GREAT BRITAIN.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 156, 8 December 1914, Page 5

GREAT BRITAIN.

rp"N ■ - KING. GEORGE'S SAFE RETURN, j « itfTO SHOT AND SHELL. London, December 6. The King has returned to London. A Central News Paris message says that at a certain point of the tour the , staff suggested that it was unsafe to 1 ■visit the trenches, which had recently j been the object of artillery fire. The j King replied, "All the more reason I. should go. There is no reason I should not take risks. The soldiers take them." The King went to the trendies, J and chatted with the troops. , Times and Sydney Sun Services. Five hundred British barristers are / fighting .at the front. j DECORATIONS AT THE FRONT. Received 7, 8.45 p.m. London, December 7. While at the front the King conferred the Order of Merit on Sir John French. He decorated King Albert with the Order of the Garter, and gave Victoria Crosses to Naik Darwan Sing Negi, First battalion of Garhwal Rifles, for valour on the battlefield, also to a Sepoy belonging to the Duke of Connaught's Baluchis. NEUTRALITY OF BELGIUM. | BRITAIN REPLIES TO RUMOURS. Received 7, 9, p.m. ' London, December 6. ( The Bureau, replying to allegations j that Britain contemplated forestalling ; the German invasion of Belgium, pub- J lishes Sir E. Grey's despatch of April,, j 1913, and communicated to the Belgian ! Government in consequence of similar j rumours which were then circulating. I Sir E. Grey said that if Britain first violated neutrality, it would give Germany a justification for sending troops. He added, that so long as neutrality was not violated Britain could not send troops to Belgium. THE NEW ZEALANDERS. * "MECHANICALLY PERFECT." Times and Sydney Sun Services. Received 7, 5.50 p.m. London, December 6. Thd New Zealand contingent on Salisbury Plain is mechanically perfect in ordinary drill, and is revelling in special courses. The contingent is under orders •to be ready to move at any time. They axe believed to be going to Egypt.