GENERAL WAR NEWS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1808, 2 April 1918, Page 1

GENERAL WAR NEWS.

. MORE. KOPENICK. Berlin itself has been the scene of the . latest Kbpenick comedy, according to a story told by the Frankischer Volksfreund: —To safeguard ‘the newly-printed bread cards, the Berlin municipal authorities caused them to be conveyed from the printers’ to their'destination in a closed Van under a strong military escort. A soldier acted as driver, and half a company of infantry marched in two single files on each side of the vehicle. When the fully-laden van was turning a corner a second-lieutenant suddenly approached, ordered the soldiers to divert the van from the thoroughfare into a backyard, and then sent the men back to their quarters. The soldiers had left the friends of the alleged lieutenant, who was not an officer at, all, but a criminal'much, wanted by the police, assembled on the spot in force, and there and then proceeded to sell the bread cards to a crowd of eager purchasers who had sprung up, as it were, from the soil. JACK AND HIS “KI.” Navy cocoa, which Princess Mary thought might be good to eat as chocolate, is known aboard ship as “ki.” It is served out in the first dog watch every Thursday, and it is drunk whenever circumstances (in other words, the ship’s “crusher,” or policeman) permits. The- men grate down a liberal quantity of, it (for “ki” is less concentrated than short cocoa), and drink it mixed in basins with sugar and condensed milk. At sea a special cauldron of Ki, prepared by the ship’s cook, is sent round action stations in “fannies,” or large pitchers. Midnight for the guns’ crews of our fleet is the hour when the “ki” boat arrives. WASHINGTON'S NEW DISEASE. The humorists of the newspaper press proclaim the advent of a new disease since the capital “went dry.” It is known variously as “subterranean thirst” and “furnaceitis.” The cellars of citizens are said to be stacked with,.forbidden liquids. The common invitation runs, “Come down to my cellar to see what’s the matter with the furnace.” Recently the police made a raid on a Baltimore train and arrested a large number of passengers who were carrying concealed fuel for the cellars. Since the new law, innocent-looking thermos bottles have become a common feature of office equipment. The result is that yet another disease called thermositis has developed. The newspapers arc devoting much space to humorous descriptions of the innumerable tricks practised by the evaders of the dry law. PRISONERS ON MUNITION WORK. It is publicly announced by tha Berlin military authorities that practically “all prisoners of war, including the Italians,” are now “urgently required for the industries necessary for the prosecution of the war.” This statement was evoked by protests of Berlin civilians against being dragooned into snow-shovelling work in front of their own houses. They whined that prisoners ought to do this. The War Office replied that “only a very limited number of prisoners” can be spared for street-cleaning, into which work,even,the soldiers of the Berlin garrison have had to be impressed. MERELY GAS! A correspondent of the Daily Despatch says that a policeman stopped a car at Altrieham the other day, and asked the chauffeur what he was running on. “Gas, of course,” said the chauffeur. “Wonderful,” said the policeman, “with your gas-bag hanging on a tree 10 miles from here.”