INTERESTING WAR NOTES.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 87, 11 December 1914, Page 2

INTERESTING WAR NOTES.

WAR CONTRIBUTIONS. Much is being these times, anent England's Shabby Rich. At the end of two mouths' hard cadging the Prince of Wales' Fund- has reached three million pounds. In one week the city of Moscow contributed' a million pounds to a similar fund to' help the wives and children of soldiers at the front. In Great Britain we have a dozen towns as wealthy as Moscow, but it is evident that the heart of the rich Englishman does not bleed to order. In Germany, Krupps, the great armament firm, put down a million pounds towards the soldiers' fund at the begin- ' ning of the war. In Britain we have armament firms who are piling up huge dividents as a result of the continued fighting, yet they have been content to send in a paltry thousand guineas or so to aid the very men who are burning their ammunition. Take the millionaire bankers, whose very existence depends on Tommy's activities, the millionaire landowners and factory owners, the people most vitally interested in the war—these are content to send along sums that one might expect to receive at an ordinary charity bazaar. And when it comes to assisting Tommy's worth for digging trenches, sleeping in th ewet, getting killed or maimed for life, they reckon that something in the vicinity of eightpence a day for himself and family is a fair wage. So Britain, with its annual income of a thousand million pounds, offers three tanners a day to the man who will face Dantesque horrors and privations, for the privilege of guarding its huge gold hoards and bullion reserves. But Tommy has been told that he is fighting for his home. It seems, however, that another army is needed to fight the landlords and bailiffs who have been busy raiding this much blown up home during Tommy's absence at the front.

AUSTRALIANS AT THE FRONT. Several well-known Australian journalists have been at the front with a vengeance. Frank Fox late of the Ijuiletin, was entrenched in the cellars of the Hotel Wagner during the bombardment of Antwerp. Fox is described as an ex-Australian artillery officer. In the cellar of the Hotel Wagner were other literary celebrities, including Mrs. Creed of Sydney Louise Mack), authoress of many delightful stories and boohs. Mrs. Creed escaped from Antwerp at the moment of The German entry. Frank Fox came to England a few years ago, and soon made on the Morning Post, where lie rose to the position of sub-editor in less than two years. Louise Mack used to write the Woman's Letter in the Bulletin, but like A. G. Stephens, tho gentle Lomise was never on time with her "copy." On Tuesday, the day of going to pres,s, there was generally a huat round Syd&ay to capture the letter. Louise Wf.s generally hard to find, but when found the "copy" was always worth the hunt.

GERMAN MARKSMANSHIP. Belgian refugees are coming in thousands to '.iris country says a Home cor-respond.-nt). One old man told me that as th's result of a thousand shells fired ovr 'tis farm by Prussian artillerymen, <"■ \. one aged horse was killed. At v the sound of shell-fire stampeded '.. e;vitle, but after a while they went O! grazing quietly under the hail of shut and shrapnel. The sound of a p-ssing shell is very much like the

troubled howling of a dog, while the proximity of the 17-iuch howitzer projectile is said to resemble a. bandsaw passing through a bag of nails.

ZEPPELINS AND RUBBERNECKS,

Zeppelin nerves are the order of the day. Never was so much interest taken in London's murky skies. You walk down Oxford Street and discover thousands of rubbernecks* You discover, too, the tragedy of the fat man trying to see in a line with the top of his hat. It is always a failure. Only tlie thin are permitted to rubberneck with dignity. The other day I watched one fat man trying to diagnose a Zeppelin over St. Taul's. It wasn't to be done } and the poor fellow lost his footiw; and whirled himself into a painter's ladder that stood on the footpath. After the ambulance people had dealt with him he confessed in a perspiring whisper that looking at Zepps was worse than treading on banana skins.

Americans ridicule the idea of airship bombs ever penetrating the fog that guards London. "They'll bounce off, sure," said a New Yorker to me as we choked through a wall-like mass of vapour that shut out the lamps and hid the very pavement from our smarting eyes. "The Zeppeliner who tries *o blast a hole through this," he concluded, "will merely amuse the inhabitants below."

PIG IRON AND VALOUR CROSSES.

A lot of things are being said about the exportation of pig-iron from England since the Kaiser ordered 30,000 iron crosses for his special heroes at the front. Somehow, one does not associate heroism with bronze or iron implements, but military tradition insists on its chosen warriors wearing with dgnity pieces of metal the colour of a flatron. In a London pawnbroker's, recently, I saw a string of Victoria Crosses for sale, together with a box full of medals won in many parts of the Empire. Their owners had long since drifted into asylums or worse places. And now Cohen and his assistant Isaacs dust and put away, eacn night, the little black emblems of forgotten valour and glory. The Crosses of Irony!

BRITISH SUBMARINE IN THE KIEL CANAL.

I have just seen a letter from a naval lieutenant on duty in the North Sea. He ways that on the 7th of September Inst lie entered the Kiel Canal, in charge of a submarine. Once inside, his presence was detected. A wire drag-net was drawn across the entrance, while another swept down the canal from the landward side, lhe nets made two hauls in his direction but missed. The first attempt proved too high for the swift "sub," the second missed also, as the gallant little vessel rose to the surface and scooted out to sea. This scrap of private information only proves that the young bloods of the navy are not sleeping quietly in their bunks at night.