NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1875, 10 September 1918, Page 1

NEWS IN BRIEF.

There jiro 420,000 men in tlie British Navy. Our iiriuy smokes 4,000,000,000 cigarettes n year. Lust year the British Navy cost £200,877,217. The British War Cabinet hold 300 meeting's in a year. Military hospitals in the United Kingdom number 2,000. During' 1917 Britain look on all fronts 115,000 prisoners and 781 guns. Chain letters are to he barred hereafter from the United States mails. Only 580,000 tons of paper reached England in 1017, as against 1,708,000 tons in 1914. There are over 1,000,000 houses in London, and over 100.000 people own more than one. During one week, 14,400 soldiers and sailors slept in the Y.M.C.A station huts in London. There are 118,322 special eonstables at present available in Britain, and 0,002 are on daily duty. The London and Southern section of (he National Union of Allotment Holders is now 32,000 strong. In (he brightest moonlight it is almost impossible to see an aeroplane (lying at 10,000 to 15,000 feet. A: gun is being made in the United States which will be capable of hurling a projectile 105 miles. Immediately before the war there were nearly 22,000,000 pigs in Germany —or one pig to every three persons. Crops of corn are being burned in Argentine because of a lack of ships in which to export the cereal. Britain loaned €1,186,000,000 to her allies np to December, 191.7, and £175,000,000 to the Dominions. Fifteen thousand Jews are now fighting on the western front; between 60,000 and 70,000 are serving with the forces. Since May, 1017, more than 100,000 men have been released from the munition factories for service with the colours. If we had paid the same price for gun ammunition in 1.017 as in 1016, the increase in cost would have been £43,000,000 . Since the war began a ’Russian is said to have made £IO,OOO by unauthorised dealing in cast-oft' uniforms and accoutrements. A fish-offal by-product is to be used in Denmark for electric insulation, brushes, combs, telephone apparatus, and door-handles. Fine silks with patterns worked in gold and silver threads were used by the Turks as sand-bag coverings for their trenches in Palestine. A New York Supreme Court recently awarded £6,000 for the loss, of a right foot, and another court £5,000 for the loss of a husband,' Tobacco manufacturers have received advices, from. Germany that cherry and nut tree leaves are officially recognised as tobacco substitutes. Afore than 17,000 women are employed as military nurses, and 28,000 others are employed in various work at military hospitals in England..