GENERAL ITEMS.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 January 1916, Page 5

GENERAL ITEMS.

NOTES FROM THE TIMES. THE ANZAO MAGAZINE. Times and Sydney Sun Services. Received Jan. 10, (i.4f> p.m. London, Jan. 15. Captain Bean lias arranged with dispells, Ltd., for the publication of the Anzae Magazine, of two hundred pages, at the price of half-a-crowu, the prolits going to the Anzae Corps and the Red Cross Society. The book will contain a remarkable selection of drawings, and of poems and sketches that have been written in the trenches. THE KAISER'S ILNESR. The Daily Xews correspondent at Home says that General von Billow's sudden return to Berlin from Switzerland was due to a summons to attend a council, convened under the presidency of the Crown Prince, to decide measures that are necessary if the Kaiser's illness is prolonged or the operation unsuccessful, also to discuss war matters. .Meanwhile it is impossible to obtain information, even from neutrals or diplomatic sources, concerning the Kaiser's condition. The usual optimistic official reports are now being withheld.

HEROIC RUSSIAN AMAZONS. Petrograd, Jan. 14. There are numerous instances of feminine heroism on the 'battlefields. A regiment lost its colonel and ten officers A sister-of-charity rallied the troops; led them back to the trenches, and then fell dead. Another nurse fought protecting the wounded in the evacuated village of Naudah. The incidents suggest that educated Russian women develop masculine mentality and desire to appear natural and strong more than pretty. Sex distinctions in Russia are less than elsewhere, and women lighters among the troops are common. VISCOUNT FRENCH. ON THE CONDUCT OF WAR. London, Jan. 14, Viscount French, in receiving the freedom of the Fishmongers' Company, deprecated the public rushing to conclusions and forming hasty judgments. None who' had not seen it could understand how war had been revolutionised. Field-Marshal Sir Evelyn Wood said that Lord French always had the knack of being on the spot at the right moment, and as a commander stimulated the efforts of the men in the firing line by his own heroic example. At one critical moment, when a trusted general was stunned by a shell and his staff invapacitated for over an hour, Lord French took charge of a subordinate army himself and made the dispositions which threw back the Germans. It is understood that Sir Evelyn Wood's story refers to Sir Douglas Uaig, during the battle of Ypres. SMUGGLING ARMS INTO SPAIN. Madrid, Jan. 14. The authorities at Malaga discovered that .1000 rifles had been imported inside block and ornamental pillars of cement, lined with zinc. The disclosure was due to tile cracking of the cement. A Dutch steamer brought a consignment to Marseilles, whence it was transhipped. FRENCH SIiORTAGIToF SHIPS. Paris, Jan. 14. In order to meet the transportation crisis thu Government is introducing a Bill authorising an advance of four millions sterling to shipowners, to enable them to increase their lleets by purchasing allied or neutral vessels