Pierpont Morgan. A diamond hair ornament worn by tho Empress at Court functions, and a tiara, were also disposed of. GAS MASKS FOR HORSES. Mr Henry Wood, the United Press correspondent with the French armies, states that the horses employed by our allies on the Western front are now equipped with gas masks. No horse is now headed towards the front without this means of protection being attached to its harness or saddle. A RARITY IN AILMENTS. A C 3 man applied to the SL Paneras Tribunal for further medical examination on a specialist’s certificate showing that the applicant was subject to periodic congenital paralysis, and that after extra exertion or if kept; from food longer than usual he became “rigid as a board.” There were, it was stated, less than twenty such cases in the kingdom, and this one had been specially studied in hospitals as a rarity, and reports of if had been published in medical papers. Tho tribunal grahted the appeal. £15,000 FROM “ODDS AND ENDS.” Lady Jellicoe, in opening a sale at Central Hall, Westminster, on behalf of the Silver Thimble Fund, said that the sale was an example of what great things could be accomplished by- small / means. Already £15,000 has been collected on behalf of disabled .soldiers and sailors by the sale of silver thimbles and other “odds and ends.” The fund has provided five motor hospital boats, seven motor ambulances, and a trench disinfeeter, besides £4,250 for naval and military charities. GIRL WAR-WORKER'S PLUCK. A girl of twenty-three years of age who had been engaged for some tiine in electrical wiring in a large battleship in a north-east coast shipyard, was doing overhead work one day when a drill came through from the dock and entered her head. The girl jumped from the trestle from which she was working, but the effect of the drill was to draw off a small portion of the scalp and a good deal of hair. She was attended to in the firm’s first-aid room and sent home. To the surprise of everyone concerned, she attended for work at six a.m.-the fol-

lowing day. Officers of the employment exchange which was responsible for her selection in fhe first instance have since interviewed the girl, who laughs at the accident, and says that she is satisfied that it is better to lose a little hair than her head. WHAT A SOLDIER MAY DO. lihitating the bugle-calls of the enemy is quite legitimate; so is the wearing of their uniform, with one reservation. A soldier may not fire on the enemy while so attired. • But he mny advance or retreat, build bridges, and perform any other military operation short of actual fighting, using the uniform as a means of deception. A soldier may spy as much as he likes. If he worms bis way into the enemy’s lines ho is only doing his duty, and, if captured there, may not be punished beyond being taken an ordinary pri-'" soner, provided he is wearing uniform. If he is in any kind of disguise he may be shot. In the course of his spying he may kill as many of the enemy as he can. When he approaches the sentries he may stab them in the dark, or use any trick to throw them off their guard except one. He may not say “friend” if the sentry challenges him (unless, of course, he intends to surrender). Similarly, if suddenly attacked, he may not use any words to make the enemy believe that he is a friend in disguise, and so take him unawares. EXPLOSIVES FIRMS AMALGAMATE. Details of a scheme of amalgamation of the leading Anglo-Scotch explosives companies have been completed, The amalgamation will embrace Nobel’s Explosive Company, Glasgow; Curtis and Harvey, Newcastle; and some of the Birmingham firms. ROUGE ET NOIR. The New York World has printed half a million copies of President Wilson’s famous speech to Congress. The part which has been published in Germany is printed in black and the parts which were suppressed arc given in red. There are about 136 lines of black and 295 of red. These pamphlets will be dropped by aviators in Germany. A STREAM OF DESERTERS. The Swiss authorities are much perturbed at the constant stream of deserters from the German Army. The soldiers are in a fearfully emaciated condition, and are obsessed with but one idea —peace, no matter at what cost. . The morale of the deserters is at the lowest ebb, anil they talk freely of a lack of discipline and revolt in their regiments. THE ARMY VETERINARY SERVICE. The great increase in the work of the Army Veterinary Service is shown by the statement that whereas in 1914 the service consisted of 431 officers and men, it now has a strengtlf of considerably over 25,000. That the service is extremely efficient is proved by the fact that the wastage, of horses, which in the South African war was 60 per cent., is now only 14 per cent. GETTING IT BACK. “The German lias officially said that all gun material has been destroyed. This is totally false. Most of it was left where it lay. So far from true is it that I reported some days ago that we were using captured field guns with captured ammunition against the enemy, and within the last two days we have begun to use not only many field guns, but also batteries of 5.9 The enemy did not take the ammunition with him, but he is getting it back,” says the Times’ correspondent. .