The Carmarthen Journal and South Wales Weekly Advertiser

The Triumph of our Fleet. It is not likely that the British people will in future need lectures or literature or any form of propaganda to teach them the importance of maintaining a great fleet. The use and value of our own Fleet have been demonstrated in the most practical and dramatic fashion at our very breakfast tables—right under our very noses, as it were. There can scarcely be a single sane person in this country to-day who does not know that it is in very truth, as Tennyson said, The Fleet of England is her all in all." The triumph of our Grand Eleet has been so stupendous as it has been silent. There have been no active engagements, no battle actions. Out on the North Sea for nearly five months our sentinels of the sea have been at watch, waiting for the ap- pearance of a foe whose admitted skill and courage shrinks before the still mightier skill and prowess opposed to it; or policing the ocean routes of the world and choking, the commercial life of the enemy to extinc- tion. The consequence is that while 98-1 per cent. of the British shipping has free access over all the seas of the world, bring- ing to us food and clothing and all neces- saries, just as they did before the war, and at scarcely any increase in their cost, only ten German merchant ships are known to be at sea That is because wa as a nation have been fortunate enough not to have been persuaded into allowing a reduction in the cost of maintaining such a fleet. It is not because no attempt was made to per- suade us as a nation that that expenditure was not necessary. What a position we should have been in to-day if we could say the same in regard to our land forces! Unfortunately the wisdom at the disposal of the Governments responsible for the smallness of our Army had its way with regard to the latter, and it is to that wisdom that the future historian will lay a heavy charge in respect of the awful spilling of blood in this great war. That wisdom has other charges to answer too, but fortunately its indictment on that score need not be delayed longer than till the close of the war "If— To those young, able-bodied men who are in a position to serve their country, but who have not yet joined the Colours, we com- mend the following messages sent home in letters written by officers and men of our Expeditionary Force. An English officer, whose misfortune it is now to be a prisoner in Germany, states, If only we could have been reinforced, we could have kept them out I" A motor car driver declares that "it is just the little extra strength that is needed to turn the tide," and another letter written from the trenches expresses the urgent need for more men and still more men" in the simple statement that if in- stead of a quarter million of men we had one million, long ere now we should have chased the foe within his own bor- ders." The only thing lacking was more men," remarks another officer in the firing lines, and the ardent prayer of yet another is, II God grant the country will realise the gravity of the crisis and send every able- bodied man to the ranks. We shall need them An Answer to Prussian Intrigue. It is well known that the Kaiser and his lieutenants have endeavoured to produce disunion among the Powers which are allied in the defence of the civilised world against Prussian militarism. The complete failure of Teutonic intrigue was effectively demon- strated by the recent meeting—almost in the battle-line—of the rulers of the Powers engaged in the Western area of the world- war. The meeting of King George, Presi- dent Poincare and King Albert was an outward and visible manifestation of the complete unity and absolute determination of the peoples of Britain, France, and Belgium. Having set their hands to the plough, the Allies will not falter or look back. They will prosecute the formidable task forced upon them by Prussian aggres- sion until the world is freed from the menace with which it has been threatened for more than forty years. The King's Part. From the point of view to which we have referred, the recent visit of his Majesty King George to the battlefields of France was of the greatest importance. It also afforded one more example of how ready and eager the King is to spend himself in the service of his people. This was made manifest by King George from the first day of a reign that promises to be one of the most eventful and most glorious in the his- tory of our country. Happily exempt from the histrionic tendencies of the Kaiser, the King, as the Times so aptly says, has made no defiant speeches, hand on sword. He has indeed spoken seldom, but inspiration has lain in his every word, while his action in visiting the troops abroad and at home has encouraged them as nothing else could do. Equally active in the interests of the nation have been her Majesty the Queen, and the Queen Mother, while the Prince of Wales and his brother, Prince Albert, have shown the youth of the country where their duty lies by abandoning ease and comfort and gong to serve—one on the battlefields of France, the other with the Grand Fleet in its arduous and unending vigil in the cold, tempestuous waters of the North Sea. The example set by the Royal Family is one which, if it were generally followed, would do more than anything else to aid the country's cause and bring lasting benefit to the nation. Wc should do well to take for our motto, "Lea.rn from the example of the King and Queen—and follow the Prince

NOTES 0FTHE WEEK A well-known resident of Carmarthen (an ex- army man) will shortly be congratulated on having received an excellent appointment as an officer under the Colours. The office of Master in Lunacy is worth having. It carries an income of £2,000 a year. Sir D. Brynmor Jones willingly esigned his £ 400 a year for it and no one could blame him. Hearty congratulations to a Carmarthen boy, Mr. C. W. Jones, who has just been appointed, in the face of keen competition, headmaster of South Church-street Schools, at Cardiff. Village worthy (discussing possibilities of invasion): Wull, there can't bo no battle in these parts, Jarge, for there bain't no field suitable, as you may say; an' Squire 'e won't lend 'em the use of his park! (" Punch.") A rather remarkable piece of information comes from the Carmarthenshire Insurance Committee to the effect that over 2,000 insured men had joined the Army from Llanelly, but the panel doctors were still being paid for these men, although they are medically treated when necessary by the military authorities. Perhaps, if this be true, it will make up for the loss which the doctors said they would sus- tain by tho passing of the Insurance Act! Hardly a municipal meeting takes place but that thero are instances of gross neglect and lack of attention. A bomb appears to have burst among the members of the Carmarthen Town Council at their last meeting, when Mr. Morgan Pritchard re- minded them of their election promises. Councillor Crossman awoke to the fact that it was their duty to visit the spot at once. but the Mayor apparently saw visions 'of a spoilt supper if they visited the spot that night. Did these local bodies keep their eyes open they would have far less worries and bicker- ings. Two letters have appeared in tho "Times" on the Welsh Church question, one from Lord Hugh Cecil and a rejoinder from Mr. W. Llewelyn Wil- ¡ liams, M.P. The latter rides a very high horse, but it is a steed which thousands of his brother Noncon- iÍormists in Wales will have no sort of trade with. One member speaks of the postponement of the "appointed day" as "an act of unparalleled generosity He calls it equivalent to giving tho Church a grant of £78,000 out of funds which wo contend are the property of the Welsh people." This sort of talk is as irritating as the erstwhile nonsense about Germany's friendliness for this country and the wickedness of suspecting her of having designs upon us. A Correspondent writes:—One of the names of Mr. Winston Churchill's baby girl is Hermione. A sad tale is connected with the name. A number of years ago I met a Mr. Good whom I had not seen for many months. "I suppose," he said, "you have heard about my son" (who I knew had been as the youngest officer in the Fleet chief assistant engineer of the Hermione.t. I answered in the negative, and he said, He was with the Fleet, exercising in the English Channel, and ho had not been well. Sud- denly he rushed up stairs, and jumped clean off into th? sea. A lieutenant jumped after him, and as soon as possible a boat was lowered, but neither was found. Do you know," he said, I saw it all in a dream. I saw my son jumping overboard, and another after him, and then the boat going, then there was a blank interval before I saw the boat come back. Ah well,' I said, '.they have not got them.' After- wards there was a memorial unveiled at Plymouth, I think ,in honour of the lieutenant's brave death." The father also added that the promotion to full engineer for his son came tho morning after. A woman correspondent of the Observer" has composed a French version of Tipperary," which will enable French soldiers to join their English comrades in singing the song. The syllables to each line are the same number as in the English lines, 60 that this version can be sung to the tune: — TIPPERAIRAI. Longue est la route a Tipperairai, C'est tres loin d'y marcher; Longue est la route a Tipperairai, La demeure ma bien-aimee. Bon jour, Piccadilai, Bon soil', Lesseterre-square; Longue, longue est la route a Tipperairai, Mais y va mon coeur. Another new version of "Tipperary" is supplied by the Liverpool Scottish, now on active service, which deserves to pass the Censor. The chorus runs:— It's a long, long way to Tipperary, But, as we're going to win, not going down to Tipperary Till we've all been to Berlin. .so it's Get you ready, William Kaiser, pounce on you somewhere. It's a long, long way to St. Helena, But you'll soon be there." It was formerly tho custom of the butchers of Konig&berg, in Prussia, to draw turough the streets of the town on New Year's Day, to the sound of trumpets and kettledrums, a sausage cf some hun- dreds of ells in length. One of the most remarkable of these processions is thus described by an eye- witness at the time: On the first of January, 1601, the butchers of Konisgsberg marched gloriously, with drums beating, fifes whistling, and banners of green and white fluttering gaily. Their leader car- ried in his hand a spit decorated with feathers and ribands. One hundred and three journeymen dragged the noble sausage, which measured 1,055 ells; on each side ran guards to protect it. When they reached the royal castle, his princely Grace was presented with one hundred and thirty en. Thence they proceeded to the Sowemcht, where they were received with many honours by the bakers, and detained as guests. To them they presented a por- tion of the sausage, and the day closed with festivi- ties which were prolonged far into the night." This sausage weighed eight hundred and eighty-five pounds; eighty-one hams, the intestines of forty-five hoggs, one ton and a half of salt, the same quantity of beer, and eighteen pounds of pepper were re- quired to mako it, and it cost two days' work to three master butchers, and eighty-seven journeymen. A contemporary the other day remarked about the famous Ben Davieses, mentioning Ben Davies, tho celebrated singer, "Dr." Ben Davies, of Newcastle- Emlyn; Ben Davies, the erstwhile assistant of Sir Oliver LOQge; Ben Davies, of National Eisteddfod foremost renown. Though the number of all Ben Davieses is not like the number of John Joneses, the hot of past and present Ben Davieses known to fame could be much extended. There was the Ben Davies, Professor of Regent Park College, who doubtless gave Dr. Angus, the then principal, the Welsh words in his once leading handbook on the English language. We must now also say there was the Ben Davies of Rhydlewis, who though not in busi- ness himself claimed a following of a vast number of aristocratic patrons when on the retirement of his old firm he joined another. Though always a staunch Independent, during his holidays ho never failed to attend the Troedyraur Church out of re- spect to the late Prebendary Rhys Jones Lloyd. Wo have also the poet Ben Davie. of Llandyssul. There is the Rev. Ben Davies, the lately arrived minister of Llandyssul endowed Independent Church. Still another in the Llandyssul parish is the Ben Davies, J.P., until lately of Blaenythan. In the Rhondda wo have Ben Davies, the miners' agent. Doubtless there are many others. Most of these from their own or their parents' choice belong to the western half of Wales. Who will dare to say there is nothing in a name? The following amusing incident is related by the Welsh Coast Pioneer ':—One of the best known and most popular H.M. Inspector of Schools, on Friday, met with an amusing adventure in the Con- way Valley. It appears he was walking along some fields admiring the beautiful autumn tints of the foliage on the trees, when his delightful vision was rudely dispelled by a heavy hand laid upon his shoulder, and the gruff voice of a gamekeeper de- manding, What do you want, here? Don't you know you are trespassing The Inspector, who is somewhat of a humorist, immediately resolved to assume the character of a German, and fiercely replied, "Spretchau de dike-s," whoreupon the' keeper clutched him by the arm shouting, Come on, you blooming German. We will see about your (little game, you infernal Hun." Dragging his prisoner along the keeper told him in fluent terms what no thought of Germans in general, and his prisoner in particular, tho Inspector occasionally in- terpreting a German comment. At last, finding tho pace too hot, the Inspector turned quietly to his captor, and asked him in Welsh where they were going to. The keeper gasped and relinquished hia ■grasp, and having regained the use of his suspended ■faculties enquired, Are you a Welshman? Cer- tainly," replied the Inspector, and immediately divulged his identity. The keeper was naturally profuse in his apologies. The Inspector shortly afterwards arrived at Bettwsycoedj carrying a couple of rabbits, and wearing a satisfied Tho" Morning Post" correspondent in Paris writes as 'follows:—The Journal des Debats," under the heading "Cne Gaucherie," in Saturday's issuo states: Everyone has thoroughly understood the need of publishing the Yellow Book abroad, and the idea of issuing an English translation was excellent. But through a or inadvertence, which can only be described as disconcerting, the making known of the Yellow Book in English has been seriously checked. The French Government has ceded to our great contemporary the Times' the rights of translation and reproduction in English, as a note in the French edition informs the reader. It is true that the Times was very well qualified to publish an excellent translation of our Yellow Bcok and has done it perfectly. But, according to the strict interpretation of English law, it is a conse- quence of the rights granted it that, all other English and American papers wishing to reproduce extracts can only do so with the authorisation of their powerful rival. In strict law they have not even the right to publish our translation from the French, original. Tho result is that the English and Ameri- can Press has abstained from reproducing these- documents, so convincing and so necessary to be made known. Tho work of French diplomacy is therefore almost lost. Further, the English transla- tion is sold at two shillings, while the French text only costs fivepence. and the English White Book is sold at one penny." On the fly leaf of the Yellow Book there is the following: Les droits de traduction en anglais ct de reproduction de ia traduction angiaise du present Livre Jaune poor tous pays appartiennent au journal Anglais Ie Times.' The Kaiser's Government appear to be finding it hard work to keep up tho enthusiasm of the German people for the war. The monotonous recital of German victories on both frontiers is evidently be. ginning to pall, and the ingenious organisers of the official lie factory are now giving fuller vent to their imagination. Londoners have been vastly amused of la re by reproduction's in their newspapers of faked photograph j, which have recently appeared in Ger- man illustrated journals, depicting attacks on London by hostile aircraft. One such picture shows a Zeppelin hovering over the Houses of Parliament, and another actually reveals a part of the Metro- polis in ruins. Evidently tho dearest ambition of the German public is to see the capital of the" hated British devastated by shell fire and incendiary bombs—an ambition which the Wolff Bureau are doing their best to gratify by means of "dud" photographs. Curiously enough at a time when London is supposed to bo grovelling in fear at tho thought of an airship attack, one hears little or nothing about the threatened Zeppelin invasion of the Metropolis. The London public has not as yet seen one of these aerial harbinger^ of death and destruction, and does not expect to see one now that the winter is on tho point of setting in. True, the streets of London are still darkened at night and the searchlights are still flashing on the clouds between sunset and dawn; but tho average person no longer notices these things. The Zeppelin menace is coming to -be regarded as a joke. Something like an outburst of public indignation has been occasioned by the report that the War Office have introduced a system cf police super- vision for the wives and other female dependents of soldiers and sailors. It appears that the military authorities have communicated to the various police fcrces throughout the country full particulars of all persons in rcceipt of Government separation allow- ances, their object being to minimise drunkenness (and immoral conduct, among the women whose husbands have been called out on war service According to tho War Office regulations, all women receiving a separation allowance are liable to lose it if oonvicted of a legal offence, and the idea of the authorities is that the police, by exercising their influence, should do all in their power to check Buch lapses so that the women should not be rendered destitute. That thero has been a certain number of cases of drunkenness among soldiers' wives since the outbreak of war is indisputable; at the name time it is the fact that, such cases are comparatively few, and that these women as a class leave nothing to be desired in their conduct. In deciding upon a system of police supervision, the War Office have undoubtedly made a grave mistake, and one that is well calculated to have serious effects upon recruit- ing. The whole business savours of the ticket-of- 1 system and it constitutes a gross insult to the womonkind of the country. Many members of Parliament are interesting themselves in the matter ut, unfortunately, they will have no opportunity of raising the subject officially until next year, when the House re-assembles. In the meantime, the leading newspapers of the country are being flooded with letters from soldiers' wives protesting against the new scheme. —!

SOCIETY AND PERSONAL Miss Lloyd, Pontllwni, has left for Scotland. Wo regret to hear that Col. O. H. S. Williams, or the Pembrokeshire Yeomanry Reserve Regiment: sustained a nasty accident at his home last Sunday. Mr. D. J. M. Stephens, son of Mr. and Mrs. D. E. Stephens, Trawsmawr, Carmarthen, has just come over from Canada, and has obtained a com- mission in the 9th Service Battalion of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers. Dowager Countess Cawdor and Lady Muriel Caw- dor paid a visit to the Red Cross Hosoital, Carmar- then, on Wednesday, and were very interested and pleased with all the arrangements made for the comfort of the wounded soldiers. Mr. E. P. Lloyd, J.P., D.L., Glansevin, whoso health has been poor for sometime, is at present undergoing a cure at Tenby. He has kindly granted the use of Glansevin Mansion for the accommoda- tion of Belgian Refugees, a good number of whom are expected to arrive shortly at Llangadock. Nobody wants a bull-dog for nothing or next to nothing? A pedigree bull-dog, 20 months old, win- ner at the London Bull-dog and other shows, it offered to the highest bidder for the benefit of any war fund the purchaser chooses to name. Does no one want it? Will not one of our Welsh regiments buy it as a mascot? Particulars may be had on writing to the Editor of the CARMARTHEN JOURNAL. We deeply regret to announce the death of Mr. Edward Francis Longcroft, youngest son of the lato Captain Charles Edward Longcroft, and of Mrs. Longcroft, of Llanina, Cardiganshire. Mr. Long- croft. died in London, on November 30th. He was educated at Clifton College and Cirencester College. On the declaration of war, in his eagerness to servo his country, he set a splendid example by enlisting in tho 4th Norfolks. Later he was offered a com- mission in the Pembrokeshire Yeomanry. He un- fortunately contracted a chill whilst in camp, before an operation for his knee, with the result that ho succumbed seven weeks afterwards, having gone through another operation and much suffering. His one wish was to recover so that he might go to the front—in him w-e have lost a. good offictT. The funeral service was held at St. Stephen's Church, Westminster, the service was fully choral, conducted by tho vicar, and the Rev. W. H. Mann- ing. The vicar took the service at Brompto11 t Cemetery. He was interred in the same grave as his father, tho grave was covered with a number of-J# beautiful wreaths and crosses.