MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

Hokitika Guardian, 19 April 1920, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

[AUSTRALIAN & N.Z. CABLE ABSOCIAVTONfJ A BIG THEFT. (Received this day at 8 a.m.) * IiONDON, April 17. Vesta, a Victoria music hall artist, who was a victim of burglary at Clapham Park, .lost jewellery valued at £20,000.

THE CAILLAUX TRIAL. (Received This Day at 8 a.m.) PARIS, April 17. The Caillaux trial is drawing to a close. The Attorney-General in a dramatic speech, asked the Court not to pass the death sentence, but declared it' should not go further along a path of indulgence. FRENCH TRADE. (Received Tliis Day at 8 a.m.) PARIS, April 17. An official decree is published re-es-tablishing commercial relations with the Central Powers. HOLD ON SIBERIA. (Received this day at 8 a.m.) TOKIO, April 17. Japanese hold all the important centres in Eastern Siberia, except Sabaraovk, which the troops are besieging. Many Russians have escaped to hills.

A BUILDING DISASTER. (Received This Day at 8 a.m.) LONDON, April 17. A billiard ball in Wolverhampton, collapsed without warning, when 120 persons were inside. Remarkablescenes followed. v In a moment the building was a heap of ruins. Scores of the inmates were struggling in agony and fear. Rescue work was most difficult owing to darkness. It was impossible to ascertain the number of deaths until daylight, but it is known several of the inmates are dead and also some passers-by.

WAR TROPHIES. ' (Received This Day at 8 a.m.) LONDON, April 17. The War Office Trophies Committc' reports they have , distributed nearly one hundred thousand trophies to Imperial War Museums, and Overseas Dominions. Australia heads the list with 1,243 guns, Canada 175, New Zealand 384. The King desires two guns to be placed in Windsor Castle, Bv'- 1 ingliam Palace, Horse Guards, and tin Tower of London, respectively. MORE WAGES WANTED. (Received this day at 8 a.m.) LONDON, April 18. The largest trade unions are demanding further substantial increases in wages, based on the trebled increases to miners and workers.

The .Secretary of the National Union railwaymen explaining the union’s demand for additional 20s weekly, states it must not be confused with the sliding scale of wages based on increased cost of living accepted in January. Although the settlement was comparative, ly recent, we think it right to raise the standard rate in view of the Government having given the miners an additional 2s daily, and standardisation of dockers’ wages to 15s daily. You cannot separate one industry from another these days. It is the railwaymen’s duty to see their rates are advanced to correspond to the charges in other industries.

DEARER MONEY. LONDON April Hi. In connection with the advance in the bank rate to 7 per cent, it means a policy of dearer money. This was adopted in co-operation with the Treasury; which has raised the rates on Treasury Rills. It is hoped by this means to curtail the increasing of credit and to encourage holders of Treasury expansion speculation and encourage holders of bills to renew them as they fall due. It is not desired ' that the- Treasury should have to pay out. This would mean generally strengthening tho country’s financial position. Opinion in the city is divided as to the wisdom of tne policy. Yet it is agreed that the rise to 7 per cent emphasises the necessity for dealing with debt in such a way as to remove its disturbing influence on the money market. The rise in the Bank rate is also connected with the export of gold to America for tho purpose of repaying Britain’s share of the Anglo-I'reneh loan, which is 'maturing in the United States in October.

A stoppage of the export of specie is not contemplated, but it is hoped that the rise will prevent other inroads on bank reserves,

AN ARAB THREAT. (Received this day at 8.40 a.m.) LONDON, April 15. The Zionist organisation has learned from Palestine that groups of Arabs demanded within five days, the suppression of the Zionist Commission, the expulsion of the leaders and disihandment of the Jewish Battalion, otherwise a general massacre of Jews was threatened. The Zionist Organisation states the Administration accepted the demands which General Allenby later rejected. The Foreign Office states General Alleiiiby has been instructed to enquire into the circumstances and take every precaution, and to inform the Aiabs that their demands cannot he entertained.

JAPAN’S MONEY MARKET. (Received This Dm at, 8.45 a.m l TOKIO, April 16.

The money market is tightening in all directions. The principal exchanges are temporarily closed. Prices of rice cottons and silks registered alarming slumps.

AN ARMENIAN RISING. CONSTANTINOPLE, April 17 The Armenian newspaper “.Tagdamnrd publishes an EH wan Government communique announcing Armenians in Zangezur and Karabagh districts, rose against the Tartar Government in the middle of March and after desperate fighting, over-run the intervening Tartar area, and captured a number of villages, and the fifth and -seventh battalions of Azerbaijan regular army. The cause of the outbreak was a. Turco-Tar-tar a tempt to disarm, the Armenians.