GENERAL WAR NEWS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1758, 29 November 1917, Page 1

GENERAL WAR NEWS.

cost or Life in three wars. Twenty-two thousand four hundred and fifty men fell in the whole Boer war, 190,000 in the FrancoGerman, and 555,900 in the Rus-sian-Japanese. BERLIN’S SMOKING BAN. The Morgenpost, Amsterdam, states that the Berlin police intend to prohibit smoking in the streets, the prohibition to be general and irrespective of sex. The measure is proposed in view of the rapid decline in tobacco stocks, and is to be extended to the whole of Germany. AN AERIAL PEAT. ? 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 transmit tor destroyed, and almost all the controls, shot away. In spite of this they wrote out the information they had gained, dropped the message at headquarters, and then returned to the aerodrome in the almost uncontrollable machine. HUNS CLAIM 2,298 AEROPLANES. According to the Tagliche Rundschau, a summary of German war booty shows that in the Avar up to July 26th the Huns have secured 2,298 aeroplanes, 186 balloons, and three airships. It’s as Avell 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. POSTWOMEN’S GUARD OP HONOUR. PostAvomen formed a guard of honour at the marriage of a post woman at Weybridge with a member of the Royal Flying Corps. THE CURSE THAT CAME HOME. ThoooJito.s, Archbishop of Athens, has been sentenced to lavu years’ confinement in a monastery and degradation from his office for interfering in polities in proclaiming an anathema on Vcnizelos. Other prelates Avere sentenced to various penalties. The trials took place before an Ecclesiastical Court. CONCESSIONS TO MARRIED MEN. The ucav Canadian income-tax makes material concessions io married men. The tax starts at incomes of 2,000 dollars (£400) for the single and 3,000 dollars (£600) for the married. The rate is 4 per cent., Avith a super-tax on incomes over 6,000 dollars (£.1,200), or from 2 per cent, to 10 per cent. SEVEN YEARS AFTER. James Robert Russell, a Dunfermline lawyer, avlio, seven years ago, embezzled £4,600 of his clients’ money and used it in paying losses on the Stock Exchange, was sentenced to three years’ penal servitude at Edinburgh recently. He disappeared at the lime of his offence, but Avas found recently Avorking in a London recruiting office. CONDITIONS IN PALESTINE. Serious neAvs 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 terror. Most of the wealthy natives have been transported, and their possessions plundered. Massacres and summary executions are of daily occurrence. THE USUAL HUN TRICK. The following is typically Hunnish. A vastly superior number of Albatross scouts were engaging one of our formations, when Captain B and a naval pilot arrived on the scene, Avrites 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 east and was pursued, but escaped. BOMBERS’ EQUIPMENT. Bombers are ahvays lightly equipped. In the case of grenade operations the men who are actually to throAV grenades do not carry rifies, 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 theit left shoulder and are also 'taught to throAV standing, kneeling, .lying down, and Avith >