GENERAL WAR NEWS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1798, 7 March 1918, Page 1

GENERAL WAR NEWS.

GENERAL SMUTS AS A SCOUT, Lieutenant Philip Rabone, of thfi 2nd Rhodesians, lecturing at the London Camera Club, on the campaign in German East Africa, said General Smuts was always at the head of the advance infantry brigade. He never cared for himself, but was always up with the columns, and on one occasion, when a. subordinate found him jn a very advanced post and ventured to i’Cmonstrate, Smuts’ reply was; “I can take care of myself; I was a spy, before you were, born.” While tbo fighting in East Africa was not so deadly as elsewhere, said the lecturer, he believed it was carried out .under the most difficult conditions, having regard to climate and supplies, of any theatre of war. r , NEW ALLOWANCES. Speaking at a meeting in connection with the Discharged Soldiers’ Association at Brighton, Mr Hodge, Pensions Minister, said be hoped in the,course of the next few weeks to issue a new warrant which would bring joy to many mothers and children, Allowances would be increased by 20 per cent. The warrant would also make provision for motherless and fatherless children. He suggested that discharged soldiers and sailors should be treated in the same way as the widows of soldiers. There should be no break between the army allowance and the pension. Until the pension was fixed a man should receive the full maximum pension. \ Under this new warrant 27s fid would be the minimum while training. The wife and children would get the usual separation allowance. He urged men, if (bey were not receiving proper treatment, to go to local committees. EX-SOLDIER’S GALLANT EFFORT. A discharged soldier, who joined the army early in the war and was wounded on the Somme, was praised by the Edmonton coroner at an inquest held on two munition girls who walked into the River Lea in a fog and were drowned. The hero, Reginald George, 21, of Edmonton, hearing screams, ran back and learned that two girls had fallen into the river. He saw a body, and diving in, with only electric torches to guide him, he succeeded in getting the girl to the wall. He threw the rope of a lifebelt to people on the bank, but it broke, and be and the girl sank. He made another effort, and both were brought to land, but the girl, named Lamb, failed to respond to artificial respiration. The coroner, remarking that the river bank should be fenced, said he would bring George’s gallant conduct* to the notice of the Royal Humane Society. BRITISH PRISON CAMPS. The report of the International Red Cross Committee on the British prison camps in Burma and India, contains an article by M. Thormeyer, one of three accredited representatives of the Geneva Committee, and an official report addressed by them jointly to the International Committee. The camps in question are for Turkish prisoners of: war. “The delegates,” M. Tbormeyer says, “are of the opinion that the British to-day are treating their prisoners as if they were tdf be their friends in the more or less near future. The care lavished on their welfare, the constant desire to improve their lot, and the absence of useless annoyances are the factors in a treatment which conforms with the ftrinciples of humanity and civilisation, and does honour to the British .race.”