NEWS BY MAIL

Hokitika Guardian, 1 March 1921, Page 1

NEWS BY MAIL

■2ss SOVEREIGN. CURRENCY PARTNERSHIP WITH CANADA PROPOSED. LONDON. Dec 22. “Banks, of all people,’’ soid Mr .). !«'. Darling, managing director of the London Joint City and Midland Bank, Ltd., at a meeting of tlie institute of Bankers in London last night, “must fine boldly an adverse situation. Even with it in our power to return to the ! 1 gold basis, is it desirable, in view of the difficulty in getting wages reduced correspondingly so as to let production go on at the consequently lower level of prices? “D. lias been suggested that on a fc-isis of four Canadian (dollars in the £ Canada will Do willing to join in a currency partnership. It would increase the legal value of our gold by 25 per cent., as against about 40 per cent, of its present value in paper. It would give the sovereign a legal value of 265.” Lt.-Colonel Aiuery, Under-Secretary for the Colonies, in the discussion which billowed, said that some linos on whir) the stability of exchange could be attained were now in operation between some parts of the Empire. One method would he the recognition by one part of the Empire as legal tender the currency of the other parts. Another was the setting up of an exchange hoard with representatives, both of Government and banking interests, as we bad between Great Britain and Y\ . Afiiea. 11 OMECOMTNG TB AG EDY. STRASBOURG, Doc. 22. Returning to his home at St Blaise, an Alsatian farmer who had recently escaped from Siberia, where lie had been a German prisoner of war since 1911, hard a noise in Ids cowshed and found robbers there cutting up a cow. Before he could raise an alarm the robbers murdered him. Tlie next morning his wife, who knew nothing of his homecoming, found her husband’s body lying under the hide of the cow. The woman collapsed and is seriously ill.

WOMEN CHLOROFORMED. NICE, Dec. 21

Thieves in the Riviera express have robbed a woman of jewels worth, about £4,000, and another, her companion, of 1180 in cash. The robbery took place during the night near Lyons w.iile the women were asleep and chloroform was used to ensure tlieir not waking up. The victims suspect a pleasant-man-nered woman who advised them to plate their jewellery in a handbag for safety.