GENERAL WAR NEWS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 67, 24 February 1916, Page 7

GENERAL WAR NEWS.

THE DAILY “LIAR.” [United Fkkss Association. 1 London, February 21. : The Daily Mail declares that the calling up of youths of nineteen is significant, and the paper hints that, married men will soon be drawn in. | This may be taken as a proof of the army’s urgent need of men. Married men will not shirk their responsibility, when the promises of Mr Asquith and. Lord Derby have been fulfilled, but those pledges had been weakened by tribunals granting exemptions on the flimsiest reasons. It may be expected that Lord Derby, who was responsible for the enlistment, will exert pressure in the right in order to improve things and remove the impression that married men enrolled under false pretences.

WAR SAVINGS. London, February 21. Mr McKenna lias accepted, on behalf of tlie Church of England, offers from the Bishops of Winchester, Norwich, and Bristol to assist the Government in a war savings campaign. RHODES SCHOLARS. London, February 21. The Rhodes Trust states that most of the colonial scholars have enlisted, with permission to resume their scholarships at the end of the war. THE DERBY SCHEME. London, February 21.

I The great rush for exemptions under the Derby scheme has alarmed the authorities, who find that about SO per cent, of the claims for exemption were granted. Strong efforts are now being made for a strict interpretation of “indispensable,” with the result that the, tribunals are beginning to show .sternness in their treatment of applicants. Typical cases were before 'the London tribunes to-day, embodying remarkable claims. The secretary of the Naval and Military liible Society asked exemption for the superintendent of the packing department, whose age was 19, and whose services were indispensable, as it was impossible to find a substitute. The request was refused. It was decided *■

that a commercial traveller was a luxury in wartime, and an appeal was dismissed. The application of a distributor of official photographs was deferred for six months to wait for the coming in of the reserved definition.