GENERAL WAR NEWS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1812, 11 April 1918, Page 1

GENERAL WAR NEWS.

MURDERED BY GERMANS. Mr Bonar Law stated recently that approximately 14,120 British non-combatants —men, women, children, and merchant seamen —have been done to death by German Üboats and aircraft. NEW GERMAN AIRPLANES. The Berne correspondent of the Corriere d’ltalia, Rome, learns from a German source that the Germans will soon have 2,000 new airplanes at their disposal, and that the • flying schools, have practically completed the training of 8,000 young aviators to operate them. NAVY’S STANDARD OF COURAGE. Referring to the gallantry, in the navy and the difficulty of selecting officers and men for decoration for bravery, Lord Jellicoe stated that a distinguished admiral had said to him: “I am always having to raise the standard of courage, otherwise everybody would be decorated.” YOUTH’S RUSE TO ENLIST. Charged with aiding a deserter and unlawfully wearing array uniform, William Thompson, 17, said at Manchester Police Court that he had met a soldier in a local park, and they had exchanged clothes and names. He had tried to enlist, and had been refused. But he was so big that he was constantly asked why he was not serving, and employers would not give him work. He thought he ought to be serving instead of his father, now in France. On promising to try to join the navy he was remanded. SAVED FROM BURNING SHIP. The Albert Medal, awarded to Lieutenant (acting - Lieutenant - Commander) Maurice MacMahon, R.N.R., was won in November, 1916, in the port of Archangel, where munitions took fire and exploded. Cries and moans were heard from a floating crane, moored between a burning steamer . and a flaming quay. Lieutenant-Commander MacMahon crossed the burning ship, rescued the mate from the wreckage, and then, by a single plank, got aboard the crane and saved three of the crew. MULLER-EMDEN’S SWORD. The sword which his British captors allowed Captain Muller, of the Emden, to X’etain is causing complications in Holland. According to Dutch despatches to the German press, it is against the regulations under which belligerent officers are interned for any of them to'carry arms. If in possession of arms on arriving they are supposed to turn them over to the Dutch authorities. The German papers learn that The Hague Government has not yet come to a decision in Muller’s case, as there is no px’eeedent for such an incident. OLD TRUNKS WANTED. The world’s supply of leather is running low. The Central Powers are feeling the “pinch,” and althoxxgh we have access to the - world’s mai’kets, we, too, are likely before long to suffer from shortage. But thex’e is in this country, a correspondent points out, a supply of leather not yet thought of. There is hardly a large house in the kingdom that has not got a leather trunk stored away—trunks costing 30s to £4, and worth to-day for leather alone £3 to £7. A depot might be fixed by the Government to receive and distribute leather obtained from this source. >