JOTTINGS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 293, 9 December 1914, Page 5

JOTTINGS.

States a correspondent of the Otago Daily Times under date 27th ult. : Last Sunday, at a time when most people are about, one of the Sydney evening newspapers came out with an extraordinary edition in which glaring headlines introduced a startling story, alleged to have come through official wireless sources, to the effect that 15.000 British troops had been drowned in a canal in the western theatre of war in Europe. The issue was announced by red posters, on which shrieking type told of such a “British Disaster.” The men and boys selling this edition, which had no competition at all, got rid of the papers as fast as they could handle them and take the money. In some cases copies were bought by anxious folks at premium prices. The intense excitement caused by this extraordinary issue and the manner in which it was put forward changed to strong annoyance in many quarters when other papers subsequently set out with much caution the German report, not confirmed, out of which the one paper had done so well. The.matter has been mentioned in the State Parliament, and Ministers have been asked whether they will have investigations made with regard to the publication in such circumstances of a story of the alleged drowning of 15,000 British troops. Ministers have replied that they are drawing the attention of the Federal Government, which controls military affairs, to this matter.