GENERAL WAR NEWS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1797, 5 March 1918, Page 1

GENERAL WAR NEWS.

EVERY SHIP A FOOD SHIP. A conference of shipowners has unanimously accepted a scheme submitted by thg Ministry of Food, which every ship, large and small, coming into British ports will use such spare store room or other accommodation available—even passenger state-rooms, when unoccujpied—for the conveyance of foodstuffs. All such stores will be pooled. Insteadjof drawing upon home stocks, ships will be supplied with essential foodstuffs, so far as may be, from the “pool” thus made, TWOPENNY DINNERS, In order to effect a saving in the consumption of bread and flour, the War Savings Committee at Molash, Kent, undertook to provide twopenpy dinners for the children attending the village school. Only one pound of flour is used weekly in the preparation of the meals, and it has been found that the saving in four families alone has been ten loaves and six pounds of flour weekly. TEA SEIZED AT SEA. In the Prize Court, before Sir Samuel Evans, the Crown asked for the concfenmatioM as prize of 24 tons of tea seized on the steamship Bawean. Mr Stuart Bevan, for the claimants, said they bought the tea at 3d a pound and were willing to sell at 74d. This, they said, would .not cover freight and insurance. The sale by the court, it was stated, had realised between Is and Is 9,)d per pound wholesale. TRENCH WEAPONS. It is evident that inventors are hard at work on the problem of evolving weapons suitable for the peculiar conditions in trench warfare. Pawel Pys, of Detroit, Mich., for example, has patented a weapon which consists of a short sword or. bayonet with a handle that also forms the handle of an automatic pistol. Thus the use of this weapon can elect to stab the enemy when engaged in close fighting, or shoot him. . A METEORITE IN MESOPOTAMIA. During recent operations in Mesopotamia a number of the British far away from the fighting zone were startled by what they took to be a bomb from an enemy aeroplane. To their relief it simply embedded itself deeply in the sand. Prolonged observation failed to reveal any aircraft. The riddle of its appearance was solved when pick and spade disclosed a meteorite, which must be amongst the finest ever discovered. It has been presented to the authorities of the Manchester University.

LABOUR COMPANY’S BRAVERY,

The circumstances under which Major D. Watts Moigan, the Rhondda miners’ leader, gained the D. 5.0., were mentioned at Glamorgan Quarter Sessions, when the chairnian said that when the Germans broke into our line about a fortnight ago they came upon a labour company which, though only armed with pick and shovel, turned on the Germans and joined with the Guards, who came up, in pushing the enemy back. Five decorations were given to the company on the field.