GENERAL WAR NEWS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1780, 24 January 1918, Page 1

GENERAL WAR NEWS.

THE MEANING OF BOLSHEVIK!

The word in- Russian means “those who want more.” It is synonymous Avith the Latinised term “Maximalists,” and is applied to the extremist international Socialists — those Avho denied the principle of nationality. “Bolsheviki” is the plural. To say the “Bolsheviki Government” AA’ould he similar to saying “the Gorman Government” Avithont the possessive indicated. The proper term is “the Bolshevik Government,” the word Bolsheviki being applied to the members of the party in the plural sense. The Bolsheviki rank next to the Anarchists. After the Maximalists are the “Minimalists,” also international Socialists, but less radical than the Bolsheviki, There folloAV the Social Revolutionists, the Social Democrats, the Labour Party, and Peasants, all comprised within the Russian proletariat. Coming to the so-called bourgeois classes, the Constitutional Democrats are nearest to the Workmen's and Peasant parties, and it is in them largely that the hope of revolutionary Russia lies, as they embody the elements of Russia best lifted to assure permanency to the demoeralisation of the country. A RECORD JOURNEY. Much interest, was aroused when if was announced that one of our aeroplanes had travelled in eight stages from England to Constantinople, and had bombed the Goeben and found the Turkish War Office, remaining at Constantinople for half an hour, and dropping bombs of lewt. in weight. Later details show that the machine was a Hand-ley-Page Avith Rolls-Royce engines, carrying their baggage, bedding, spare parts, oil, bombs, machineguns, and spare propellers. The engines never faltered. SquadronCommander K. S. Savory avus the pilot, and Avith him Avas FlightLieut. H. MacClelland. EngineerLieut. T. Rowings was free to Avalk his narroAv cabin and watch above and beloAv from the machine-gun platforms. From England they arrived at a base “somewhere near Turkey,” and before the great adventure began, the baggage and bedding and spare parts Avere left behind. A distance of 250 miles was covered in about three hours, and then beneath them the airmen saw the lights of Constantinople and of (he vessels. After letting loose a salvo of bombs on the Goeben, (hey circled and dropped another salvo and (hen made along the Bosphorus, Avhere they sought out the German Headquarters ship and paid it some attention. .SHORT OF LEATHER. Leather has become exceedingly scarce in Germany. Mr Henry Wood sends a copy of an order signed by LndcndorCr, and dated October S|h, found on prisoners taken by the French. This slates that the amount of sole leather necessary to keep the German army in shoes exceeds 75 per cent, of the amount now produced in Germany, The amount of leather necessary for flic uppers of these same shoes exceeds by 228 per cent, the amount now aA’aiiahle. The amount of leather demanded )>y (he army for harness is 52 per cent, greater than (lie present German production. The order points out that the national stock of lea l iter lias diminished as the result of the smaller number of animals now being slaughtered in Germany.