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I-WHO SKETCHES. Ie■—_____…
I- WHO SKETCHES. Ie — r — I I. RECONNAISSANCE SQUADRON.  THE DAY'S WORK.  FBy E. O.J 4 rBy E. O,j Four o'cl oc k si r Bit misty, but looks as if it rni<rht clear." j* The orderly left a steaming cup of tea on the draped box which formerly con- tained rations and now did dutv as a com- bined bookcase and wardrobe. Half an hour later, the door slammed. The tea was still standing there, but cold and the whirring of propellers announced that cur machines were off to do their sheets. We next met at breakfast, and I asked the observer how lie had fared. Oh, we had quite a good shoot got them on to tha Hun batterv pretty quick, f and they were soon getting O.K.'s with wonderful regularity. It was t,, ) -,),-)d to last, and I soon saw the Boches skedaddl- ing. I had to come down a bit low though, because of the mist." It was still early, and tliev were shott- ing splendidly, so we tackled the old rail- way station at They were a bit longer finding- this, but. when thev did, they made a job vi it, and I saw a couple t h e y r!t:tr l ea, j o b?fit,and lsawacou p !e of 'ie?litliv ErEs going as I came home. As I went off across the aerodrome, a machine was landing a sudden cross gust took it. one wing tip touched the ground, and it toppled over looking a very ungainly object on the ground Xo one was hurt, and the damage was less than we expected, v so that we were able to arrange what re- pairs were needed without troubling the de-pot. The afternoon was bright, with a few floating clouds high up, when our machines left, some to spot" for our batteries, others to take some much-needed photo- graphs or a bit of t he line in our sector. They returned with an excellent batch, which were promptly developed, and printed, and landed at headquarters by tea-time. One machine had been attacked by three Germans, but. when it had suc- cessfully downed one, the other two fled. Two of this ma-chine's planes, and the tail, were ratner badly s.hot about, and she was wheeled off for repair. Later ill the afternoon, just before dusk, two more machines, with racks full of light bombs, left on the regular trench- strafing expedition. Fiviii, low over the German lines, thev dropped their bombs and fired several Lewis drums among the harassed trench garrison. One returned to time the other had been bad- ly peppered from the ground, hall stunteel freely to dodge the attack, had lost his "bearings, and had onlv found himself in time t > make the aerodrome just at dark The enemy had suffered a y-ood deal at ■our li,]IL(! t!t dav. and he took the usual form of revenge by trying to bomb us just a f t-er had turned iii, Fortunately, all his shots went wide, and we spent the rest of the night in a profound peace. II. ATALE FROM THE SEA BY A.;ax. The ship was ladeti with food and bound for Lngland. She was <uie of that. great fleet of merchantmen which is constantly moving across the seas, bringing homo the provisions without which this country vuld seriously suffer. Like every other rchantman in the service, she steamed -in hourly peril of enemy mine and torpedo. It was about the middle of the after- noon, when, without warning of any kind, two torpedoes struck the food ship almost simultaneously on her starboard side. Alone in mid-ocean with an invisible enemy bent on their destruction, the crew might have been expected to seek safety in their boats. But the British nierohant- sailor is no coward—he knows that his fellow-countrymen at home look to him for the bread and meat, bacon, tea, and other provisions which come from overseas, and he does not lightly abandon ship. And so now the crippled merchantman struggled along, with every man aboard her doing his best to pull her safe through this deadly peril. For a quarter of an hour she held to her course as best she could, and then came another torpedo, and this she dodged, and it passed harmlessly ahead of her. 1 he snip s gun was trained in the direction ,f t-lie torpedo track, and a few rounds were fired, but the enemv submarine was still invisible. Then the ship's head plunged iow in the water, her propellers rose above the surface, she lost wav. and it looked as though the end were near. But no, presently the propellers took the water again, and again she gathered wav. All through the night s he. moved forward. Early next morning two more torpedoes struck her. exploding m the stokehold and killing three men. The vessel then lost an way. her machinery stopped, and she took a heavy list to port. Then, just when her case seemed desperate, a destroyer came racing up and began to hunt the U-boat. While this was going on. three tugs arrived and took the merc hantman in tow. For two clays and one night they towed the. shattered vessel, bringing her safelv into harbour late in the second night. Then she was bniched. Three merchant sailors had hist their livp? in the f?'thfu' discharge of their d:nv. lives is .f tiietl- (t?ltv. Su,ch I)v tlies- Itlell. .!11
iOUR ALLIES. I
OUR ALLIES. I Exiles. I [BY V C. C. COLLUM.] I This past week I have been busy, as I suppose has every other Britisher who has spent years among the French soldiers, in writing letters of congratulation to my =' 01 Ptilu friends who come from the liberated cities of Lille and Douai and Turcoing. It has not been an easy task. For though I could tell them all how I shared their joy in the liberation of the cities from which they have been exiled since their mobilisation in August, 1914, I had learned, with them, to dread what news of their 1 lomes and families this liberation might bring. There was poor Lemonier of Douai (for obvious reasons I give them all fictitious names: their families may have been deported bv the German invaders, and may bo still in German power). He was a packer in a big factory, and often used to tell me of the lofiz hours lie wnrkad, so that lie hardlv saw his wife and children, except on a Sunday. When he was called un. he would not let his wife go to the station to see him off. for fear that either of th em miq-ht not keep up their courage to the pitch that lie felt the occasion demanded. So lie had gone off like the others, singing. And from the day he said good- bve to her at the door of their little house in a mean street in the poor part. of the big city, he has never seen her and the babies, nor heard of them again. Lemonier fought in the Pas de Calais, where the French helped us to guard the Channe-l ports, and he was badly wounded in March. 191.3, when out at the company's listening-post. He was in our hospital from April. 1915. until June. 1916: then lie was passed into the A u rHin jre, and his job has since been the guarding of German prisoners at their work in Paris. He made great friends with a Territorial soldier in the bed next his, whose wife and babv used to come from Paris to visit him. When she came, poor Lemonier used to steal away into the garden- and cry. He could -is lie sai d to rr?e not bear to see it, for, as he said to me: Poor children what may not have happened to her and the little ones, since the Germans are no better than bar- barians: I ask myself day after day— what has happened? Ali if I could only Well, he will know now. And my heart aches for him, when I read of Douai, empty, deserted, its population driven towards the Dutch frontier before the fleeiti-o, Germatis Then there was jolly little Dupont, the honest, round-faced tram-conductor of Turcoing! When I first knew him, lie also had been without news of wife and children for nearly a vear. Then came news: He was almost s peechless with joy when lie, brought it to me. laughing and shaking my hand in both his, while the tears rail down his fat little face. His wife had had a letter from Duport's brother, a prisoner in Germany, and had replied, and the prisoner had then written to his brotliet-, and conveyed the news without words, bv enclosing a recently dated photo- graph of her. pretending that it was his own wife And my little tram-conductor sent word to her also, through the prisoner I -how do you think? By dressing up in a frock-coat and tall hat, getting himself photographed, and then signing it Mon- sieur the Mayor of Z-" The prisoner duly sent, on the Mayor's picture to Dupont's wife. This little Poilu never lost heart nor courage, though all his friends were shut up behind the German lines in the invaded provinces. lie would sing jolly comic songs to the others to cheer them up in hospital. He went through the siege of Verdun and the battle of the Somme, and every time I he got leave he came back to the hospital to look us up and tell us that he still kept smiling. As the population of Turcoino- remained in their cellars till the British went in. I am hoping that Dupont's little famil v is safe. ) j And Le Pare, of Lille I He was a dapper sergeant, the son of a well-known manufacturer and engineer of Lille, quite a famous citizen of that great town in his way. When lie was wounded in 1915. lie obtained news of Madame and the clill- dren, so that his mind was at rest but he. too. confided to me his secret fear. Much as he longed for Lille to be freed, he dreaded it, too, for lie feared that reprisals t might be made on the well-to-do women who had refused to have anything to do with the German officers. Let us hope that Madame, so spirited and so brave, is safe. I could write of many more, from all of 'whom I await news anxiously, but perhaps enough has been said to bring home to English firesides a little of the sorrow, the anxiety, and the jov that is 1 1 TO wringing the heart of France to-day.
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COAL. The Coal that you are doing without is forging the key to I VICTORY. J
Iii OUT OF ftT/SCHIFF-
Iii OUT OF ftT/SCHIFF- Where he will be if we at home follow the example I of the boys at the Front and relax no effort
THE ST. QUENTIN CANAL.
THE ST. QUENTIN CANAL. This canal is part of the strong Hinder-burg line that has been broken through by our troops. 1
ON THE PIAVE. I
ON THE PIAVE. i An !taHan ?ix-inch ?un being towed up the river Piave on a float ?u.? ?c?t | i An Italian.! ix-inch ¡un bein towed up th river Plave on a float. i
ITHE WOMAN'S PART.I
I THE WOMAN'S PART. I I Beginning in Time. I I [BY MARGARET OSBORNE.] I The Minister of Reconstruction, Dr. Addison, was speaking a few days ago at a meeting in the city of London about the re- building of our new world in the time of peace which now draws tipir. If we shall have less muney tu pay for oir pians than this great natlull is accustomed to count upon, shall have more ww.hnn than we had IK-fore these four terrible years had taught us their hard less- ns. l.)r. Addison told us that one way in which wisdom must take the place of wealth was in teaching as to use all our resources to the iitnio.-t. We must make our land grow more food than e\er before, and nut only food, but trees for timber, so that we shall use our home-grown timber t,) Lnild our own houses. Th3 Most Important Crop. Then lie broke off to tell us that a country's most important crop is its children. '1 litre is nothing new about this; all women and I most men have always known it. But he dh; not go on with his speech in the way we have ¡ come to expect. He did not scold women because they are poor and ignorant, and be- I cause they, by reason of their poveity and ignorance, waste this most precious of the I nation's possessions, letting c in dren die wh o might have lived if thev had been given a chance, He has come to know that not parents alone, but the whole nation, is to blame for this. And he sees that to begin caring for the baby 111 the cradle is tl) begin too late. A child must have not only a wise mother, but a healthy mother, if it is to have a fair chance of being "healthy, wealthy. and wise" itself. Cood and Bad Kinds of Work. One of the most important things that the. new Ministry of Reconstruction is going to do is to safeguard the health of the working women of England, and before it begins this task it has to find out what kinds of work are bad for girls and women, and why. The factory inspectois know fairly weil some kind s ol work that are bad—work that means very long hours, or too much standing, or a dusty or damp atmosphere, or lifting heavy weights. Working women would add to this list many other occupations which are sup- posed to be specially "suitable" for women, but which are so badly paid that the worker is always underfed and badly housed. Before the war, people used to say that women should not be allowed to do unsuitable work, without considering very seriously by whom it should be done, or how the women could live who are forbidden to work. Xow we know better, and we say that the work must be made suitable for women as so much munition work has been made suitable. Instead of. driving women out of damp or dusty fac- tories, we are now saying that manufacturers must manage that their factories should cease to be damp or dusty. Instead of saying that weights are too heavy for women to lift, we shall say that the weights to be lifted must be smaller, or that they must be lifted by machinery. We know now that women need not make the choice between health and work, and that no country will be really prosperous whose women are either idle or sickly. Women as Citizens. I I he policy of the Minister of Reconstruc- tion is a recognition that women play a great part in the prosperity of the nation, and that their part is a double one. Women are now recognised as citizens, and thev have a citizen'? duty, which, I take it, is to give his country a little more than he costs it. It is I,j le man any thing. A man should aim at growing i.'i 'ie food (h;11I lie eats, earning more money than he spends, doing more for his children fnan his parents did for him. A woman's ch ief duty as a citizen is often the care of iutuie citi/.ens, but there is no reason why she should spend long years ot idleness before this special task is done, and after it is iiuished. The New Standpoints. I I he longest way round is sometimes the short es i way home, and there is no quick wav I ot making a great nation. Forty years ago people thought that it was beginning early enough if the child at scliool was well edu- cated thell we went hack a long step and tried to ensure that the baby in (he cradle was well cared for. Xow we go farther back still, and require that the baby's mother shall be cam! f, i an d Ie il"iiii, for. and we are beginning to see that to be really in time we must care for her in her girlhood, long before she is a mother. We are a long way from the period when girls "didn't count," and when a woman who was -not married was reckoned "superfluous." Now that the nation is making plans to do so much for us women, now that it is altering its house to suit us. what are we going to do for the iiitioii I We cannot be helped much unless we help ourselves and each other. The new world is our children's, and our children [(:'ortfititt, d at foot of next column.]
FOOD TOPICS.
FOOD TOPICS. Items about Production and Rationing. [BY SMALLHOLDEB. "1 I Sea-power and Food. The war seems now to be rapidly drawing to its inevitable end—the end which the Entente Allies set themselves out from tll., beginning to accomplish, the end which has been endorsed by more than four-fifths of th* world. Kalsei-isiii and Junkerism lie in. n: in". and there seems some possibility of a new and democratic system arising out of the ashes of the old Prussian autocracy. To this consummation, which (Jermany will in time come to realise as its own sa lvat ion, the food question will be found to have been no small contributor. Sea-power has been the deter- mining factor. Without it civilisation would ha\e gone down be f ore Prussian militarism, and the Kaiser's jackboot would hav« trampled a miserable world underfoot. Sea- power has fed the Allies and starved the Cen- tral Powers. Despite the activities of the now white-flagged U-boats, the Allies have been able to bring their food supplies from overseas, while the bennan. Austrian, and l it- Aiist iiti, i other enemy mercantile marine has been swept completely off the waters. ff, in ail the circumstances, the Powers warring for ci ilisation have experienced inconveniences in the matter of food supplies, it does not require much consideration to realise how desperately the modern Huns must have suf- fered by the lack of food and other necessaries enforced' upon them by the Naval blockade- Napoleon remarked that an army fights upon, its stomach. The Entente Allies have been able to keep their stomachs fed. The Central Powers have not. and hence the tears &o copiously flowing from the swollen optics of the All-Highest and his High Command. The hunger of his people brings the pride of the Kaiser low. "Gatt llIit uns" has failed W ilhelm II. as a war-cry. Had he made it Brat mit uns," and seen to it, the history- books of the future might have had a different tale to tell. Profiteers and the Public. The Food Controller lately had occasioli t,o make some general remarks of a rather severe character regarding the lack of co- operation s hown by traders in the endeavour* of the Ministry of Food to secure an equitable distribution of food amongst tile various classes of the people. Apart from America, lie said, no belligerent country had been so well off as Great Britain in respect of distri- bution and rationing. He would be prouder of the trading class if they applied a little more fairness to their dealings with the mass 01 consumers. The Ministry's efforts at equality of distribution had often been frustrated by unjustifiable favouritism on th. part of some shopkeepers and food-dealers. Evasions of orders as to prices had, in soma cases, been so serious, that the Ministry had it in mind to apply much more severe penalties than those at present in vogue for these offences. It is obvious, therefore, that Mr. Clynes has no patience with profiteering and such-like unpatriotic sins. It remain. with mem bers of the public who find them- selves victimised to report the circumstances, either to headquarters or to their local Food Control Committees, when steps will promptly be taken to check the illicit propensities ol t he offenders, The Price of Eggs. There has undoubtedly of late been some profiteering in the matter of eggs, as muca as 8s. 6d. per dozen having been charged for them in some parts of London. October ia, of course, a bad month for egg production, but the scarcity hardly justifies such demand* as these. When the supply becomes more plentihi! sa y. i 11 Fe bruary next—the pric* will naturally come down. but in the mean- time, the Food Controller is taking cogmsam-* of the matter, and at the moment of writing it appears probable that 5d. will be the maxi- mum sum chargeable by the retailer for a new-laid egg. It must not be forgotten that the Ministry of Food has now in its hands a L'ood many millions of eggs from Ireland, Denmark and other quarters. These were acquired some months ago and placed in pickle. They are now coming on to the market in considerable quantities for retail at 4^1 each. Although jierhaps not quite comparable to the new-laid eggs, they are excellent in quality and hardly distinguishable, except by an expert, while their food value Is unquest i onable.
ITHE WOMAN'S PART.I
[Continued from previous column.} are what we make them. The Minister of Health and the Minister of Keeonst ruction will help us, but most of the work of bringing up the new citiaens of the new world 13 women's work. If we are to receive, it is that we may give again. CUT THIS our. MISCELLANEOUS RECIPES. Hotch Potch.—I.NGRJiDlK.VTS.—1 lh, rillY kind of meat I (it. water, A OZ. dripping, ib. mixed vegetables, 4 oz. parboiled butter beiiis, 2 oz. 1. 1, 1 table-spoonful chopned parslev salt, pepper. METHOD.—Clean and cut up the vegetables, put all the ingredients except the paisley into a saucepan, add the cold water and hrill-g quickly to the boil, cover the pan, and let it simmer for two hours. Remove any bones, add the pardey and J)('<'ss;uy ';Pi!sonin'v. tern inw» a hot tureen, and serve with bread or potatoes. II the meat is fat; the dripping may be omitted, and if it is already cooked, add it when the rice cud vegetables are nearly cooked. seem wasteful in firing, but the hatch patch, onee broughtAto the boil, can be kept hot all the top of the range if vou have a kitchen fire, or in a cool o\en. If cooked, in a. shallow saucepan, it can be put under 11 roofnuratewhei.d.e kitchen fire is out. and the same method is possible if a casserole is used or fin a illy, most of the cooking mav be done in a hay box, which will take ratheV more than a (iii N-, or e\-en two days before; when a suet pudding is being cooked they can go into the lower part of the steamer in a iiiiii-pot, or in the oven when you are baking. The stew itself wi.!i keep for a day or even two, but. like ail mixtures of meat and vegetables, it is likely to turn sour if over-kept. A Delicious Apple Cake. F NGKKDUONTS 4 oz. lfour, 4 (lZ wholemeal, 4 oz. cornflour, oz. dripping. ib. peeled, cored apples, I i",hpOflllflll baking powder, sahspoonfii!; pow- dered spice, tablespooufuls sugar, 1 gill milk, 1 lined or fresh egg, METHOD.—Welt mix the dry ingredients. Shred and rub in the add the apples, chopped in thinnish pieces. Beat tha "1 g well. Mix it with the miik. and stir it in. I urn into a greased tin, and bake for about an hour in it fairly hot o-vn. If the mixture seems too (hy before baking, adti a little itioi-e bur remem ber that the apples will mak e .4 little juiee when cooked. So it shouldn't H* very moist. I his oake can, of course, be wad. with fallen apples. NC