GENERAL WAR NEWS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1787, 9 February 1918, Page 1

GENERAL WAR NEWS.

ESCAPING AIRMEN DROWNED. While trying to escape from Germany, the well-known French airman, Georges Chevor, has been drowned in (he Rhine. Ten’ days after his capture he avoided his guards, crossed 75 miles of German territory into Austria, hut being unable to swim was carried away when trying to get over to Switzerland. In the French Chamber a marble tablet is to he erected in memory of Guynemer, the famous airman. CALL TO GERMAN BOYS. The Essen Gencralanzeiger contains an appeal from the Landwehr inspectorate urging that youths should immediately join juvenile corps, as “this groat struggle of nations will necessitate those who are now 10 and 17 years of age being called up at no very remote date for service in the army,” U-BOAT DEPARTMENT. An Imperial decree prescribing for the duration of the war the formation of the new section in the German imperial navy department, to be called the U-boat department, has just been published, according to an Amsterdam despatch to Reuter’s Limited. The new department deals solely with U-boat affairs, which heretofore have been handled by the dockyards section of the navy department. GOLFING IN THE NAVY. I had recently (writes a contributor to the Sportsman) the opportunity of accompanying the commander of a warship in a tour of inspection of his vessel. To the golfer not the least interesting revelation was that every officer had on hoard a hag of golf clubs. Their time for play is not extensive, hut a ship does occasionally put into her base for a day or two. The navy Ims a golfing language entirely its own. It is always driving to windward or leeward—that is when it gets off the line —instead of merely slicing or pulling, like ordinary people. If it simply drives to starboard or port, you may he sure that there is no wind to enter into the calculations. What it will not do is to slice or pull—those are landlubbers’ terms. The navy recognises little of the every-day phraseology of the game. A man whom I met had just arranged a , match by Morse code with an officer of another ship; that is the way these things have to be done on the sea. ECHO OF POISON CONSPIRACY. Mrs Alice Wheeldon, who, with her daughter and the latter’s husband was found guilty and sentenced las't March to ten years’ imprisonment op the charge of conspiracy to poison Premier Lloyd George, lias been released from. prison at the Premier’s request. Mrs Wheeldou is near death through a “hunger strike.”