The Cambria Daily Leader

I Sun Rises 6.55, Sun Sets 7.24. Lighting-up Time, 7.54.. High Water, 1.14 p.m. King's Dock, 53ft. lin. p.m. To-morrow, 2.3 a.m., 2.38 #p.m.

l COUNCIL TOPICS. Aid. David Matthews, IYLP., I dealt, at the opening of the Swan- sea Council proceedings on Wednes- day, with the points urged in these I notes on Tuesday with regard to the new borough extension scheme. We asked that, if it were/ possible with- out making disclosures that would embarrass the Council in its conduct of negotiations over the Coedfranc situation, some statement should be made for the benefit of the rate- payers and to this we may add, now, for the benefit also of some coun- cillors. Aid. Matthews in reply, states that the Parliamentary Com- mittee is not yet in a position to go into details, but that a special meet- ing of the Committee, and of the I Council, will be held very shortly when we may expect to hear such news as it is expedient to give. We understand that these special meet- ings will be held within the next fortnight, and, realising the delicacy of the position, we must acquiese with the statement. But, as quickly as possible, the citizens of Swansea [should receive information on this important subject. Upon a good many other subjects also information is desirable—even for the councillors themselves! We do not believe that there is a mem- I ber of the Corporation who can tell us the size of the official staff, and its cost. There is no record avail- able. It used to be the practice to give the full list, and the salaries, in the Council Year Book, a diary that was circulated only among the members and the officials. A few years ago, however, the details re- garding salaries disappeared. We protested at the time against the innovation, and therefore we are glad to note that yesterday there was a general consensus of opinion that the old practice should be re- established. No resolution was ac- cepted on the matter, an omission we trust that will be repaired in time for the next issue of the Year Book. One* solitary voice was raised yesterday on v behalf of the new Gospel of Economy, that of Coun- cillor Parker! It is strange what adepts we can be in discovering obvious ways of economy—by others; our own pet concerns are always necessities that cannot pos- sibly be cut down. We suppose that there are on the Council quite a score, if not more, of strong critics of the Government upon the matter of alleged extravagance. But there is this beam in their own eye: I r,. d'. Expenses to Worcester re Barnsley.Hall Agreement. 6 2 3 Expenses to Cardiff, Royal Show 1 10 6 [There are two such bills.] Expenses to Felixstowe, Convontion of M.E.A 14 14 3 [Two similar bilk.] Expenses: London, meet- ing of Institute of Water Engineers; and Leeds, of British Waterworks Associa- tion .— 19 9 0 [Two bills.] Expenses: Blackpool, Conference of Institute of Cleansing Department 12 9 6' [Another bill of £ 12 4s. 6d.] Etc., etc., etc.! Now we say that this is overdoing the business even for normal times. In days such 9S these it is indefensible. All these conferences serve good purposes; but we can get on quite well with- out them, or at any rate we can manage with the presence of one delegate. We are sorry to say that what was a good Council, numerically speak- ing, at the start, dwindled down by the time the Housing Committee minutes were reached to small pro- portions. Either the housing ques- tion should be placed earlier on the agenda, or members must be asked to realise more fully than some of them do their responsibility in this matter.- Mr. Ha-rry Griffiths quite rightly described the list of urgent cases requiring accommodation as the most terrible document ever produced in Swansea. It is an ap- palling list. Let us give here Case No. 1. 1.—9-roomed house, containing two fami- lies. Man, wife and one child occupy- ing two rooms. Also man, wife and six children (two rooms). One child' 9 years of age consumptive. Eight sleep in one room. Here is Case No. 4: 4.—2-roomed house. Man, wife and seven children. Ages: Boy,s, 20, 18, 12; girls, 16, 10, 6, 2. All sleep in one bedroom. These are indictments of our civi- lisation. They show that it s rotten. What a race we shall rear —unless Council and citizens show themselves determined to clean out the filthy stables and make Swan- sea a town fit for heroes to live in. We note, gladly, that the Housing Committee is in earnest. We shad i wait to see all the councillors pre- sent when the minutes are discussed before we say that the Council is io earnest. Ht —.——— And this also we should like to say. If We had another pulpit than our own—and we are proud of itB reh.if we could appeal by voice as well as by pen, we would not have one Swansea pulpit silent on the question next Sunday. What a ?text wherewith to preach the Love of Man to Man! Our own copy of the report is at the disposal of a?nv tb(,- rc-n,rt Is at the of apply Christian precept to the urgent needs of Swansea.

a THE 53rd IN PALESTINE. f A Great Anniversary. By Hubert St. John. By Hubert St. John. To-night is the first anniversary of the commencement of the great Palestine ad- vance, in which the old Welsh Territorial Division—the 53rd-t,ook so important a part. The success of the opening attack on the Turkish lines depended upon sur- prise and an absolute adherence to pro- gramme, and to the 4/5th Wei^h fell the honour of being the first to go forward. It has been said on good authority that these valiant fellows were ordered to break through at the point of the bayonet, with rifles unloaded; had they attempted to do otherwise it is probable that the line would not have been broken without great concentration and loss of time, thus jeop- ardisin,- the whole brilliant plan of thk General Staff. As it happened, "Johnnie" was completely surprised, and, in some instances, his machine-gunners, peering over the sights of their guns in expecta- tion of our advance along obvious "wadis" (dry water courses), received the first inti- mation of our success by a slap on the hrrck and a cheery voice saying, « Come along Johnnie." In some places the bayonets had to be put to use, but the work was done so silently and well that everything went off in accordance with the programme. On the following day, September 19th, the Cal--io Corps met with stubborn resistance, and many casualties, until better supported by the guns. It must not be thought that this initial success and the complete victory that fol- plowed were achieved without much ex- haustive preparation, as the following ex- tracts from my diary will rhow. Thursday, t8th Sept. For about 10 days we have been fever- isjily preparing for a stunt," doing an enormous amount of work and plodding along, absolutely in the dark as to what was going to happen. My chief source of worry was the choice of tools and other j R.E. gear and the method of transport, After various attempts to solve this prob- lem, it was decided to split the transport into three echelons. (Here follows a host of technical detail which would not in- terest the uninitiated.) This much having been decided upon, each camel and mule load had to be worked out in pounds, giv- ing the camels 2.iO pounds and the mules ISO pounds apiece. Every article carried by these animals was duly noted on a list, as were the contents of each wag-on and tool-cart. The greatest care had to be taken in apportioning the loads in order that the animals should have equal weights each side, and, needless to say, this took considerable juggling. When all the details had been worked out, and the success of the caravan seemed assured, one of our draught horses* died, two mules went sick, and fourteen out of the twenty- five camels were taken anvay. Fortunately I was given, at the very last moment, nine heavy burden camels, and these saved the situation. By the 18th-the first night of the attack—we were all worn out with rush- ing about on preliminary preparations. We were, nevertheless, very thankful to move, if only to get back to the realm of reality after wallowing in theories for nearly a fortnight. My first move with the transport was to Morris Hill, which we reached about 10.30 p.m., and turned in for the night. When I Bay turned in," I mean we lay on the ground in all our harness. By this time the lads of the line had broken through, and our worthy sappers were well ahead marking out a track, under the able guidance of Lieut. I P.. over most treacherous ground. They left behind them a. trail of small white flags, in order that the swarm of working parties which followed should know where < to make a clearance in the stonê. thistles, and ancient crops with which the land was covered' By 6 o'clock this morning we were again on the move, unwashed and unbreakfasted, and making for the Wadi Samieh, which was previously in No Man's Land, and con- tained a streaih of water which neither side was permitted to use The track from Morris Hill (near Munatir) to the Wadi Samieh was very steep and danger- ous in parts (1 in 4" is none too pleaeant. with four-wheeled vehicles), but the for- ward party had made the best of a diffi- cult task, and sighting a road over unex- plored ground in the dark is none- too I easy. There were many moments when our wagons "stood quivering on the brink." undecided as to whether they would cast themselves into space and in- crease the number of articles by dashing I to pieces on the rocks a few hundred feet below, or return to their natural position WROOTI- Pottun- like well-behaved G.S. wagons. Fortun- ately respectability won the day. The poor old eamels 811 thered, down the steep and rockv path as best they could, and the mules—with the exception of one comic I fellow who every few hundred yards dis- chttrged his burden of Tilb. hammers in sundry places behaved very well, and won mr everlasting admiration of their most useful breed. At last we- sighted the Wadi Samieh itself. It lay at our feet like a vision of another world, hundreds of feet below us. Through the slight heat mist of the early ¡ morn it looked quite yoJÍd r?ach, and I one could just discern tb thin. blue strHsk of water, with a narrow belt of vegetation I on either side. Tiny speckq, were also seen moving hither and thither;, so ;tnall did they appear that they might have been Moses and his tribes for all we knew. As fro were faced with practically a sheer I drop, it was obvious at the first that our transport could not descend under its own steam," so the animals were unhooked from the wagonl? and a S.O.S. was dis- natehd to the sappers in the valley hc- low. It seemed as thongh they would never come, but at last th? first dozen or so arrived and commenced to lower the heavy wagons, with their pumps, petrol engines, canvas water gear of all descrip- tion. and a thousand other indispenfibl^ articles, by means of stout ropes. One by one the wagons reached their place of safety on the level ground belovr, and were again on the move behind their sturdy teams. It was 11.0 a.m. before I sat down to indulge in a combined breakfast and lunch on this my birthday. ( Our work on arrival was to ladown horse troughs and tanks for drinking water, and set up -the petrol engines to pumo sufficient water from the stream for all the troops within watering distance of the Wadi Samieh. This would probably mean something like 10,000 besides hemes and camels, so that the task was a fairly strenuous one. Then there was a road to be rushed forward in order to enable the guns to follow up the. infantry. Sunday, September 22nd. Much has transpired during the last few days, and we hare been marched almost off 4wr feet, but there wswsi abundant oom- pen^atiott in the wire we received, after dinner to-iiigrht, from Ottr Corps Com- rtutndet. which read: The operations on the night of the 18-19th and the morning of the 19th have beefl highly successful, and the Turkish Army west of the Jordan has ceased to etist." Tbe capture to date in- cluded 25.000 prisoners and much booty, and everything tends to give one the im- pression that as far as we on this front are J concerned the war is almost over. j

TOWN TALK. I I Neath's new workhouse will soon be vacant. Anybody want a home? -;0;- A dog, unmuzzled and collarless, Will seen walking into the Police Station ab I Neath on Wednesday. There's pluck! — o The order of the day: He's called an official, but he gets a workman's wage. —Mr. T. Merrells to Swansea Council. --=0 Woodfield-street, Morrision, is by na means bad promenade, but the g'ddy; tiapper and hobble-dc-hoy element in soma parts of it is on some occasions a positive nuisance. -wo:- —i»: — An applicant for relief at Wednesday's meeting of the Neath Board of Guardians admitted that she had a little nest egg of £ 268, but didn't want to spend it on Liv* ing. Nothing doingj Our tame humorist suggests that the best kind of man for the Swansea Cor-j poration to appoint to the position o £ official rat-catcher would be one of tho demobbed Terriers." -:0: A study in possibilities: Can a niaa who has lost the 8.55 mail train catclv the connection at Landore by taking a* Morriston tramcar at 8.56? Ah! Weft must have notice of that question I j The monthly cash paper of the Cor- poration shows that the municipal finances are weaker by £17 2s. for tlia-z* merry evening which Swansea kiddies had on the day following the arrival of; the presentation tank. One got his cn- gers trapped.. Like father, like son. In the course o4 a dispute between two boys in a nmning"; district rot ten miles from Swansea, oiief of the lads toid the odier that if ha' wouldn't come to terms there was noth-i ing for it but to resort to direct action; and strike at once. ¡ Mise Florence Smitheon's magnificentj- rendering of Roses of Picardy at th6 Empire, on Wednesday night, reminds aij Leader" man thai;; the prima donna ?ad ,c -uan t- a Little girl took part in a children's pan- tomime at Pontypridd, where she live-it with her parents before they removed tott Merthyr. j u The retirement, now announced, oft; C-harles Coborn from the music-hall stage;; and his other activities, recalls to mrj mind," remarked Aw&:in of the "Leader, that when in eorne parts of Wales, Coborn used to sing The Man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo,' and Twoj Lovely Black in Welsh, the latteci of whiich I translated for him." —iOt — Be the housing problem, a correspond dent writes to say that at a sale of Arnijr^ huts in North Wales several were soldi" for from JE50 to £ 150 each, and they am. to be converted into dv.Illng-houses. He wants to know if anything in that' line is being done locally. There is one in the Guildhall Yard which he can in"; spect, and probably buv-but not for. LW. j 09 Swansea housewives will be interested.; to know that although some jam maiiu*; faoturens threaten bo go on strike beeausjjj they contend that the price fixed byi the Food Controller involves theai in] beavy loss," other prominent mlllbers1 of the trade givts the assurance that gocxl supply will be maintained during the winter. Not too much plum and;; apple, we hope. ( —j Commenting on the commandeering ■home ports of Welsh coal intended f{)ti foreign countries, a Swansea district: colp'er last night said that although.; our friends acroes tie border are alwavsi maligning us, they have got to depend': the Welsh collier after ail." By the way, it was reported at the Conciliation i Board meeting yesterday that, with one] exception, all the pits in South Walesc1 are now working A record? The fact that the authorities are instill tuting a Rat Week" in October is, making people realise the importance äi an organised attempt to exterminate- this pest. Various suggestions are beinsj: made in the papers as to the beifa'i methods of killing the rat-by trapping poisoning, and even by gassing him. Tha old form of forretting will be more ap<; prociated by those who are rond or sport, but there are other ways which havos not yet been mentioned—the methods?" used by the boys to put it across thd rats in France, and then were" some rats there! t It seems that offic; al rat-c-atchers, if! and when they are appointed, will hava' to apply qaij-be tr-ortiiodox methods too-. capture the rodents, and apparently H:' musical instrument, will prove as effe&'iv** weapon as any. A news paragraph s-tat that in a certain district the mantling of a theatre ctvased the rats tqJ invade the fashionable quarter, and out-V f side one house the otier night, while that > pianu was being played. "a number off them were gambolling and dandng to that: rhythm of the music, raising themselves' on their hind legs and drinking in th^ intoxicating strains" In other word, giving an exhibition of the pxzz dance I On reading the account of the present t,-t.iviii at Neath to Mr. Henry StudtsJ the well-known amusement caterer, a) correvpondent writes &o say that the re-* cipiewi's remarks about the Welsh lan; i guago' brings back to his memory an inW eident which happened some time baclq in araiVwav carriage in which Mr. Studtsf was traJf/elliag. Being such an ardeni) lovel- of Yr Hen laitb," it was oulvi natural that the conversation turned hI the Welsh language. Those of his feU low-trave'ilars who were Welsh-speaking were straight away catechised as to thel knowledge of tlio language, Mr. Studtsi fiving them sentences to translate fM!n EnglIsh to Welsh and vice versa. -:0:- t The sting in the tail of one of the Finance Committee's minutes led to an amusing incident at the Council meetir,4, on Wednesday. The Finance Commit- tee wanted the sending committee, wheni they recommend expenditure not provide^ for in the estimates, to say as much dpfi." nitely. Mr. Dan Jones promptly rose point out that the Watch Committed tould not be the offenders in this nlattH: because the committee's minutes nitely stated tlit the expenditure was not provided for in the minutes. Bnt Mr. Parker wasn't, satisfied, and ratliei, suggested that in order that the Watch, Committee should appear in a good light the addition had been made since! — K>s— To-day—the lSUi of ScptemL-or-is 011G that will bring vivid memories to thote who took part in the campaign on the Salonika front. 1. is the anniversary of the Brit;sh attack on the Buigars at Grand Courorune, in which a large num- ber of Swansea boys made the supreme sacrifice. The attack was made by tho. 22nd Division, comprising the We16b.: Regvneoi't, Sttuth Wales Borderers, and. the Royal Wekh Fus-iliem. It was iu this encounter that the gallant Coloael Burgess, of the South Wales Borderers, won his V.C. Four of the Leader -eltraft-wi-Lo, we are glad to state, have re- turned safely—were also in thia engage- meat. j