GENERAL WAR NEWS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1763, 11 December 1917, Page 1

GENERAL WAR NEWS.

TAX ON EXEMPTED MEN. The Minister for Finance in Italy publishes a decree setting up a tax on, men exempted from military service. RACING YACHT MARGHERITA. It is announced that Mr. Sol. Joel has purchased by private treaty the famous racing yacht Margherita, which was withdrew at £IO,OOO when offered for sale by auction recently at the Baltic. It is stated that the price given was about £12,000. BATOCKI BACK TO THE ARMY. Herr Batocki, Germany’s first Food Dictator, who fell from grace several months ago, has decided to vindicate his honour at the front. He has rejoined his former regiment, a Cuirassier unit, with the rank of major, and has now been assigned to active service in the western theatre. ALTITUDE OF PLOVER’S FLIGHT. Whilst flying over the lines in France, a single plover (lew straight across my front, Hying due north, writes an officer from the front. It was at (i,oooft. at (lie time. The wind at that height was roughly twenty-live m.p.h. south. I was unable. to follow it far owing to German machines, but it was still going duo north when last seen. GERMANY'S WAR CRIPPLES. In view of the painful position of Germany’s war cripples being unable to make a living, a petition signed by half a million cripples has been sent to the Reichstag with the object of increasing the pensions. BUSY AIR-RAID THIEVES. People who were allowed to shelter in a London police station during a recent raid, stole a clock, two pairs of boots, the constable’s provisions, and damaged some uniforms. At an East London Police Court they even stole the Testaments. GERMAN OFFICER WHITE SLAVER. Captain Thierichens, the interned ex-eommvnder of the Prinz Eictl Friedrich, has been found guilty at Philadelphia on two counts of violating the White Slave law, a recent enactment for the protection of women, Sentence has been deferred pending the hearing of a motion for a new trial. AIR RAIDER WITH BRANDY. The huge machine was brought down by the Italian anti-aircraft guns during a raid on Brindisi, and two officers were captured. The machine was recovered by an Italian torpedo-boat. On board of it were found, beside. l ; bottles of brandy and wine, a loaf made of some vile substance, whose nature could not be determined. SALONIKA FIRE LESSON. During the night the fire swept down to the sea, writes an officer in describing the great Salonika fire, demolishing everything in its path except one building, which had been out of bounds for months on account of its German ownership. This, with their usual beastly but laudable foresight, was built of ferro-eoncrete and had fireproof shutters. Even the glass of this store is not cracked. OUR AIR FORCES. A Frankfort Gazette correspondent mentions the overwhelming force in which British aircraft is now encountered in battle. He states that on the chief fighting days “English machines swarmed so thickly over our lines that at first we could hardly face such superiority. Reinforcements quickly called up soon,” he adds, “altered the situation,” ADMIRAL HALSEY BLUSHED.* When Rear-Admiral Halsey opened a new sailors’ rest in the East End he was greeted by a seaman from one of our submarines, who went up to him and put but his hand. The admiral smiled, shook hands, and said: “I know your face. Weren’t you with me in Australia?” “Yes, sir,” replied the sailor. “In 1902, I just want to congratulate you, for you are a man, sir, and always treated us like men, too.” The Third Sea Lord blushed. “Thanks for the testimonial,” he said, “one of the best I have ever hand.”