GENERAL WAR NEWS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1866, 20 August 1918, Page 4

GENERAL WAR NEWS.

IF YOU HAD KNOWN RUSSIAN. Mr Fisher, Minister of Education, (old a meeting of the Commercial Committee of the House of Commons that if there had been in England only 200 educated men who knew the Russian language the debacle on the eastern front might have been saved. Wherever ihere was an Englishman in Russia who spoke the language he had public opinion with him, hut the Government could find none to send out.

A GENTLEMAN UNAFRAID. The “poilu” is one-third heroism, one-third sense of duty, and onethird modesty, says the Westminster Gazette, A stretcher-bearer blew up a bridge himself and delayed the German advance. The general decided to award him the (Military Medal. “Summon Hie man at once, and I will decorate him here,” said (he general. Orderlies went to look for (he stretcher-bearer, but no trace of him could be found. Nobody knew his name. He was merely a French soldier! STARVING PLAYERS. “Overcrowded theatres and starving actors and actresses are the. outstanding features of I he theatrical situation in Germany,” says (he Vossische Zeilung. Of the 2(1,000 men and women on the stage it is said that the overwhelming' majority are eking out a miserable existence on £4O a year. Thousands, especially women and girls, are described as being “on the brink of starvation.” WAR MORALS. Dr. Edward B. Turner, chairman of the British Medical Association, said at the British Dominions Suffrage Union, that during the last 40 years the morality of men and women had approximated. This was due to restrictive legislation, to the change in public opinion in relation to drunkenness, and to the widespread interest and participation in athletics of all classes of society. The working-class hoy of 40 years ago, who spent his spare time in loafing about Hie streets —or, as he expressed it. “going after a hit. of skirt” —was now an enthusiastic cricketer, a runner, or a swimmer. On the other hand, many women and young girls had been affected by the worst features of socialism, including free^love, and they put (heir principles into practice. Girls living away from home inlluenee for the first time often got a mistaken idea of the independence of women, and believed it to he the woman’s right to lower her standard to that of man. Lately; too, timer had been a groat wave of sentimental immorality regarding soldiers.