Digest of stories from the Beds & Herts Saturday Telegraph: March 10th, 1917.

The Luton Tribunal deadlock is over and at a special meeting on Friday night the whole business more or less satisfactorily cleared up.

There had been certain correspondence since the Tribunal adjourned for two weeks on February 21st to clarify the Military Representative Lieut H. Gardner's "confidential" instructions to appeal against all exemptions granted to men under 31 medically classified for general service abroad and which Tribunal members decided meant there was no point in them sitting.

At the end of Friday's still tense sitting, Lieut Gardner, who had offered to resign, accepted he may have been injudicious with his straightforward responses.

• A disreputable looking fellow, aged 39 but looking nearer 58, appeared before Luton magistrates this morning and it was stated that he was a public nuisance. He regularly entered the tramps ward at Union House but would not work and escaped over the workhouse wall. He was a perfect nuisance to soldiers at Biscot Camp and had turned upat the library in a filthy and verminous state and stank horribly. Even when he was taken to the police station they could not bear the smell. Claiming that lies were being told about him, the prisoner was sent to prison for 14 days with hard labour on one charge and fined 20s or 14 days on a second. He emphatically declared he would not pay the fine.

• On Thursday afternoon the mortal remains of the late Pte William James Proctor, of 86 Russell Rise, were laid to rest in the Church Cemetery, Luton. His death had occurred on the previous Saturday at the First London Military Hospital, Camberwell, from a tubercular complaint, as the result of the rigours of the winter campaign on the Western Front, where he had been on service with the East Surreys for five months.

• No further news has been received of Pte Harry Gutteridge, 26, who enlisted in the Royal Fusiliers in December 1915 and was officially reported wounded on February 5th. His wife who lives in Holly Walk would be glad if any readers who know anything about him would communicate with her immediately.

• When the members of the sub-committee of the Prisoners of War Committee had finished their work of packing parcels to be despatched to prisoners of war of the Bedfordshire Regiment they had a pleasant surprise. A cheque for £100 was handed to the Hon Treasurer, Alderman H. O. Williams, from the committee of the "N.T.F.," the weekly journal organised locally in aid of the prisoners of war.

• There is plenty of talk nowadays concerning potatoes, perhaps rather to the exclusion of that agreeable comestible, the humble carrot. But even the carrot can be served up until it becomes too much of a good thing. The Matron of a local institution has now received the following petition: "We, the undersigned, wish to present this petition regarding carrots. As we have had carrots almost daily for the past five months, we think that a change would be beneficial. Carrots, no doubt, are wholesome and agreeable to the palate occasionally, but carrots daily, to say the least are somewhat monotonous and over-satisfying. The patients in all the wards are tired of eating carrots. The nurses in all the wards are ashamed of serving carrots. The sisters dread dinner time because of carrots and the remarks following in their train." The petition ends with the hope that "our dumb friends will no longer be deprived of their stimulating diet".

• The Midland Railway Company has issued its revised season ticket conditions operating from March 1st, 1917, and trials and troubles of the poor ticket holders are multiplied. The Company, according to these latest conditions, are neither liable or responsible for anything, but woe betide the passenger who does not conform to the Company's requirements. The Company "will not bind itself to carry the ticket holder in any particular train or carriage and, although the third class travellers may be compelled to ride in a cattle truck, he has no remedy. Moreover, if he travels first class he must pay the extra fare.

• This morning members of the Luton special constabulary were responsible for prosecutions against tradespeople for selling after hours. One trader was fined 5s and two others 15s each - one from New Bedford Road exclaiming: "That's what I get for sending seven sons into the Army to fight for you. It is a malicious prosecution."

• Fewer than 2,000 spectators, mostly in khaki, turned up in depressing weather conditions at the Luton Town ground this afternoon for a London Combination match against Millwall. The kick-off was delayed after the visitors reached the ground only five minutes before the advertised time. On a ground in a shocking condition, Simms opened the scoring for Luton after 30 minutes play, and Brown added a second five minutes later to give Luton a 2-0 interval lead. Butcher scored Luton's third 30 minutes into the second half before Millwall pulled a goal back. The final score was 3-1 to Luton.