GENERAL WAR NEWS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1879, 19 September 1918, Page 1

GENERAL WAR NEWS.

NO SKINS FOR RUGS. The Army Council calls attention to the fact that henceforth no sheepskins or lambskins may be used for the manufacture of nigs or mats. This action has been rendered necessary owing to the requirements of wool and leather for military purposes.

BLESSING UPON ALLIED ARMS

A procession of 5,000 Roman Catholics went through the streets of North Lambeth lately to invoke blessing upon the allied armies. The Bishop of Southward (Dr. Amingo), Provist Brown, V.G., Bishop Dewachter (auxiliary to Cardinal Merrier), and a number of Belgian nuns and monks, with members of the Southwark Chapter, took part. 'HOW TASTES DIFFER. A young alien who, after completing a sentence in prison, was charged at Thames Police Court as an absentee, said to the magistrate: “I have been in prison for two months. I would rather be in the army.’’ At Bow Street a man who had deserted from (he army, and who was charged with theft, declared that if sent back lie would run away again. “I would rather be in prison,” he said. Hi-YEAR-OLD M.B.E. Harold Kerridge, of Tottenham, who is only 16 years of age, has been awarded the M.B.E. At the factory where he works an explosion occurred, and caused a fire in which a woman was burnt to death. Kerridge, a( great personal risk, extinguished the fire and prevented further danger. He is believed to be the youngest member of the Order of the British Empire. DEARTH OF DRUGS. In the case of some drugs, British stocks are becoming dangerously low —in fact, they are approaching exhaustion, and some of them cannot be replaced Avithout Government assistance. In asafoetida, as with other drugs from the Persian Gulf, there is almost a famine. Syn calumba root is worth twelve times pre-war prices. Galvabanum is unobtainable, as well as the following, which come, only from enemy countries: —St ora v, helebore, stramonium, Uva nrst, scammony, Turkish opium, and attar of roses. Extravagant prices are being paid for cascara sagrada, jalap, bnchu leaves, sarsaparilla, tumeric, benzoin, balsm of tolu, liquorice root, and ergot.

THE CHAMPAGNE SHORTAGE.

Very little champagne is now being sent out of France, the necessities of military transport rendering’ it almost impossible to send supplies to England or anywhere else. Some of the largest firms occasionally have forwarded to them a consignment of three or four hundred cases, by canal, via Paris and Havre. As has already been pointed out, if the military situation should render it necessary for the Allies to evacutate Rheims, there is likely to be a world-wide, shortage of champagne. According to calculated estimates of the firms engaged in the trade, there are 60,000,000 bottles of champagne in the cellars of Rheims, the total value of which is anything up to £30,000,000.