CABLE NEWS.

Hokitika Guardian, 30 April 1921, Page 2

CABLE NEWS.

AUSTRALIAN AND N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION. THE CQAL NEGOTIATIONS. LONDON, April 28 Negotiations brought the difference between parties to 2s 6d. Government offered to increase the subsidy to ten millions spread over a period of four months. The miners delegates declare the final offer is highly unsatisfactory, but they will refer it to the full conference to-night. COMMONS APPOINTMENT. OLNDON, April 28. Mr James Hope has-been appointed Chairman of Committees. SALE OF STEAMERS. LONDON, April g 8 The Shipping Controller has sold the German steamers Wendland, Friesland, Munsterland, Soueland, and Vogtland, whereof the gross tonnage averages about eleven thousand and deadweight ranges from 15,400 to 16,800. Four were built in 1920, and one in 1917 for £53,500, representing an average of £6 12s 6d per ton deadweight. The Australian Press Association understands the purchasers are the Federal Navigation Company. - A AVAR BRIBE. NOT TO BE BOUGHT. NEW YORK, April 28. At a meeting of the Chamber of Commerce in honour of Mr Charles Schwab, the President of the Bethlehem Steel Company, it was revealed that Germany had offered Mr Schwab a huge bribe of 100,000,000 dollars ' if lie would break his contracts with- Lord Kitchener for the supply of war munitions which the* Allies sorely needed to stem the German advance. Britain was cognisant of the German manoeuvres, and she offered Mr Schwab 150,000,000 dollars for the Bethlehem steel plants, or more than five times their capital value. Mr Schwab declared that he did not desire to sell, but in answering the Germans, .he said: “There is not sufficient money in Germany to buy off the Bethlehem Company until its obligations to the British are fulfilled.” TOTE TAX IN ENGLAND. LONDON, April 28. Mr Hilton Young, replying to Sir Newton Moore in Parliament, said that though the Chancellor of the Exchequer was always prepared to consider proposals for raising revenue, he did not think it desirable to introduce a totalizator tax.

BANK RATE FALLS. LONDON, April 28. The bank rate of interest has been ' educed from 7 to 61 per cent. There was much excitement in the vicinity of the Bank of England when the reduction of the bank rate was announced. This is the adoption of a middle-course % policy. It was not expected. It is believed to be due to the coal trouble. This is the first time the rate has been reduced by one-half per cent when it was over 5 per cent. The stockbrokers are speculating on the prospects of a revival of the markets by the change, which, is looked on as the lifting of what has been regarded as one of the most restrictive influences on trade generally.

AMERICA’S NAVY. WASHINGTON, April 28 The United States House of Representatives has, by a large majority, defeated an amendment to the Naval Appropriation Bill. The amendment proposed that the appropriation made for the continuance of the 1916 naval building programme should be held up until President Harding called *a disarmament conference at Hampton Road. PRESIDENT REVIEWS FLEET. NEW YORK, April 28. President Harding has reviewed the Atlantic Fleet. Addressing the officers, the President said: “I wish that you might never be called upon to fire a gun again. If every Government were inspired by the same motives as ours, then there always would be peace ; but we would ndt have peace without honour, nor without our consciousness of America’s right and the protecting of our every interest.”

INDIAN AGITATION. DELHI, April 28. An official report states that serious rioting has occurred in the Nasik distinct, in the Bombay Presidency. A police sub-inspector and three constables -were killed, and their bodies were burned in a Hindoo temple. Two magistrates were injured. Reinforcements of police and military are there now. They are engaged in restoring order. FACISTI SEIZE FIUME. ROME, April 28. As a result of the elections in Fiume, in which the autonomists defeated the Nationalists who advocated the annexation of the town hv'ltaly, the Faseisti seized the town and declared the elections void. MEXICAN ROBBERY. NEW YORK, April 28. A telegram from Houston, in Texas says that reports from Tampico states that, eight guards and two' bandits were killed in an encounter between a party of guards and 15 bandits .ho had robbed officials of the Aglnii O'l Company, a British concern of 135,000 pesos in gold.

GOLD REACHES NEW YORK. NEW YORK, April 28. Heavy gold imports have occurred since the Ist April, more than 40,000000 dollars worth has been arriving. It is putting the local Sub-Treasury to an unprecedented strain for storage facilites. SIR EDWARD CARSON. APPOINTED TO JUDGESHIP. “ THE TIMES ” SERVICE. .'Received this day at 8 a.m.) LONDON April 29. Sir Edward Carson has accepted a judgeship in the appeal division, though he will remain in the Commons unti] the Irish elections.