MOTHER COUNTRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 November 1916, Page 5

MOTHER COUNTRY.

MORE MEN WANTED. THREE AND A HALF MILLION AVAILABLES. DRASTTC EXEMPTION REFORMS URGED. Received Nov. 1, 8.15 p.m. London. Oct. 31. Tlie Army authorities are increasingly insistent on obtaining more men for •winter training and the renewed operations in the spring..The military demand is for young men, and does not favour raising the age. It is estimated there are three and a half million men under 40 not serving in munition works and badged trades which are nationally essential, and are employing many thousands The exemption of scores of thousands by the tribunals has created dissatisfaction, many members of tribunals exempting one another's employees, and the Government departments setting a bad example, Ministers having exempted thousands of young clerks as" indiFpensables The newspapers are urging drastic reforms. It is suggested that the badged trades should be reduced, the tribunals reconstructed, all exemptions revised, and that the Army shall take all men under 20, alternatively to raise the age to 40, employing the older men on defence against invasion, and rolea c ing the present home army for foreign service. PARLIAMENT ,AND THE WAR. QUESTIONS AND REPLIES. Eeceived Nov. 1, 5.5 p.m. London, Oct. 81. In the House of Commons there were lively discussions on man-power, food prices, and the Channel fight, wh.i-h resulted in the record number of ?17 questions being asked, but the time limit prevented Ministers from answering the majority. Mr. James Hope announced that he was not aware of any neutral pretest against Germany's treatment of war prisoners, but Britain was keeping a record of German breaches of international law throughout the war . Mr. R. Hazleton (Galway) asked whethei there had been 3,000.000 exemptions. Mr. (Lloyd George replied that the number varied daily. He would give, the true figures in the course of the manpower debate. Mr. J. C. Wedgwood asked whether, in view of the failure of the existing system the Government would en'.ist all men under 23, calling up the older men year by year, as was found necessary, and leaving the industries to readjust I themselves naturally. j Mr. 'Lloyd George replied that the latest substitution scheme had just been brought in, and it was too early to describe it as a failure. Mr. Bonar Law announced that the Government would introduce, without delay, a Bill in the House of Lords removing from the peerage and from citizenship thosq members of the House of Lords who were fighting against the Allies. It was doubtful whether the Dukes of Cumberland and Albany -were actually members of the House of Lords, and he was not aware of others fighting against us. Mr. H. Forster stated that the Government were acting in accordance with General Sir Douglas Haig's ■uggestions regarding body-shields for the troops. It was. however, undesirable to give further detail?. AGRICULTURE AT HOME, j WHEAT-GROWERS' PLEA, Eeceived Nov. 1, Sp.m. London, Nov. 1. The Associated Chambers o f Agriculture have adopted a resolution to the effect that there would be a disastrous shortage of wheat and other essential foods if the farms were further depleted of skilled labour. Captain Bathurst stated that if it was the Government's policy to import food, with all the submarine risks and tremendous cost, well and good; but the Board of Agriculture ought not to exhort farmer* to grow more wheat when a powerful Department was doing its host to render this impossible, Men required for the army could be found by combing out the Government departments and munition works. "WHAT WE ARE FIGHTING: FOE." I Eeceived Nov, 1, 8 p.ir . London, Nov I. Mr. Arnold Lupton, an ex-Coimooncr, was summoned for publishing pamphlets prejudicial to recruiting, headed, "What we are Fighting For! Why don't we make Peace?" The case is unfinished, WAR RELIEF FUNDS A, SPLENDID -RESPONSE. ' London, October 31. Fifty millions were subscribed to war charities in the first two years of the war. This includes moneys from the Dominions and Colonies, and covers 20 millions for the relief of distress and the re-establishment of men returning to civil life, six millions for the sick Mid wounded, six millions for comforts, and ten millions for the Allies. The Prince of Wales' National Fund is now six million, of which three-fifths has been spent, chiefly in meeting soldiers' allowances, of which the War Office has delayed payment. The Comforts Fund includes H jiiillions spent by the- Young Men's Christian Association, the Church Army and the Salvation Army for the entertaining of fighting men in the training camps iind abroad. Eight millions has been collected for Belgian relief, of which half Jia3 basn spent by the Neutral Commission ;r. Belgium and three million has been spent in feeding, clothing and lodging Belgian refugees in Britain, ~~