GENERAL WAR NEWS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1761, 6 December 1917, Page 1

GENERAL WAR NEWS.

SUEZ CANAL WAR TRAFFIC. The number of vessels which passed through the Suez Canal during 1916 was 3,110, of which 2,388 carried the, British flag, against, a total of 3,708 in the previous: year, the net tonnage for the year showing a decrease of 2,940,808 as compared with that of the preceding year. Troops carried through the Canal numbered 235,441, as compared with 119,812 in 1915, and the number of civilian passengers amounted to 45,743, a decrease of over 40,000. For the half-year ended June last the total traffic was 4,257.000 tons, as compared with 10,344,675 in the corresponding period of 1914. There was an increase of 120,877 tons in ships used by the Italian/ Greek, and Japanese Governments for military purposes. . PARCEL CARRYING PATRIOTS. The appeal of the Ministry of Food to shoppers to carry away all parcels of less than 71b. weight appears to have had good results. The manager of one large firm says:— ‘‘ln the millinery department women who take away their new hats on their heads and accept delivery of their former ones in a bag are doing more to help us than they can realise. Millinery boxes are so hard to get that often new r hats will be delayed in delivery because we cannot get the boxes to send them in. Our porters, when delivering hatboxes or dress-boxes to regular customers, often ask if there are any of the firm’s boxes occupying lumber space. Customers are quite willing to return them.if the suggestion is made to them, and the porter receives a half-penny each for any he delivers to the packing-room. WOMEN’S POCKET-MONEY. The Women’s Industrial Council is trying to evolve a solution of the problem which will result from the continuance in employment after the war of women who have commenced to work in the first place for patriotic reasons, but will continue after the war for the sake of the interest and the independent, pocket-money involved. Mrs Boyd Dawson, secretary of the council, says; —“There are many women working in Government offices at present who have never worked for money before. The reason why they do not ask for more than ‘pin-mon-ey’ salary is that they have private means or are supported by their parents. We are trying to obtain the co-operation of religious and other societies in touch with these .women, in order that they may put before them the injury which may be caused to others by undercutting in salaries. 1 The council also wants the girls who have private means and who wish to continue some sort of work after the war, say, in girls’ clubs, to do so voluntarily, and not overcrowd the labour marke't.” WAR TRAFFIC OVERSEAS. Statistics now published show that the war traffic overseas up to the end of 1915 involved the movement of:— Officers 100,000 Other ranks 2,586,000 Horses 542,000 Pood, tons 388,000 Forage, tons 533,000 Fuel, tons 59,000 Medical stores, tons 59,000 Petrol, gallons .... 17,338,000 Oil, gallons 4,911,000 Mail-bags carried .. 491,000 Parcels, tons 14,000 The total tonnage of stores of all kinds shipped out to our army was also not inconsiderable, and had, as some of its principal items, 184,000 tons of engineering stores, 131,000 tons of ordnance, 92,000 tons of clothing, 40,000 tons of sandbags, 27.000 tons of entrenching and camping equipment, 13,000 tons of barbed wire, and 12,000 tons of tonnage. Since 1915 of course the bulk has tremendously increased. HEROES OF THE R.F.C. The heroes of the Royal Flying Corps are the thousands of pilots and observers on the humble service machines who do their three, four, or five hours a day up and down the firing-line on artillery, observation, reeonnaisance work, photography, bomb-dropping, etc. In addition to flying, the pilot is tapping at his wireless key the whole time, controlling and correcting the fire of the big guns. In advance, dozens of machines hover low down over the heads of the advancing troops, marking down their new positions on a map, and tearing back to infantry headquarters with the information. These service-machines are the rank and file, so to speak, of the Royal Flying Corps, and, like the rank and file of the infantry, they are the real heroes of the war. Wanted Known: You can get better groceries for the same money at Walker and Fume’s.