Stray Shots.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXX, Issue 47, 12 October 1914, Page 7

Stray Shots.

THE BELGIAN EL-AO. ! The Belgian Hag perpetuates the colors of the Duchy of Brabant, ami was adopted when the monarchy ">s set up in 1831. Tho i.-d, it should he noted hy those who . ish to usej it correctly, iorms the Uy ot ihej flag, the yellow the middle, and the black the hoist. The Russian Imperial navy flies the ancient blue raltire of St. Andrew on a white ground. THE FRENCH FLAG. How many people remember no.r.idays that the French tricolor flag was invented hy Lafayette, and that the red and blue in it are intended to stand for Paris and tho white for the ancient monarchy of Franco? Ihe flag has been in use since 1780, and is thus twelve years older than on. own Union Jack, as it now exists (says the “London Expiess. ) “K. OF K.” IS PUNCTUAL. As an instance of Lord Kitcheners precision, it has been noticed in Downing street that he so times his arrival at Cabinet meetings as to be neither a minute late nor a minute early. At the moment Dig Den booms, bis car pulls up outside No. 10. On tho other hand, Mr Churchill has developed a habit of arriving at Cabinet Councils a quarter ot an hour or twenty minutes late. WHAT CAESAR DID. The transport of Julius Caesar’s army across the Channel for the invasion of Britain was a renlarkably well executed operation, showing great nautical skill. Six hundred vessels adapted for beach-landing were built expressly for this expedition, and altogether eight hundred ships were employed, carrying 21,000 infantry and 2000 cavalry, besides camp followers and sailors. These were all floated off from the/French coast at a single tide. William the Conqueror appears to have brought over his (50,000 troops in 1400 ships, and all those, too, managed to getaway by the same tide. ON HAMPSTEAD HEATH. There are new calls in these days on Hampstead Heath, “En avant!” “Couservez la ligne!” and the like. They are rapped smartly out by a dapper French iuon-commissioned officer in khaki, with a little cane that is never still. He addresses about half a company of the Foreign Legion in London that is training to fight for England. He-marches them up the hill arid down the hill, and all about the Heath through the hot summer afternoons. The General Staff sits with its lady friends on the turf, and looks on approvingly. V > -. • ‘ i “IF.” ' The Emperor of Austria lays claim to the title “Marquis of Antwerp.” If all European Sovereigns could make good tfieir minor territorial titles there would indedd be a- reconstruction of the map. The King of Italy, for instance, is officially styled “King of Sardinia, France, Spain, and England, of Italy and Jerusalem, of Greece and Alexandria, of Hamburg and Sicily, Master of the Deep, King of the Earth.” The King of Spain also claims to be King of Jerusalem, King of Galicia (a title shared with' the Emperor of Austria), and in ad- - dition King of Gibraltar, of the West Indies and of India. A COMPARISON. Comparisons with the past sometimes have a sobering effect (>jys the “Express”). A little more than a century ago England* with a population of about a third its presept , size, was maintaining an immense army scattered over the world. In 1809 the local militia alone numbered 200,000, and these wore kept in .training until the peace of 1815. More than half a million men were garrisoned in the United Kingdom. Another 22,000 Regulars were fighting in Portugal, while in India, Ceylon, the West Indies, North America, the Mediterranean, Cape of Good Hope, and Madeira were large bodies of British troops struggling to keep the Empire together. Thirteen hundred Regulars guarded the convicts of New South Wales, and 18,000 more were on the high seas. And in spite of a long war, costing £1,000,000 a week, the country managed to redeem millions of unfunded debt, and show a brave front to the world with bread at Is lOd a loaf. “HIGH TREASON.” The charge of high treason was brought at Sunderland against Hirman Adolphus Aiders, German ex-Consul at that town. Aiders, who became a naturalised British subject in 1905, was arrested on August 6th, two days after the' declaration of war, and was charged with committing an offence under the Official Secrets Act. The charge was changed to one of high treason, which consisted of assisting and persuading German reservists to leave tins country after the outbreak of hostilities. Evidence was called to prove that prisoner had paid between twenty and thirty pounds out of Ids own pocket towards getting men across to Germany. For the defence, prisoner’s counsel argued that the offence was only a technical one. 1 The magistrates stated that a prima facie case had been proved, in their opinion, and prisoner was remanded in custody, to take his trial at Durham Assizes. \