News from England.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 273, 28 April 1915, Page 5

News from England.

PRINCE OF WALES' FUND. THE MIXERS' TROUBLE. MR. ASQUITH'S ADVICE. ■ Received April 27, 10.55 p.m. London, April 27. ! The Prince of Wales' Fund has now reached five millions sterling. The King has inaugurated a national fund for Belgian relief and has given £SOO.

Mr. Asquith's reply to the Miners' Conference is indefinite. Mr, Asquith is still urging the Fedcrationjto accept the employers' offer to diseuss the war bonus 'at the various wage hoards as a national conference to discuss wages would be an entirely new departure in the coal trade.

APPEAL FOR DESTITUTE BELGIANS. POSITION. DESPERATE. London, April 28. The National Committee of Relief in Belgium is appealing for half a million sterling, worth of food to keep body and soul together among the utterly destitute, M, Francqui, chairman of the commission in Brussels, writes:—"Unless we get more assistance hundreds of thousands of the seven million people in Belgium will starve. At least a million and a half Belgians are now entirely and with the rapid exhaustion of the meat and vegetable supplies, probably before harvest time there will be 2,500,000 who must be fed and clothed entirely by-charity. The remaining 4,500,000 will get a pitiful daily allowance of bread through the commission , »nd pay for, it.

treatment of british Prisoners. > "WORSE THAN HELL!" i London, April 26. ' A speaker at # recruiting meeting at 'Tulham read as authenticated letter about the treatment of British prison'«n in Germany. Jt stated: *We arc ly>ing starved here. Rice, water, ajid .Iwse beans are the iOnly food, and one l*f of. bread for six days. The guarj .Iwyoncted several, «nd others were tlrgged and tied to a foarbed wire post Ac: six hours with the tele's just touching t'-.j ground. There is hardly anything to wear. It's worse than &cing in hell."

ECONOMIC QUESTIONS. GERMANY'S POSITION, KITCHENER'S APPEAL TO WORKERS • London, April 26. . To-day's casualty list includes 37 officers killed and Ul wounded, mostly at HiU CO. . Sir Geo. Paish, in a statement dealing with the economic questions arising from tie war, said he could not think that if the business men of Germany had any weight with the Council of War the rtrnfl-gle would be continued indefinitely. They realised clearly the disadvantages ef a long war. Judging from the increasing economic indications, Germany could not hope to win, and the business men would bring all influence possible to bear on the governing classes to recognise the situation and minimise the consequences to their country. It w*s evident to everyone outside Germany that the country .could not stand a long war as could the Allies. In proportion to population the Allies would suffer little loss of purchasing power, whereas the German,loss wpuld be very serious. ■This was as evident to German business men as to everyone else. The longer the 'w»r the more onerous the terms of peace and the more serious the perman«nt consequence to the German nation Would be. . Lord Kitchener sent a message to fie ■workmen of Vickers and Co., appealing for a full output and stating that anyfiling less would mean that gallant lives .'would be sacrificed unnecessarily and .Victory postponed.

NO RELAXATION OF EFFORTS. GRATITUDE TO HEROES. London, April 2(1. Mr. Balfour, in Jhe Bcchstein Hall, said it was clear that the enemy's position was far less strong morally and materially than at the beginning of the war. 'lt was a great thing to have 'checked the tide of invasion, but until the final consummation had been reached the efforts of t*ie mechanic at home and the soldier abroad must not be relaxed. Our gratitude was due not only to the leaders and the troops, but to un•numbered nameless heroes. The whole woTk ultimately depended upon the efficiency of all that was done in Flanders and France. To those men in truth and reality we should owe our freedom from the military nightmare -under which Sflrope and the world groaned.