GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 1959, 1 April 1919, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

SENDING SAND TO EGYPT

An astonishing instance of ollicial ineptitude was given in a leelure on Die war in Hie East at the Colonial Institute reecntly. By order of the War Office a cargo of sand was sent out to Egypt for the purpose of filling sandbags for the trenches, and it was actually unloaded.

WOK KING AMONG SHARKS. Natives at Brisbane had an exciting time mending the broken rudderpost of (he steamer Tanibo.. working in water that was rough and infested will) sharks. Sailors stood oft the sharks with revolvers while the work was going on, the natives remaining in the water lor hours. Two sharks’ lOfi. and 12ft. long, were killed, and two others wounded.

THE KILTS IN GERMANY,

‘T went into a large department store,” writes a Canadian Highlander from Cologne, “and as a result the entire operations were suspended. Cash girls and clerks and most of the customers all crowded over to have a look at the kilts. Several of the boys went into another store, ami caused such a commotion that we decided, in the interest of business, to quit shopping, as our kilts were such objects of interest that we felt embarrassed.”

TRAPPED BY A DOG,

A dramatic story of a German murderer who was denoiuiml by a French dug comes from the little village of Kernel fang, in the department of Moselle, France. A number of French officers were lunching in a country inn when a German policeman, who had served in the army, entered, accompanied by a large dog. The moment the dog saw (he officers it recognised one of them, sprang towards him, and licked his hands. In an instant the ofcer was by the side of the German policeman. “You are betrayed,” he said. ‘‘You are my wife's murderer. Your photograph was found near the body of my daughter, and 1 recognised you tlje moment you came in with my dog, which yon stole." The German is to be eourtmarlialled.

In. connection with the Kussian custom of sealing up their windows during winter and washing in warm water, a writer in the Saturday Review relates that in Petrograd, some vears ago, 12 Englishmen started a bathing society lo break holes in the ice of the Neva, and have a cold plunge every morning. Before the spring they were all dead, and he had never heard of a case of a foreigner (the Russians, of course, never do sol, who lived through a Kussian winter ami slept with his bedroom window open.