The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-01-22

liiouSu IL pN DislSllHS Ou StllluS HI iic wants. So, of course, the old hands are all convinced that the place is going
 to the bow-wows.
 But you ought to hear the workmen
 who are employed by the war office on
 the subject of Lord Kitchener. They are enthusiastic about him al the con
 tractors are Respondent. Several weeks ago a certain amount of navy work had
 to be done and as usual the treasury side of the war office was busy. The inef- fioiency of the trea sury side of the awar office is the great joke in the civil ser vice The navvies went on strike. John Ward. M. P, who has been navvy him. self, was in his office when he was called
 to the telephone. "ls that you, Mr. Ward , Right. Kitchener speaking. What is the | normal pay in your union?'' Ward said it was so much, and the strike was over that afternoon.
 Another story is of committees most important committee. Members of Parla-
 ment had asked questions and caused that committee to be appointed Some of them
 were members of it, and so was the sec-
 retary of war. His lordship did not turn
 up at the first meeting. so nothing much
 happened, but the others had a polite let
 ter written about the need for his pres-
 ence at the next of their reunions. He
 put in an appearance and said not a word until they asked for his views as to
 what they should do. Then he informed them. He told them loud and clear" as their ear.' The committee has not met since.
 Monument to a Cat
 What, probably will be the first mon-
 ument that has been raised to cat since the days when these animals were worshipped in Egypt will. it is now prac- tically certain, be erected by the quaint old Pembrokeshire town of Newport. in the grounds of it's feudal castle. The feline to be thus honored is a French one which saved the life of Lieutenant
 Lloyd of the Grenadier Guards. the home of whose historic family, as well as his
 own. is at Newport.
 The story runs thus After becoming separated from his regiment near the
 French frontier, the officer found refuge in an outbulding, where he remained. in an exhausted condition, for three days When he was found tabby cat was discovered curled round his neck. and his rescuers say that but for this cat Lieutenant Lloyd would have per ished from the cold.
 Romance is added to the incident by the fact that the officer in question is the heir of Sir Marteine Owen Mow-
 bray Lloyd Bart. the chief commoner of Wales, and the last of the Norman lords
 of the Marshes. He is hereditary stand ard bearer of Wales and lord of the
 corporation of Newport His residence is Newport castle, in the grounds of which it is purposed to place memorial to
 the puss that saved the life of the fu- ture owner of the estate.
 White Rat Saw Battles To the foregoing story of a Good
 Samaritan cat. it is quite appropriate to
 add that of a now famous rat-perhaps the only rat on record that ever went through a military campaign and which was present, ensconced snugly in it's soldier owners pocket at the battles of Mons. the Marne, and the Aisne' 1 and which is now in London.
 That owner. Sergeant Johnson of the Royald Field artillery, has just been promoted to second lieutenant and ap- pointed gunnery instructor. He was wounded at Soissons on October 25 and now, with his strange pet, is here on
 a few days leave.
 Billy" as Johnson calls his rat, though the latter is lady, is pure white, and was given to the English soldier by a French girl at the beginning of the war. During the battle of Mons. the rat sat on her masters right boot. Twice she wandered away. but came back all right and was in the fighting all the way from Mons to Melun, southeast of Paris, and back to the Marine and the Aisne. Billy was in Sergeant Jollnson's pocket all the time and was never hurt. When the sol dier landed at Southampton, after he had
 been wounded by shrapnel, lady who saw the white rat presented to Johnson a black terrier pup named Toby to keep Billy company, and the rat and the pup ac, now, curiously enough. close friends. Food for Belgium
 Columns have been cabled from here. | of course, and columns more written and published at home about the mighty and | splendid work that the American commis-
 sion for relief in Belgium Is doing in | that unhappy and sorely tried country
 These details, however, have come out | more or less piecemeal. and I. for one | had no conception of the magnitude of the | work that. thanks to the generosity of our people, is being done for the 7,OOO.OOO ol helpless people still remaining in Belgium a work of relief that is incomparably tnt biggest ever undertaken--that, in iact
 makes any other relief scheme on record appear puny in comparison.
 l. I had no conception of It's work
 that Is. until yesterday. when ,. talked for close on an hour WILT
 Herbert c. Hoover. the famous American mining engineer, who 10 the prime mover
 chairman and genius of the reiief commis' sicn-initiated at the outset, of course. by
 Brand Whitlock, our minister to Brussels and who, recently, returned to London after a week spent in Belgium studying ccnditio,,S there on the spot. While dwell