A PRINCIPALITY BECOMES REPUBLIC.

Taihape Daily Times, 23 July 1919, Page 5

A PRINCIPALITY BECOMES REPUBLIC.

._ COBLENX, July 21. E A Provisional Government has been‘ formed in the Principality -of Birken-E fold, and a declaration issued dissolv--i ing union with «the Grand Duchy «)f\i Oldenburg and establishing a. R,gpu‘.Jl’l.:. ( --- I RATIFICATION BILL READ. LONDON, July 22. i After Mr Lloyd Geoi~ge’s speech, the amendment W 35 Degatiwdi 3nd the‘ Ratification Bill read a second time. FOOD SHORTAGE IN FRANCE’. Received July 23, noon. PARIS, July 22. Lo Matin says: “We are threaatc-ned in 1920 with a dearth of food. The supply of corn is assured only to‘ August 31st. As a result of a deficit in the harvest, we are short of 3540 quinlftflls for 1919-20. We trust, therefore, to obtain economic collaboration with Britain and America. If that. fails, we will suffer a food crisis greater than in war time. __ ‘ ‘ IRISH PROBLEM, DEBATE IN THE COMMONS. ._- . , - LONDON, July 22. Mr Devlin renewed the debate on i the Ratification Bill, in the early hours ‘ of the morning, moving its rejection on ithe third reading. was a protest against i Mr Lloyd George’s appeal to Irishmen I to realise that Ireland is not a compo- | site nation. “There can be no peace,” said Mr Devlin, “until the Irish quesF tion is settled.” Mr Lloyd George ridiculed the idea [that he. had taken up a new attitude. ‘Nationalists might have self-Govern- } ment, but they must. not: force it upon , Ulster.; l The motion was rejected by 163- | votes to 4. I -———---—-v A ; BRITAIN’S SHIPPING. ' } __._ 1 _-INCREASE IN BUIIEING. .:. _ _,_Mr.,“A‘rchibald Hurd, w‘riting' in the f‘Daily Telegraph,.” says’ that 2,524; 050 tons of shipping are" new being built' in Bi-'i'tain——a.l ~ gratifying "increase of 269,000 tons-"oh-’~ the March quarter. Shipowners are’ showingifine enterprise, but it is regrettable that coal strikes are crippling‘ attempts to recover the losses of the war. Ships are Britain’,-g greatest need.‘ America secured the cream of Germany’s passenger liners, and now possesses four million tons more than in 1914. Japan also has increased her merchant fleet 25 per cent; Both these countries are still building at maximum rate of output. British national effort is imperative, because we ‘have lost sl'l'prelnacy" since 1914’. America is now" building‘ 944 vessels ofia "tonnage of 3,874”/.l43;~’Britain 782 -vessels of ‘a tonnage of 2,524,050; "British iDomiliion‘s ‘ZO9 vessels of ‘a tonnage ‘of §,3-16,453; Japan 63 vessels 7of a tonlnage of 282,060,