GENERAL WAR NEWS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1736, 4 October 1917, Page 1

GENERAL WAR NEWS.

BERLIN POULTRY PRICES. Frozen fowls are being sold by the Berlin municipal authorities at 5s 6d a lb., frozen ducks at 4s a lb. AIR RAID ON GALLIPOLI. The Secretary of the Admiralty makes the following announcement: The Vice-Admiral, Eastern Mediterranean, reports that in the course of attacks on the enemy positions on the Gallipoli Peninsula, Royal Naval Air Service machines sank a tug lying off Chanak. SMUGGLING DODGE. The oil tank steamer Conrad Mohr, carrying the Norwegian flag, was stopped as she was starting from New York by the Custom House officers, who discovered on her a number of barrels of petrol, ’iuYvhiciWLfaultily of copper, believed to be distilled forvJTUH'uyby way.of Norway, was conec-ah'd. BROTHERS-' FATE. ; Two brothers, Private T. Strange and Lieutenant Lionel C. Strange, of Ealing, were, unknown to each other, lighting quite close together, when they were dangerously wound - ed, practically at the same time, on July 21st. They sustained similar wounds, were taken to the same clearing station, and died there the following day within a few hours of one another. They were buried side by side in the same British military cemetery. THE CROWN PRINCE’S WIFE. From a highly authoritative source I am able to inform you, writes a Swiss correspondent of the Daily Mail, that the Gorman Crown Princess attempted to leave Germany for Switzerland, where her mother, the Grand Duchess Anastasia of Mecklenburg, is now residing. The Grand Duchess was waiting for her daughter with a motor car at one of the small frontier stations on the outskirts of Bale, but at the last moment the Crown Princess was prevented from crossing the border. The mother drove away disconsolate. It is common knowledge that the estrangement between the Crown Prince and his wife has recently become accentuated, and that they no longer live together, SHABBY NORWEGIAN . The mate of the Norwegian steamer Rauvig some weeks ago delivered up to a German auxiliary warship a young British refugee who was on his way home from Rauvig. . On the ship’s arrival at Bergen, the mate was the object of a demonstration by seamen, who hissed him and threw pieces of wood and coal at the ship. The Ranvig arrived at Aalosund, and was greeted on the quay by more than two thousand men, who bombarded the ship with stones and coal, so that the vessel had to leave port in a hurry. When the ship arrived at Christiausancl, workers began to discharge the ship. But as soon as they learned from the newspapers how the ship had been received at Aalesund they stopped work, and the ship had to proceed on her way with part of her cargo undischarged. A MONS GUN TEAM. Driver Frederick Butcher, R.F.A., whose home is at Straits Mill, Rocking, Essex, has been awarded a silver cup, 18in. high, as the only driver in his brigade who has continued through the war with the same pair of horses.. The cup was presented to him by the general in the presence of the brigade, at a parade in France. It was delivered to the winner’s mother by Captain Stokes, R.F.A., who had brought it to London to be engraved. Driver Butcher, who is still in France with his battery and his horses, went out with the original Expeditionary Force in August, 1914. He drove his horses through the retreat from Mons without mishap, although he had a gun blown up behind him, but the harness gave way, and his horses were liberated. He has fought through the war ever since, and.has taken a gun into action continuously with the same pair of horses. Of his original battery only nine men remain, all the officers and the other men having fallen. RIVAL AIR SERVICES. In a recent interview with a Dutch journalist, General von Hoeppner, commander-in-ehief of the German .air service, stated that the German aviators have won the supremacy over their enemies, although the Entente airmen on the western front were numerically superior. On the eastern front, however, Germany is rather stronger, while in the Balkans the balance is again in favour of the enemy. The British, he said, showed in air fights

that they are of the Germanic race, for they seek fight, and fight until either they or their opponents are killed. German aeroplanes generally are better than those of the enemy, though the new English Sopwith triplanes are excellent. The technical preparedness of the French he described as middling, and that of the British inferior. “While we Germans consider every bight as a military act,” stated the general, “for the British flying is but sport, and, when it comes to a fight, good sport.” CHARLIE CHAPLIN’S PATRIOTISM. The New York Sun quotes ChapI lin as saying : —“ lam ready and willing to answer my country’s call to serve in any branch of military service at whatever post national authority may consider I might do most good, but I am waiting for word from the British Embassy at Washington. Meanwhile I have invested a quarter of a million dolJu.,thc. war activities of America and con ‘ tribuling to both loans.” I register ed for the draft here, and have not asked for exemption. Had 1 icon drawn, I Avonld have gone to the front like any other patriotic citizen.”