News from England.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 279, 4 May 1915, Page 5

News from England.

L>> THE DRINK BILL ; : THE EFFECTS ON WORK. NAVAL REPAIRS DELAYED. \ London, May 3. The liquor trade is anxiously considering the Drink Bill, but generally there is no quarrel at the scope of the powers the Government is taking. The trade is prepared to submit if it is proved that the situation is as serious as Hr. Lloyd George describes. Hotels and clubs have laid in immense stocks, particularly of whisky, the retail price of which is expected to he immediately doubled. The wine trade is anxiously organising in the hope of amending the stringency of' the taxes, which they declare to be a death-blow to the trade.

| Received May 3, 11.30 p.m. A White Paper has been issued whereon Mr. Lloyd George based the drink crusade.

The reports of the naval authorities of various shipbuilding areas indicate that partial measures are useless, and that total prohibition is the only remedy, outside martial law. Early morning drinking is chiefly responsible for slackness.

The djdmiralty'3 superintendent on the Clyde reported that some repairs to warships were so bad as to suggest that eobet-nien could not have done them. He would like, to see the whole of Glasgow- and down to Dumbarton placed within the drink question area. The naval director at the Tyne states that the whole of the labor is deplorable, uncertain, and not dependable. The extra wages paid accentuated the difficulty. Admiral Sir John Jellicoc wrote that labor difficulties delayed destroyers in docking for refits.

The Homo Oilice inquiries showed that the main reasons for staleness and fatigue were long hours and unusually high wages, leading t 0 loafing and drinking, but drink was the chief reason.

[ BRITISH PRISONERS. iT'.'JT NAVAL LOSSES. i . London, May 2. Fifty persons, mostly women, replied to the Times? advertisement of an officer requiring a skin graft for a wound. The American Ambassador visited British prisoners suffering from reprisals in Germany and expressed satisfaction with regard to their treatment. " Swiss Socialists have invited all Socialists of the world to discuss peace at Zurich. Mr. McKenna, interrogated, said that 6ir John French had not expressed disapproval of the Government's policy of enforcing secrecy of the press and the censorships. The Government is appointing a committee, to control the coal export, with a view to the conservation of Britain's needs. ' In the House of Commons, Mr. Macnanutra announced that 6330 navy men and officers were killed to the end of March.

A LONG WAR. A QUESTION OF EXHAUSTION. (Times and Sydney Sun Services.) Received May 3, 6 p.m. London May 2. The Times' military correspondent says the end of the war is not clear, except that it means the slow exhaustion of one side or the other. The exhaustion of Germany, Austria and Turkey, with 136 millions population and immense resources, will necessarily be a long process. It is practically! impossible to fix the limits of the enemy's endurance. Therefore it is exceedingly probable that we are in for a long war.