GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 1957, 27 March 1919, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

THE HILL-TOP f LIFE. The medical officer of health and the sanitary inspector to the Wimbornc and Cranbourne Council, in a report on the provision ufffifty new cottages, state that they have selected sites on a higher ground than the present villages with a view to encouraging the development ol new villages on the hills to replace the old badly-situated villages in the valleys. They also recommend the preparation of town-planning schemes for rebuilding two other villages, both places being low-lying and damp. UN FO RTI EYING LON DON. The miles of trench works which wore .constructed in the early days of the war to defend London in the event of invasion are now rapidly being dismantled. A suggestion has been made that some of the dugouts should he preserved; but this Ims not as yet received official approval. The long lines of barbed wire, which festooned the parades of the south and east coast watering places, are also being rolled up. Machine-gun emplacements, made out of sandbags, are being carted away. Mines are being swept up in the fairways of the harbours. Trenches which seamed and scarred the countryside all along the south and east coasts are being tilled in, and soon nearly all the evidences of the war will have disappeared. FRANCE'S WAR MEMORIAL. A Rill providing fora national war memorial has been laid before M. Clemenceau, who has given it his approval. The memorial is to consist of an immense series of galleries, halls, vestibules, and amphitheatres, which will be hung with 1,040,000 portraits of men who have died for France, grouped according to their regiments. The scheme provides for a Chair of History in connection with the war, as well as lor a war.museum and library. Busts of the great generals and one of M. Clemenceau himself will be, conspicuous, and 1 hero will be stainedglass windows and frescoes illustrating the famous battles.

STRANGE RAGE IN THIBET. There are -1,000,000 adult persons in this world avlio don’t knoAv that (ho Avorld Avar has ended. I hey don’t know that there was a war in Europe, indeed, (hey don’t knoAV there is such a thing as Europe. Those people live in the Avildernoss of Ave.-tern China, and avoto discovered by Dr, Joseph Beech, Methodist missionary’, who has just returned from a A’oyage ol exploration Avest of Thibet. “They are the strangest people in the Orient.” Dr. Beech said. “Among them is every type of mankind, including giants, dAvarfs. all colours, resembling American Indians, Airman negroes, East Indians, South Sea Islanders, Europeans, and other races. No one knoAvs how their original forebears got (here, and (heir descendants cannot explain how or Avhen the many different tribes began their tribal existence.” 11 is believed possible that explorers from other shores, exiles, and fugitives drifted to the valleys and mountains of this almo-1 inaccessible country, and forgetting civilisation, education, and prior existence, formed alliances with native Chinese fugiti-ves in tribal form. NEW STAMP ISSUES. The lirsl duty of every self-re-specting nation is to issue a new series of postage stamps. 1 inland has already led the avuv with a pleasant variety of colours, and the example no doubt will lie followed by Lithuania, Livonia, and Eslhouia, to say nothing of Bavaria and the Confederated German Slate. The newest issue is by the British military authorities for civilian use in Palestine. They are printed in Arabic. Old Turkish Government plates have been used and overprinted in Mesopotamia. The Dominican republic, which had its Mumps printed in Germany, have circulated a primitive local issue, which is a unique addition lo stamp collect ions. Czecho-Slovakia is getting out an issue of stamps, being the first of the ucav nations to perfect its government. NEARLY A DISASTER. One early morning when a convoy Avas approaching the southeast coast of England a submarine broke surface in the middle of it. Ever on the alert, (he British cruiser in (diarge of the coiiA’oy tired in repealed succession a number’ of. Gin. shells, Avhich fell all round the submarine. A destroyer then went into the middle of (he cmvoy lo sec Avhal the (rouble was, and when the commander of the destroyer s.-iav the submarine at close quarters he recognised that the vessel was British. The destroyer then made a smoke screen round the submarine, Avhich had not had time to show her distinguishing signals to the cruiser. The action of the destroyer led those mi board the cruiser to think that something Avas Avrong, and they ceased firing. It Avas by this means than a British submarine escaped being sunk by a British cruiser’s guns.