GENERAL WAR NEWS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1745, 25 October 1917, Page 1

GENERAL WAR NEWS.

24,000 DOCTORS' NEEDED FOR WAR. As 24,000 physicians are needed for war purposes, two out of every nine doctors in the United States will be called for service. COST OP GROWING WHEAT. Compared with the pre-war figure of £7 17s lid,- it is now estimated that the cost of growing an acre of wheat varies between £9 17s and £ll 19s 2d, according to a White Paper. 'PREFERRED THE ARMY. A grocer’s warehouseman, formerly a farm hand, was told by Market Bosworth Tribunal that he could have exemption if he would go back to farm work. He said he would sooner join the army, and asked the tribunal to dismiss his appeal, which they did, the clerk remarking that they had not had a ease like that out of the 2,400 the tribunal had dealt with. COURAGEOUS BRITISH AIRMAN. The Frankfurter Zeitung reports the death of the German airman, Riessinger, who had, before he met his fate, shot down four enemy machines. The report adds: During his last flight he succeeded in setting fire to the machine of his British opponent, but the latter, seeing he was unable to escape death, rammed Riessinger’s machine, with the result that both airmen fell to the ground. OUR WAR BILLS. Mr Bonar Law stated in the House of Commons that the average daily war expenditure of Britain, Franco, and Germany was as follows: — ' Britain £0,759,000 France 4,409,000 Germany 5,000,000 The Gennan total excludes normal Budget expenditure—debt charge, etc. —and also, as far as can be judged, advances to allies and many other items which are included in the British figure. WICKEDEST MAN IN PARIS. Among young Frenchmen recently killed in battle was Primiee, only son of the late Catulle Mendes, the brilliant critic and somewhat disturbing novelist, whom somebody once styled (for show purposes) the wickedest man in Paris. Mendes was a French Jew, whose wit flashed from an amazing foundation of knowledge. He knew a tremendous lot about all arts, and it was worth any man’s while to go across Europe just to hear him talk. His first wife was Judith Gautier, daughter of the Great Theophile. The marriage was unhappy, and when they Separated they told the public all about it in very intimate terms. Primiee was the son of the celebrated literary man by his second wife, a beautiful woman, who was (and is) also a poet of distinction. The young man just dead gave rare promise. He died at 20, for humanity; as good a death as any man need hope to die. £6OO FOR A SOVEREIGN. In the gardens of a Petrograd cafe ehantant an English sovereign was sold by auction for, over £GOO, in aid of the funeral expenses of Cossacks who have been killed in suppressing the mutiny. The purchaser returned the sovereign, which will be resold again by auction. DEATH DUTY RECEIPTS. The net receipts of death duties in England for the last five years were 1912- £25,400,369 1913- 27,165,123 1914- .28,542,571 1915- 30,937,982,. 1916- 31,192,146 CAUSE OF AN EPIDEMIC. Bacteriological investigations show that the numerous eases of severe illness, some of them fatal, which recently occurred among children at a school canteen in the Saint-Gervais quarter of Paris, were due to intestinal infection. No fewer than 71 parents have joined in a collective claim for damages,