GENERAL CABLES.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3493, 22 May 1920, Page 5

GENERAL CABLES.

CONTROL OF GERMAN PROPERTY REPORT OF COMMISSION. Received 10.5. MELBOURNE, this day. A report of the Commission on the administration of former German territory, considers the cost of Government will be £230,000. The report recommends that £200,000 be raised by local taxation, principally by import ayd export duties, and granting a Commonwealth subsidy of £30,000 annually, the subsidy later to be withdrawn. It advocates the nationalisation of German properties, which could be carried on by the Commonwealth. A majority report recommends that the Government be organised on the lines of the present Papuan Government, with an Administrate!*, Executive, and Legislative Council, at a cost of £168,000 yearly. It advises the imposition of a supertax on the export of copra, but does not recommend the nationalisation of the plantations, stating itt would involve a capital outlay of at least two and a half millions. It recomends a preferential teritory tariff, first, in favour of Australia; next of the Empire; also preferential Australian duties in favour of Papua and the mandated territories. The report also urges that the liquidated German trading companies and assets, consisting of town blocks, be held by the Government and leased. BRITAIN'S DEFENCES. SPEECH BY MR CHURCHILL* LONDON, May 20. Mr . Winston Churchill, Minister of War, speaking at the opening of the military tournament, said that we had again the broad sunlight of a victorious peace we had to maintain, on the scale of the army before the war, a small defensive army for Imperial police duty, to keep alive those traditions which generations hence might be the means of enabling our various communities, usually unprepared, to escape disaster. The navy must always remain on a mobilised gcale. The navy had always been and always must be strong enough, wdiatever happened, to enable all other deficiencies to be repaired.

LONDON’S HIGH SPENDERS

CHANGING THEIR WAYS. LONDON, May 21. London’s post-war period of extravagant luxury buying and “n'lrmous profits shows signs of ending. The verge of the busiest season finds West End business men anxious to unload heavy stocks, fearing the possibilities of an economy craze and a consequent slump in buying. Increasing dearness of money contributes to the downward pressure. Managers of hotels, restaurants and shops Indicate that high spending will soon be confined to the new rich. Modistes declare that women in the highest social positions are cutting down dress expenditure by two-thirds.

THE FALL IN COPPER. CAUSE OF THE DECLINE. LONDON. May 23. The decline in copper, is due to persistent selling and reduced output in the Midlands owing to the strike on the canals.