Abergavenny Chronicle

Mr. Waiter Taylor Blanchett, who was buiied at Slough, gavo 80,000 music lessons during his life of eeventy-six years. He and his sons have been or-anists at Slough for moro than fifty yeara.

TWO-HOURS* FLIGHT AFTER AIRMEN I WERE KILLED. I If It is not exceptional for aeroplanes to continue Hying wneji their pilots have been killed," said an officer of the Royal Air Force to in "Evening Standard" represen- tative. "There have been cases of machines continuing until their petrol has been ex- hausted. We have captuted German machines with their pilots dead." In a recent case just brought to notice, the officer explained, a Bristol fighter (two- seater, with guns fore nnd aft), started at 1.20 p.m. in good Hying weather. At 3,500 fcot the two airmen; running 80 miie-s an hour, attacked a German Albatross. Three other madhines, two of them German, joined iu the action. "The Bristol machine hung on to its quarry, and eventually got it well under the nose, the German crashing down. ITri- mediately our machine made a sweep south. It had lost height in manoeuvring, and was rocking badly as if out d control; but it kept steadily on until it wius lost to view. "A little be fore four o'clock the machine fell to earth nearly twenty miles west of Arras. Both its occupant., were found to be dead from bullet wounds, which had struck them in the back. The petrol tank wae empty. e, "There is no doubt that the two men were shot immediately the German Alba- tross fell. The Bristol machine, which is the best and most perfectly controlled fight- ing machine known, of its own volition swept on a fairly even keel to a distance possibly ten miles from where the battle took place. "Then, from some reason that will never be known, the controls were shifted and a circle was made. As the total distance covered must have been under 160 miles, the machine seems to have lost speed and height gradually—possibly dne to some minor but not vital injury to the engine. For over two hours the two dead men were in the air before the final crash to earth."

I WEALTHY GERM N'S SUICIDE. I At Douglas Detention Camp, Isle of Man, on Monday, an inquest was held on Frederich Charles Braiidauer, fifty-six, the millionaire steel pen manufacturer, who was found UHconscious with a glass containing traces of veronal me-ir his bed. He had been interned since January. 1917. and had lived in England for many yeara, but had allowed his naturalisation papers to lapse by returning to Germany tor a time. Recently he had received notice that he was to be repatriated, and had declarod that he would rather die than return tc Germany. In a letter which he left he stated that the agonies of the death struggle would be nothing to what he would have to go through if he submitted to the repatria- tion order. A verdict of "Suicide" wns returned.

I WAR OFFICE CHANGES. I Lord Milner has appointed Mr. Ian Mac pherson, M.P., Parliamentary Under-Secre- tarv of State for War since December, 1016, to bo also Vice-Prcsident of the Army Coun- cil, and to act as Deputy Secretary of State in this capacity. Mr. Macpherson will be able to reixki much needed assistance to the Secretary of State in dealing with the administrative business of tho War Office, which is excep- tionally heavy. Maior-General Sir R. D. Whigham, K.C.B., D.S.O., having vacated the posit ion of Deputy Chief of the Imperial General Staff in order to take up an appointment with the British Expeditionary Force in France, will be succeeded by Major-General C. H. Harington, C.B., D.S.O.

I PRAISE FOR AUSTRALIANS. I The following telegram has been sent tc the G.O.C., 4th Army: "Please ask Genera! Bird wood to inform all ranks of the Aus- tralian Corps that the Field-Marshal is fully aware of the gallant conduct and magnifi- cent achievement of the Australians, and wishes to thank them. The splendid ser- vice of, the First Australian Division in the north has not escaped his notice, and the Field-Marshal desires to include them ia this expression of his appreciation."

I GREAT WASTE CF FISH. I A.t Hull Tribunal, Mr. Payne, solicitor, r. Pa y ic, solicitor; during a case, stated that in the past fort- night fish worth £ 16,000 had to be sent tc manure works because there was not suffi- cient staff to cure it. Captain Chapman said he had been told that if fish did not fetch a certain price it was sent to the manure heap. Mr. Payne denied that that was the reason. ————— —————

I WOMEN'S THEFTS OF BAGS. I At Maidenhead Police-court on Monday, r.ineteen women were fined various amounts from £ 5 downwards (with prison as an alternative) for stealing- linen bags, the pro- perty of the Government, which they were employed to sort and repair. At one woman's home 101 bags were found, and at another's 160, and it was stated that the women washed them and made them up into underclothing.

I PRIZE COURT RECORD. I Sir Samuel Evans achieved a record in the Prize Court on Monday by condemning in about fifty minutes 1160,000 worth of enemy property seized on three British ve,s,sels-the Chantalla, the Clan Macbeth, and the Clan Macgillivray. The cargoes seized consisted of cotton waste, ootton, and dried beans from India for tanning.

I BUTCHER HEAVILY FINED. At Old-street Police-court, Dinah Wade, butcher, Bethnal Green, was summoned for selling meat above the maximum price, for selling to a customer not registered with her, and for selling meat without detaching a coupon. Fines of < £ 50 and k2 2s. costs were imposed on each summons, making .£156 66. in all. —

UNSUCCESSFUL APPEAL. The Criminal Appeal Court dismissed the appeal of Alfred Alex Gould, a solicitor's managing clerk, against his conviction for conspiracy to defeat the Military Service Act, for which he had been sentenced to six- teen months' hard labour by Mr. Justice .1 Avory at the Central Criminal Court. (

For obtaining three ration cards for him- I self by false statements that two were for his son and daughter, William Rickard, who lives alone at Dover, was fined £ lo and I costs. Gathered wool is to be controlled like fleeoo wool, owing to abuse of its previous gxclufiion..

"WE WOMEN AT HOME WATCH AND PRAY FOR YOU." The Queen has sent the following message to the men of the Navy, Army, and Air Force: "I send this message to tell every man how much we, the women of the British Empire at home, watch and pray for you during the long hours of these days of stress and endurance. Our pride iu you is im- measurable, our hope unbounded, our trust absolute. "You are fighting in the cause of righteousness and freedom, fighting to de- fend the children and women of our land from the horrors that have overtaken other countries, fighting for our very existence as a people at home and across the seas. You arc offering your all, you hold back nothing, and day by day you show a love so great that no man can have greater. "We, on our part, send forth with full hearts and unfaltering will the lives we hold most dear. We, too, are striving in all ways possible to make the war victorious. I know that I am expressing what is felt by thou- sands of wives and mothers when I say that we are determined to help one another in keeping your homes ready against your glad home-coming. In God's name we bless you and by His help we, too, will do our best."

STORIES OF THE MOTOR PATROL. The motor-launches of the auxiliary patrol are manned, to a considerable extent, by men who were amateur yachtsmen in the days of peace, and who possessed an intimate know. ledge of the waters around the British Isles, to say nothing of the French and Belgian coastal waters. In these vessels both officers and men have continued to acquit themselves 6plendidly, and one senior naval officer has reported: "Day after day, year after year, they have kept the seas in the worst weather, when other craft have had to run for shelter." On one occasion a German submarine at- tacked an American barque, but a watchful motor-launch put in an appearance and opened fire. The enemy was compelled to defend him- self, with the result that the barque escaped without damage, while the German was obliged to submerge under a rain of shells. The armed trawlers have been manned by fishermen, and have accomplished a vast amount of good work. After one of our ships had. been mined the commanding officer of a trawler lashed his vessel alongside and suc- ceeded in removing all the wounded. This happened in a dangerous area, where the trawler might have been mined at any moment. The Lieutenant, R.N.R., who accomplished this had also been instrumental in bringing in 256 survivors from eight ships torpedoed in his area. A submarine on the surface attacked a steamer. This was observed by a trawler en- gaged in escorting another steamer. The trawler ordered her convoy to proceed in a certain direction, and hastened to attack the U boat. Finding the range quickly, the trawler was soon dropping shells all round the submarine. One round sent up a cloud of dense black smoke from the enemy, who instantly ceased fire and disappeared. The trawler, having saved the second steamer by his prompt interference, now returned to his convoy.

B 2-GRADE 3. Mr Bettesworth Piggott, presiding at the Russian Tribunal, said he had made in- quiries. and had ascertained that B 2 men were not in Grade 2, but that they would remain in Grad e 3 There seemed to be a certain amount of uncertainty, which was probably the outcome of the proclamation calling up B 2 men amongst others. It would be wisest for all B 2 men to get graded. The Ministry of National Service state* that Mr Bettesworth Piggott's statement is quite correct. It is pointed out that it is in the interest of every man liable to be called up to be graded as soon as possible. Thoso at present merely categorised should also be re-examined and graded. It is not now re- garded by tribunals as sufficient for au appellant to be able to state his category. In other words, categories are not exactly equivalent to the comparative grades.

GAS AND COAL ALLOWANCES. The attention of the Board of Trade has been called to the action of some house- holders in giving up gas and electric fires and cookers owing to the restrictions im- posed by the new Order with regard to the quantities of gas and electricity used. Tho Board warn consumers that an Order Y,- i t' shortly be issued restricting household sup- plies of coal, and that under this Order regard will be had to gas and electricity consumption in fixing the allowance of coal. ————— —————

LIFE SAVED BY GERMAN. A small fishing boat, in which were two men, capsized off Leasowe, Cheshire, on Monday, and the occupants were seen strug- gling in the water by soldiers on the em- bankment, who were in charge of some Ger man prisoners. A sergeant and private swam out and rescued one man, while a German prisoner, with a lifebuoy, swam against a strong tide and brought in the other.

DREW TEN RATIONS. I For offencea under the rationing scheme, Robert Jim Mace Shreene, a Middlesbrough bricklayer, was on Monday sentenced to six months' hard labour. By giving false par. ticulars he had drawn sugar, tea, and mar- garine rationa for ten people, and had said to his landlady, "The Food Controller is n' going to starve me."

COUSINS COLLIDE IN AIR. I Lieutenant Cyril Whelan, R.A.F., the son of Mr. Albert Whelan, the entertainer, has been killed in a flying accident in Kent. He came into collision in the air with a machine piloted by Lieutenant Levy, his cousin, the son of Mr. Bert Levy, the Aus. tralian cartoonist, who was also killed.

I VISCOUNT IPSWICH KILLED. I Viscount Ipswich, Royal Air Force and Coldstream Guards, grandson of the Duke of Grafton, has been killed while flying in Wilt- I shire. I He served with the Guards at the begnning I of the war, and was wounded in France. The only son of the Earl of Euston, and second heir to the dukedom, Lord Ipswich was thirty-four years of age. He leaveti a widow and two children.

Strood (Kent) Council has two lady road- sweepers, who keep the village of Luddcs- down clean. Two British missions, under Major-Gene- rals Bridges and Hutchinson, have arrived in Washington. Five thousand people attended an inter- cessory service in Melbourne Town Hall. Loyal greetings were cabled to My- Lloyd Georg

 THE STORY /??' ZE?M?66E \J G? t.L D.Î' I SPLENDID HEROISM iN THE FIGHT ON THE MOLE. THRILLING INCIDENTS. The following official narrative of the haval raid en Zeebrugge and Ostend haa been issued by the Admiralty:- Vice-Admiral Keyes, in the destroyer War- wick, commanded the operation. From Vindictive's bridge, as she headed in towards the Mole, there was scarcely a glimmer of light to be cceu shorewards. Ahead of her rolled th? smoke screen, her cloak of invisibility, wrapped about her by the small craft. This was a device of Wing Commander Brock, R.N.A.S., "without which," acknowledges the admiral in com- mand, "the operation could not have been oonducted." It was not till Vindictive, with her bluejackets and marines standing ready for the landing, was tlctie upon the Mole that the wind swept back the smoke screen and laid her bare. Immediately afterwards the dim coast and the hidden harbour ex- ploded into light, and it was in a gale of shelling that Vindictive laid hev nose against the SOit.-high concrete side of the Mole. Commander A. F. B. Carpenter (now Cap- tain) conned the Vindictive from her open tain) conned the Vindictivefrom her open bridge till her stern was laid in, when he took up his position in the flame-thrower hut on the port side. Colonel Elliot, who was to lead the marines, waited on the false deck just abaft the bridge, and Captain H. C. Halahau, who commanded the bluejackets, was amid- ships. The gangways were lowered, and the word for the assault had not yet been given when both leaders were killed. The same shell that killed Colonel Elliott also did fear- ful execution in the forward Stokes mortar battery I OVER THE PARAPET. "The men were magnificent." The land- ing on the Mole was perilous; it involved a passage" across the spHntering gangways, a drop over the parapet into the field of fire. Lieutenant H. T. C. Walker had his arm carried away by a shell on the upper deck, and lay in the darkness while the storming parties trod him under. He was recognised and dragged aside by the commander. He raised his remaining arm in greeting. The lower deck was a shambles as the comman- der made the rounds of his shil); yet tho" wounded and dying raised themselves to rheer as he made his tour. The Daffodil, after aiding to berth Vindictive, should have proceeded to land her own men, but now Commander Carpenter ordered her to re- main aa she was, with her bows against Vin- dictive's quarter, pressing the latter ship into the Mole. Normally, Daffodils boilers develop 801b. pressure of steam per inch, but now Artificer Engineer Sutton maintained 1601b. for the whole period tbat she holding Vindictive to the Mole. The Iris had troubles of her own. Her first attempts to make fast to the Mole ahead of Vindictive failed. Two officers, Lieutenant-Commander Bradford and Lieutenant Hawkins, climbed ashore and sat astride the parapet trying to make the grapnels fast till each was killed and fell down between the ship and the wall. Commander Valentine Gibbs had both legs hot awny, and died next morning. Lieutenant Spencer, R.N.R., though wounded, took command and réfnsed to be relieved. Iris was obliged at last to change her position, and fall in astern of Vindictive, and suffered very heavily from the fire. I SHELL IN THE SICK-BAY. A single big shell plunged through the upper deck and burst beiow at a point where firty-six marines; were waiting. Another s:;e.l in the ward-room, which was serving as sick-bay, killed four officers and twenty-six men. Her total casualties were eight offi- cers and sixty-nine men killed, and three offi- cers and 102 men wounded. The storming and demolition par tie a upon the Mole met with no resistance from the Germans ether than the intense and unremitting fire. One after another the buildings burst into flame or split and crumpled as the dynamite went off. And while they worked and de- stroyed, blockships made for the mouth of the canal. Thetis came first, iteaming into a tornado of shell from the great batteries ashore. It was hers to show the road to Intrepid and Iphigenia, who followed. She cleared the string of armed barg"es which defends the channel, but fouled one of her propellers upon the net defence. The shore batteries found her and pounded her unremittingly. As she lay she signalled invaluable direc- tions to the others, and here Commander it. S. Sney" d, D.S.O., blew the charges and sank her. A motor-l aunch, under Lieuten- ant II. Littleton, R.N.V.R., raced alongside and took off her crew. Lieutenant Stuart Bonham Carter, com- manding the Intrepid, placed the nose of iiship neatly on the mud of the western bank, ordered his crew away, and blew up his ship. Lieutenant E. W. Billyard-Leake, com- manding the Iphigenia, beached her accord- ing to arrangement on the eastern side, blew her up, and saw her drop nicely across the canal. According to latest reports from air ob- servation, the two old ships, with their holds full of concrete, arc lying across the canal in a V position; and it is probable that the work they set out to do has been accomplished and that the canal is effec- tively bl-oëked. A GREAT EXPLOSION. The shore end of the Mole consists of a jetty, and here an old submarine, com- manded by Lieutenant R. D. Sandford, R.N., loaded with explosives, was run in to the piles and touched off, her crew getting away in a boat to where the usual launcTi awaited them. Officers describe the explo- sion as the greatest they ever witnessed—a huge, roaring spout of flame tore* the jetty in half and left a gap of over 100ft. The Vindictive, towed loose from the Mole, by Daffodil, turned and made for home-a great black shape. Her forward funnel was a sieve; her decks were a dazzle of sparks, but she brought back intact the horseshoe nailed to it, which Sir Roger Keyes had pre sen fed to her commander. Meantime, the destroyers North Star, Phoebe and Warwick, which guarded the Vindictive from action by enemy destroyers while she lay beside the Mole, had their share in the battle North Star, Lieutenant-Commander K. C. Helyar, R.N., losing her way in the smoke, emerged to the light of the star shells, and was sunk. The German cmuniqué, which states that only a few members of the crew could be saved by them, is in this detail of an unusual accuracy, for the Phcebe, Lieu tenant-Commander H. E. Gore-Langton R.N., came up under a heavy fire in timo to rescue nearly all. AT OSTEND. The wind that blew back the smoke screen at Zeebrugge served us even -worse off Ostend, where that and nothing else pre- vented the success of an operation ably directed by Commodore Hubert Lynes, C.M.G. The Sirius and Brilliant were already past the Stroom Bank buoy when the wind t changed, revealing the arrangements to the enemy. The Sirius was already in a sinking condi- tion, when at length the two ships,, having failed to find the entrance, grounde d and were forced therefore to sink themselves at a point about 4UU yards cast of the piers, and their crews were taken off by motor-, I launches. i The difficulty of the operation is to be gauged by the fact that from Zeebrugge to Ostend the enemy batteries number not less than 120 heavy guns which can concentrate on retiring ships, during daylight, up to a distance of about sixteen miles.

THOSE OF 43 AND 44 TO BEi MEDICALLY EXAMINED. The first proclamation under the new Military Service Act, which enlisted all men up to 51, has been published. It warns all men born in 187^4 or 1875 that they will shortly receive individual notice to report for medical ex- amination. They will be called up for actual military service by a subsequent individual notice. The date of this call to the Colours will not be before the 15th day after medi- cal. examination, but applications for ex- emption must be lodged with the local tri- bunal within seven days of medical examina- tion.

I EXEMPTION CLAIMS. NEW INSTRUCTIONS ISSUED TO TRIBUNALS. j New regulations are contained in a cir- cular addressed to the tribunals by the Local Government Board. It is imperative, bays Mr. Hayes Fisher, that there shall be no break in the flow of men to the Army. The grounds on which exemption may be claimed remain unaltered, but the standard must be stricter than ever, especially in the case of Grade 1 or 2, or categories A, B 1, or C 1 men. Tribunals are urged to consider in bulk the claims of men in the same occupation, thereby accelerating decisions. Men in occupations dealt with otherwise than through the tribunals can only appeal to a tribunal on personal grounds. Applications for exemption for older men must be made within seven days of their being medically graded. No applications are to bo made before a man is graded. Grade 3 men are not wanted unless they possess special qualifications for which there is a demand in the Army, and should not apply to tribunals until they receive a call- ing-up notice. fsotice of appeal from the decision of a local tribunal must be delivered within two days. Appeal from appeal tribunals can be made only with the consent of the tribunal. Two days is the time limit. Tribunals must send forward appeal cases within a day of receiving them. If a local tribunal does not decide a case within twelve days the National Service re- presentative may take it to the appeal tri- bunal for decision. Solicitors or counsel may not be employed by any applicant, but relatives may help when necessary. Exemptions should not be for more than three months except in exceptional cases. Exemptions generally should be condi- tional as well, but unless tribunals direct otherwise all men in Grades 1 or 2 exempted after April 30 will be liable to join the Volunteers. 'Relief from this liability may be granted where they think it unreasonable, regard oeing had, for instance, to the man's occupa- don or to some other condition imposed by the tribunal. These other conditions include becoming a special constable, a fireman, or helping in tho businesses of men in the Army or in the cultivation of allotments. Renewals of any man's exemption, except- in certified occupations, cannot be asked for unless the tribunal has given permission. There is no appeal from tho refusal of this leave. I WIFE AN OBJECTOR. I A woman accompanied her husband to the Hull Tribunal to say she was a conscientious objector. She would not, she snid, have hei husband back if he killed a man, and added that her husband could not fight. The chairman asked the man to speak foi himself, and he replied that he never could tight. The application was adjourned for the man to reply to the usual printed questioru put to objectors.

I TEA NOT FOOD. I The King's Bench. Divisional Court, or j the appeal of Mrs. Ellen Hinde, of Shipton- under-Wychwood, who had been fined £5( and costs at Chipping Norton for having ar excessive quantity of tea, decided that tec was not a food within the terms of the Food Hoarding Order.

I I POLICEMEN'S DANGERS. I In passing sentence of three years' pena. servitude, at the Old Bailey, on William Rodgers, twenty-four, dealer, for house- breaking and wounding, Judge Rentoul said that policemen had to face greater dangei than soldiers on the battlefield. 1

I NINETEEN YEARS' OLD FARMER. A farmer summoned at Highgato for sell- irig milk deficient in fat said he was nineteen years of age, and was farming ninety-threE acres of pasture land and ten of arable. He has now to join the Army.

————— —————. CONDUCT IN A TEA-SHOP. At Westminster Police-court. Vera Ed- wards, was fined .£5 and 30 gui. ts cost for permitting disorderly conduct at the Club Tea Rooms, Victoria-street, Westminster. Evidence was given by customers and wait- resses to the effect that though there 1 i been kissing, cigarette smoking, and pr/. e- what familiar conversation, there had never been any loose behaviour. The magistrate declared himself satisfied that the condlct- of the place had been reprehensible.

Parcel post to prisoners in Bulgaria is evspended through congestion in Hungary. Mr. William Banfield, General Secretary of the Bakers' Union, has been' adopted as Labour candidate for Aston. A Mons Star man haa re-enlisted at New- port (!l.2.

HOSPITAL SHIP'S ESCAPE. —— —— STRUCK BY TORPEDO THAT DID N01 EXPLODE. The Secretary of the Admiralty Issued the following statement on -Ilonday:- It i3 now considered to be proved con- clusively that tho British hospital ship Guildford Castle was attacked by a Ger- man submarine ia the Bristol Channel on the afternoon of March 10, and was struck by a torpeao, and that the ship subsequently had a narrow escape from being sunk. At the time of the attack, 5.35 p.m., the Guildford Castle, which was carrying 438 wounded soldiers., was flying a Red Cross flag of the largest size, her navigating lights were also showing, and the distinc- tive marks denoting the character of too ehip were properly illuminated. No excuse can be put forward by the enemy that these distinctive marks were in any way obscured by climatio conditions, for the weather at the time was clear, with visibility of about fivo miles, and the ship, standing well out of the water, could bo plainly distinguished as a British Red Cross hospital ship. An official inquiry into the circumstaMesr of the attack shows that two torpedoes were fiiicd at the Guildford Castle. The track of the first was seen by the master, Captain Thomas Martiu Lang, R.N.R., the fourth j officer, and several members of the crew, who state that it passed clooo to the ship's stern from port to starboard. The fourth officer observed the torpedo track for a die- taries of three cables (600 yards). A minute' afterwards a second torpedo was fired and ytruck the ship a heavy sharp blow on the port side abreast of the mainmast, causing- her to vibrato considerably fore and aft. Happily the torpedo did not explode. The- discipline on board the ship was excellent. Ther. was no panic, and the patients were- got to the boats very quickly. On arrival in port the YP.,sel was dry- docked, and expert examination of thchulf (taken in conjunction with the fact that the. ship was on a steady course at the time and the description of the force of the blow) is. held to prove beyolld possibility of doubt, that tho Guildford Castle was struck by a. torpedo which did not explode. The toipedo- apparently rebounded after first striking the vessel, and, returning, bumped along the ship's side until it was finally struck by or.e of the propellers, as ono of the propeller blades was found to be marked and slightly bent. A detailed examination of the marks- oa the hull of the Guildford Castle shows, that they are not compatible with the vessel" having struck a submarine cr the submarine- having collided with the ship. In view of the fact that- the attack on the hospital ship Guildford Castle took place in Maroh, it is important to place on record the following extract from tho German official messages sent through the wireless st;.tion& of that Government on April 24: "With respect to the results of the sub- marine war for the month of March, the Deutscha Tageszeitung asks the question,. Where does Geddes get tho courage to, speak in the British Parliament of a falling- off in the British mercantile losses? In the- English White Book lie gives the losses to the world's mercantile shipping to the end of 1917 as only 11.8 million gross registered tons, while the German Admiralty Staff proves indisputably that tho losses were about 5,000,000 tons more.' The news- paper continues: 'Lloyd George and Geddes- falsify the- losses of ships plying in tho military service, (? ignoring) so-ea.IIed naval losses, auxiliary cruisers, guardships, hos- pital ships, and very probably also troop. transport and munition steamers, that is to say precisely that shipping space which is particularly exposed to and attacked by the U-boats.' i»

CONDEMNED PRISONERS DEATH. Walter Gibbins, fitter, cf Maltby, near Rotherham, lying at Armley Gaol under eentence of death, died on Saturday as a. result, it is believed, of the eficcts of prussic acid poisoning. He took a dose of poison shortly before being arrested, about a couple of months ago. He and Edith Rose Proctor, with whom he had been living, were together sentenced to death at Leeds Aseizos for the murder of Gibbins' scven- year-old girl by slow starvation. Tho'body wag found buried in a brickyard. Their appeals were dismissed la.-t week.

I AIR RAID FINDS. The public are officially reminded that any brass parts of exploded anti-aircraft shell found after an air raid should be handed over at once to the police for return to tber military authorities. No unexploded shell should IX) touched, but the attention of the polico should bQ driNvii to where it is lying, in order that arrangements may be- made for its removal by the military.

I WOOLWICH WIUIIDER. At the Old Bailey, David Greenwood, twenty-one, a discharged soldier, was sen- tenced to death for the murder of Nellio- Grace Trew, the sixteen-year-old clerk at Woolwich Arsenal, whose body was found on Eltham Common. The jury, in view of his, youth and his service to his country, recom- mended Greenwood to mercy. .a»

I THE SOUTHERN COMMAND. The King has approved of the following appointments: Lieut.-General Sir H. C. Sc later, General Officer Commanding-in- Chief, Southern Command, to be Colonel Commandant, R.A.; Major-General Sir John Hanbury-Williams to be colonel of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire L.I.

I A LIFE OF CRIME. Charles Jackson, who received eighteen months' imprisonment at the Old Bailey for shopbreaking, was stated to have lived a life of crime. On leaving prison after his last sentence he applied at the Hotel Cecil for a commission in the Royal Air Force.

I FORGED ARMY. DISCHARGES. At the Old Bailey, Alfred John Stephen; was ordered twelve months, Charles Litt- man isix months, and Richard Moore and Edward Parker three months' imprisonment for conspiring to defeat the- Military Service Act by selling forged Army dischargee.

I NEW AIR MINISTER. It is officially announced that the King lias approved the appointment of Sir Wil- liam Weir to be Secretary of State for the Air Forces, in succession to Lord Rother- mere.

Mrs. Rhoda Mortimer, of South Wraxall, was watching the ascent of an aeroplane which had descended when she was 6truck by the propeller: She died in Bath Hos- pital. A verdict of "Natural causes" was re- turned at' the inquest on Dr. Christopher Powell, fifty-four, of Upper Clapton-road, London, E., who died suddenly from heart disease* at the house of a patient.

NEW POSTAGE RATES, The Postmaster-General has received numerous inquiries on the subject of the new postage rates, especially as to the date upon which the new rates will come into operation. He therefore desires it to be known that no alteration has yet taken place. It is proposed to bring the several changes into operation upon the same date, which will be shortly after the necessary legislation has been obtained. Due notice will be given to the public both as to the date upon which the new rates will be brought into effect, and as to any alterations of postal regulations consequent thereon.