IN THE AIR.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 26 June 1917, Page 5

IN THE AIR.

DECORATING A MURDERER.

Received 10.40,

AMSTERDAM, June 25

Captain Brandenburg, who commanded the air raid on London on the 13th June, has been awarded the Order of Merit.

IROUM A N I A. SOCIALISM AT WORK. WIDEST EEFOEMS DEMANDED. Eeceived 0.15 a.m. JASSY, June 25. King Ferdinand, of Eoumania, is visiting the front, and has promised the troops land reforms for five million peasants. He has personally given a ;large are of crown lands, and has ask-

ed the Government to introduce a Bill giving land to all peasants fighting. The reforms do not satisfy the .bulk of the nation, which is unsettled by the Eussian revolution and German and Eussian •Soria-K'st*'waters: Twenty members of the,, Epumanian Parliament have formed a Labour Party, and intend demanding the widest land, electoral, economic, and social reforms, in which they have already received strong support.

SERVIA MURDERED SERBIANS. TERRIBLE FATE OF PRISONERS IN AUSTRO-HTJNGARY. LONDON, June 24. . Details have reached Salonika of the treatment of Serbian prisoners in Aus-tro-Hungary, Twenty-four thousand died of typhoid at two concentrattion camps. A few thousand remain, suffering from tuberculosis and other diseases. A large number are interned in a third camp at Cachack which is the depot for labour battalions on the Italian front. There were 20,0-00 deaths there during the last six months. Frightfully emaciated prisoners, clad in rags, are seen daily fighting like famished beasts at the refuse heaps for scraps of bones. One hundred and eight Serbians were frozen to death in a single hut on March ISth. The dead and dying were thrown in huge graves and covered with quicklime.

NEW SERVIAN CABINET.

Keceived 10.40 a.m. PARIS, June 25.

Owing to the resignation of several members of the Servian Cabinet, Pashitch is forming a new Cabinet.

IN GERMANY.

A COAL FAMINE. Beecived 9.40 a.m. AMSTERDAM,. June 25. There is a serious coal famine in Germany. Many bakeries are closing, and lighting in Berlin has been cut down by two thirds. There is a similar shortage in Denmark; where 1,200,000 tons of coal are required, only 300,000 are available.

SOCIALIST GRAVE WARNING.

Received 9.40 a.m. AMSTERDAM, June 25

Hcit Schiedemann, writing in Vorwaorts, denounces the Government for not making clear-cut peace offers, which were vague, and the clumsy attitude of forcing Russia to continue adverse to the Allied cause and making America declare war. •> The wholesale

introduction of democracy into Germany was inevitable, and must be done immediately if the Germans are going to escape the heaviest losses, We are drifting into the fourth winter of the war.

GENERAL GABLES BRITISH AND GERMAN DELEGATES TO CONFER.

ON QUESTIONS CONNECTED

WITH PRISONERS

Received 5.45. LONDON, June 25

Lord Newton, General Belfield, and Judge Younger have arrived to discuss with the German delegates questions connected with prisoners of war, including camps/ reprisals, and exchange of wounded men. Dutch representatives will be present at the conference, which opens on the 25th June. BRITISH POLITICS STATE PURCHASE OF LIQUOR TRADE. Received 9.15. LONDON, June 25. The Daily Chronicle states that General Smnts will not attend the War Cabinet when domestic policies are being discussed, but is a member of the Inner Committee, dealing with the Avar, consisting of Llcyd George, Lord Curzon, and Lord Milner. In order to economise time the other Ministers only attend when matters discussed concern their departments. Cabinet has decided in favour of the State purchase liquor trade, but the terms remain to be discussed. The Government's idea at present is that the State should control the trade during the war with prohibition of State purchase after the war. State control would mean the immediate closing of scores of breweries and the extinction of thousands of licensed houses.

Though Cabinet has authorised the brewing of more beer there will be no encroachment on food stocks. By reducing alcoholic strength by thirtysix degrees the output of beer will be increased by fifty per cent., which will be standardised and retailed at fourpence per pint.