BRITAIN.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 February 1916, Page 5

BRITAIN.

~ THE DERBY SCHEME. vnnT.HS CALLED UP, i ' , London. Feb. 20. The first group ot the Derby recruits will be culled up next week, Though the first .group has been called up, it is understood that they will not begin training unless they have reached the age of lit. The remainder will be sent home until they reach military age. The advisability of conscription of the younger married men is being discussed. It is generally believed to be unlikely at present, but much depends on the percentage of effective recruiting among the unmarried men. On that also depends the. summoning of married men who enlisted under Lord Derby's scheme. The authorities are seeking a means of making recruiting more productive. The Xews Agency states that the authorities are touring the counties investigating the work of local tribunals and their handling of exemption claims. A special committee has been established at the War Office to revise reserved occupations, and it is expected that the iist will soon he reduced and a fresh list compiled. Instructions to tribunals will shortly be issued impressing that the national necessity must have priority to private business. (The first group indicates youths between >8 r.ft# 19.) i : », YORKSHIRE FARMERS TALK XOXSENSE. London, Feb. 20. During the sitting of the recruiting tribunal at Kirkby Stephen (Yorkshire) many farmers threatened to sell their stock and abandon their farms if their workmen were conscripted. The tribunal held that the bulk of the claimants were necessary for agriculture, and exempted them.

TRUST THE GOVERNMENT. A COMMON-SENSE VIEW. London, Feb. '2O. Lord Derby, addressing the Workmen's Conservative Association in Liverpool, said that the two outstanding questions were, were we making ourselves as safe as we could against air raids and making the enemy as uncomfortable as we could by the blockade. He reprobated recriminations as to who was responsible. It was the people who were unprepared for the war. If any statesman years before the war had said "We want millions more to be prepared for this war" they would have locked him up. The war was going to be won and lost in France or Flanders, not by Zeppelins flying over a country which disdained to be frightened. He urged the press a nd pu'blic to trust the Government, wVich was not less patriotic than themselves and was doing all it could.

OUTPUT OF MUNITIONS. UNION RESTRICTIONS. London, Feb. 20. Thomas Rees, London secretary of the Associated Society of Engineers, was summoned for delaying the output of munitions in the controlled factory at Abbey Wood by inducing the night shift since February 7 to cease work for higher pay, on the ground that the factory is in London, instead of resorting to arbitration. The case was adjourned for a fortnight. DEFENCE OF THE REALM ACT London, Feb. 20. Mr. Lloyd George used tl.e powers of the Defence of the Realm Act and ordered work on the new London County Hall to cease, as the labor was required to build munition factories. SHIPPING FOR FRUIT. London, Feb. 20. Mr. Runciman informed a deputation that if they formulated a scheme for the utilisation of half the usual tonnage in the importation of fruit he would probably be a'blc to arrange it. The deputation is drawing up a scheme for the allocation of shipping at various ports to submit to Mr. Runciman. A TARIFF WANTED London, Feb. 20. Lord Cromer, in a letter to The Spectator, as a convinced free trader, expresses his general agreement with the proposal for a tariff. He thinks the Government should have introduced a tariff early in the war and also preference to Indian and colonial produce.