Stories from the Beds & Herts Saturday Telegraph: May 13th, 1916.

An important concession has been made by the Government to the men who are trading on their own and to whom the call to military service means the closing of the business on which a man and his family are dependent.

And although it is possible the Government may even yet go farther, there is not doubt that "for what we have already received" the country is to a considerable extent indebted to Luton tradesmen in general and to Mr Samuel Sandys, the Secretary of the Local Newsagents' Association in particular.

Mr Sandys has put a considerable amount of time and work into the agitation which has been going on during the past few days. He spent several hours on Tuesday in the House of Commons with representatives of the London and Provincial Newsagents' Union, and on Thursday he presided at a meeting at Anderton's Hotel, Fleet Street, when 300 shopkeepers were present at a meeting convened by the Association to support the amendment to the Compulsion Bill standing in the name of Mr Yeo, MP.

On the same day the Secretary of the Luton Tradesmen's Association (Mr Frederick Cox) and the Chairman of the Newsagents' Association (Mr Stanley Welch) got the signatures of the whole of the Executive of the Tradesmen's Association to the following resolution which was telegraphed to Mr Walter Long and to Mr Cecil Harmsworth, MP: "The Executive of the above Association view with alarm the proposal to take single-handed traders from their businesses for H.M. Forces, and hopes some measure of relief or exemption may be devised for their benefit".

Tomorrow (Sunday) a mass meeting of shopkeepers, owners of one-man businesses, is to be held at the Plait Hall at 2.45.

The Government concession on the subject to date was the decision to instruct local tribunals to grant exemption in cases where if a man with wife and family dependent were called up his business would probably close down.

• Pte Bertie Gore (pictured right), 2nd Essex Regiment and brother of the late Pte Walter Ernest Gore [killed in action near Ypres on April 19th, 1916], is now in hospital at Cambridge suffering from the effects of wounds, his shoulder having been shattered. He was wounded at Mons on September 1st, 1914, and again at Gallipoli on August 6th last year. He is 23 years of age and his parents live in St Ann's Road, Luton. Pte Walter Gore was included in a casualty list issued this morning of 38 men of the Beds Regiment killed.

• The Army officer son of a Luton gentleman has complained of the wasteful and unnecessary expense to which a young man is put by charges in connection with the officers' mess. The liabilities thus incurred often make it difficult, and sometimes impossible, to live on military pay, and if parents or friends are not in a position to come to the rescue the consequences may be extremely detrimental to the young officer and his career. "Had I known of the struggle I should have to keep things going straight, and to avoid financial pitfalls, merely because of the costly mess customs, I should have remained in the ranks," he wrote.

• Luton Rifle Club inaugurated the opening for the new season of its outdoor range in Dallow Road last Saturday with the handing over of prizes won on the indoor range during the November to April winter session and special competitions held at the outdoor range that afternoon. Marksmanship is a matter of national importance, and from the point of view of usefulness and proficiency in shooting constitutes a more practical sport than football or cricket.

• A Leagrave youth described as a gardener was fined a minimum 40 shillings and held in custody for military escort when he admitted being absent when called up for service on May 8th. The youth said he could not "conscientiously volunteer to do wilful murder" and when told he had been put for non-combatant service said he could not conscientiously take the military oath.

• Chief Constable David Teale was a witness to man accident outside the Town Hall on Friday morning in which a Messrs Sanders and Brightman motor van turning out of Manchester Street collided with a perambulator containing a baby. The pram was wrecked but fortunately the little occupant escaped unharmed.

• A tramcar was involved in another accident on Friday morning. It collided with a horse and trolley, belonging to Messrs Pickford, as it rounded the corner of Chapel Street into George Street. Fortunately no one was injured.

• The influence of cinema on youngsters was again raised at a children's court this morning when two lads admitted breaking into Mr John Langley's gun shop at 31 Park Street, Luton, and stealing three revolvers and a quantity of cartridges. The father of one of the boys took him to return two of the revolvers plus cartridges in his possession to the shop. The father said his son went to the pictures once a week, and Insp Janes, who apprehended the boys, said they told him they had watched "The Exploits of Elaine" in which pistols were being used all the time. Court Chairman Mr E. Oakley said: "They get infatuated with these pictures - this firing and everything else."