CABLE NEWS IN BRIEF

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 115, 13 April 1940, Page 8

CABLE NEWS IN BRIEF

Bombay "Dry” Law. The Bombay High Court has ruled that the prohibition law under which Bombay became a “dry” city last August is invalid. Straits Settlement Gift. A resolution will he moved at the forthcoming meeting of the Legislative Council of the Straits Settlement offering £1,000,000 as a gift- to the British Government to aid in the prosecution of the war.—British Official Wireless. American Wheat. The American Department of Agriculture forecasts that the crop of winter wheat will he 426,215,000 bushels, about one-fourth below that last year. Shanghai Council. A Shanghai message says -that flic Japanese concede defeat in the effort to control the Municipal Council and are expected to leave the membership unchanged—five British, two American and two Japanese. Australian Coal Strike. Although the trains and trams, running on reduced schedules, are crowded, the continuance of the coal strike has made necessary further cuts, says a Sydney message. The Premier (Mr A. Mair) said that if the Federal Government failed to act in the next few days to end the coal strike the State GoVernment might have to. do so. A Commonwealth Gazette provides for an immediately census of all coal and coke stocks in Australia, but it is officially emphasised that this does not necessarily imply Federal action.

Conservation of Sterling. A Canberra message says the importation of hundreds of magazines, comic papers and periodicals produced in non-sterling • countries and the United States, now on sale on bookstalls throughout Australia, has been banned under regulations issued by the Federal Government. Almost immediate action by the Federal Government to bring about a substantial reduction of non-storling expenditure on nonessential imports of petrol was foreshadowed when ilie Prime Minister (Mr R. G. Menzies) announced that the Economic Cabinet had decided to call a conference on April 22 of all persons interested in the importation, distribution and use of petrol.