Mr F. R. Cook, of 74 Ashburnham Road, Luton, has just arrived home after a most exciting voyage from Malta. Mr Cook, who is well known in Luton and St Albans, left for a business trip in the Mediterranean, and three weeks ago got back to Malta after visiting Egypt, Cyprus and various places in the Levant. When war was declared he was just about to return to England.

The Engineering Section of the Luton Chamber of Commerce have decided to request all the members of the section to act in conformity with the following resolution:

"That a payment should be made to the wives of all men called up on active service of seven shillings per week and one shilling for each child under 14 years of age, with such modifications as may be deemed advisible in each particular case. The following firms have signified their adhesion to the resolution:

T. Balmforth and Company Ltd, Pondwicks Road

An entry into Switzerland riding on the step of a railway goods waggon is one of the Rev H. C. Mander's reminiscences of this summer's holidays. Mr Mander, who is a brother of Mr E. A. Mander, the Luton borough accountant, and also one of the Nonconformist ministers at Swansea, reached Luton with Mrs Mander, Mrs Hunt and Mr Clifford Hunt a few days ago, after a somewhat exciting and trying continental trip.

At a meeting of the Bleachers and Dyers Section of the Luton Chamber of Commerce held on Monday, the position of the industry under the present war conditions was carefully considered, and at a general meeting of the industry convened by the section yesterday (Wednesday) the following statement was confirmed and signed by the various firms:

Luton's tank, presented to the town in recognition of the support accorded to the War Savings movement, is to be placed in Wardown Park in company with a naval gun captured from the Germans in Palestine by the 1/5th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, reported The Luton News of February 5th, 1920.

These decisions were arrived at on Tuesday evening, when the Town Council met in the Lecture Hall at the Public Library, where the meetings of Council will now be held until such time as a new Town Hall materialises.

Luton was responding to the plight of Belgian refugees displaced as their homes became swallowed up and often destroyed by the German advance.

• "These are the times when you find out the folk who have hearts in the right place," said Luton Mayoress Mrs Primett in The Luton News of October 22nd, 1914. And more and more Lutonians were opening up their hearts and their homes to the refugees.

• Acting medical officer of health Dr Sworder offered a furnished house in Park Street West rent free;

Mr William Weatherhead, an engineer of Dumfries Street, who, with Messrs R. Starke, W. Boyson and W. Breed, went to Ostend on Saturday, had an exciting experience. Rumours were current on Sunday that all English visitors would have to return on the Monday. Visitors arrived from all parts of the country and Switzerland to depart from Ostend for home on Monday.

Luton councillor Murry Barford wrote an article in The Luton News (October 15th, 1914) about an encounter with a Belgian refugee on the 12.15 train from St Pancras on Tuesday.

"It is not war, it is massacre," said the man. He, his brother, a man servant, with two boys of the  tenderest years, were on their way to Derby to receive from some kind-hearted householder asylum and a home, the only gift we Britishers can offer these noble people, bereft of all they once possessed.

Mr H. W. Kingston, a director of Messrs Carruthers Bros, manufacturers of Luton, had an unenviable time in getting back from Paris. He was on a continental business journey, and his first call was Paris.

"The city was very excited on Friday night, the night that M Jaures [Jean Jaures, French Socialist leader] was assassinated," he said, "and the boulevards around the offices of Le Matin were absolutely cleared by the authorities.

Tanks, the new weapons of war, became new weapons in funding Britain's war effort in the latter stages of the Great War. "Tank Banks" toured towns and cities to persuade residents to do their duty and buy War Savings Certificates or National War Bonds.

Luton received its visit from a "Tank Bank" in July 1918. The aim was to raised £750,000 here, but midway through its week-long stay tank Egbert, a war-battered mascot of the savings movement, had induced townsfolk to invest just £230,000, leaving £520,000 required in two days to hit the target.

Mr W.T. Lye, J.P., of Leagrave Hall and of the well-known Luton firm of bleachers and dyers, is to be congratulated on the fact that he and Mrs Lye, with their son and daughter, Mr Ernest B. Lye and Miss Lye, and an Irish lady friend, have been able to return to England from Germany.