NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1732, 20 September 1917, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES.

SWISS WAT? COSTS. Switzerland’s expenses arising directly out of the war since August, 1914, already reach a total of 800,000,000 francs (£32,000,000). PRICES IN SWEDEN. War prices are very high in Sweden. In Stockholm an hotel breakfast of boiled eggs and bread-and-butter costs 3s 4d, luncheon 4s, and dinner 5s 4d. A small bottle of Swedish lager beer costs Bd, and a whisky and soda, which is very difficult to obtain, costs 2s. ARMY POST OFFICE. No fewer than 75,000 Post Office employees have joined the services, and the roll of honour numbers 3,829. Distinctions gained number 755, including three V.C.’s, 13 D.S.O.’s, and 205 military medals. The Army Post Office consists of 85 officers and 2,000 men. week 900,000 parcels and 10,000,000 letters are despatched overseas. WHAT A “DUD” DID. Westminster City Council are informed that during the raid on July 7th an unexploded shell fell through the roof of a workshop on the top floor of some West End premises, breaking one of the roof limbers, went through the floor, breaking the lloor boards and joists through the next ceiling, a matchboard partition and floor, and into a restaurant, where it stopped. FOOD PROFITS. Mr IT. C. Hoover, who administered the Belgian Relief Fund with such great success and is now the American Food Administrator, declares that food profiteers in the United States are making £10,000,000 a month in illicit profits. The price of flour, according to Mr Hoover, should be about 37s a barrel. The present price is about 5Gs.

He declares that unless food is safeguarded victory for the Kaiser is assured. MAMMOTH AT THE FRONT. British Soldiers, excavating near the battered remnants of the Hindenburg line, struck a strange object, which proved to be the tusk of a mammoth. The discovery caused great excitement among the troops, who flocked to the place regardless of the, danger of drawing shell fire from the Germans. The skeleton of the pre-historic monster has now been definitely located, and the gradual exposure of it is proceeding under a scientific director. CANADIAN PRESSMEN IN THE WAR. There are over a hundred former newspaper men serving with the Canadian overseas forces, and, of these, seven have been killed. One of the best known of these was Major John Lewis, the former able editor of the Montreal Star. Another- Canadian journalist, Private Harry Turner, of the Saskatoon Star, was totally blinded while serving with Princess Pat’s Canadian Light Infantry. Notwithstanding this affliction, however, he has decided to stand for election to the Provincial Legislature. THE COUNTESS’ SAUSAGES. In spite of violent protestations on her part, the Swiss Customs officials insisted upon examining the luggage of the Countess von Khevcnhuller von Furstenberg, daughter of Prince Egon von Furstenberg, one of the Kaiser’s most intimate friends, who had reached the Swiss frontier on her way back to the Fatherland, after a visit to a mountain health resort . The result of the Customs investigation was the discovery and seizure of three hundred sausages, three dozen eggs, and a large quantity of butler, chocolate, and fat. The countess, who claimed that the foodstuffs came under the category of provisions for the journey, declared she would lodge a protest with the German Government. EXPENSIVE RETORT. In his Look, “Lc Bernier Romanoff,” M. Rivet tells a nice story of Rasputin and the Grand Duke Nicholas. The monk wont to the Grand Duke and told him that the Virgin had appeared to him in a dream and had told him that Russia must at once make peace with Germany and end a wicked war. The Grand Duke inquired when Ihe vision had appeared. ‘‘Three days ago,” said Rasputin. “That’s strange,” replied the Grand Duke, “for two days ago the Virgin also came to me in a dream and warned me that a scoundrel called Rasputin would come to me with suggestions for a separate peace. She told mo to kick the rascal out!” The sequel of the story was that within a week the Grand Duke was relieved of his command, and sent to the Caucasus ! THE PROPOSED POLISH ARMY. According to a telegram received in London, there is vehement opposition among members of the Polish Legion to taking an oath affirming “fraternity of arms with (he Central Powers.” A large number refused to take this oath, and were dismissed and interned. The solemn ceremony of swearing allegiance to he held at the citadel at Warsaw had to he abandoned, and those who did make the required affirmation did so quietly in their barracks. The Polish Legion originally formed part of the Austrian Army. It numbered from fifteen to twenty thousand men, and since the beginning of the war has been fighting under the Austrian command against'the Russians for the “independence” of Poland. The new Council of State, however, decided that the Legion must leave the Austrians and form the nucleus of the autonomous Polish Army. For this purpose an oath was prepared in which allegiance should'be” acknowledged to the German Emperor as Commnndcr-in-Chicf. Afterwards the Council of State altered this form of oath to “fraternity of arms with the Central Powers.”