MESOPOTAMIA.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 December 1916, Page 5

MESOPOTAMIA.

FURTHER BRITISH SUCCESS. Received Dec. -27, 2.15 p.m. London, Det':. 2G. Mesopotamia, Official. —A British detncihment advanced to the right Imnk of the Tigris, and consolidated their positions south and east of Kilt. The cavalry destroyed Gassars fort, which was the base of the hostile Arabs.

RUMORS OF STRIKES. A REASSURING STATEMENT. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, Dec. 20. During the holidays Wellington has been full of rumors of strikes and other industrial troubles. Nobody seemed to know just where the stories had their origin, but circumstantial statements of a most disquieting kind have been heard on every side, and even those in authority appear to have been moved by them to some extent. At Trentham Camp, for example, many of the military potliee, after being granted Christmas leave, were recalled hurriedly bv telegram on Sunday morning in consequence of an absurd report that certain opponents of conscription were threatening the safety of the camp. Your correspondent, who happened to be on the spat, found indignant "red caps" regarding with disapproval ' the long stretch of loose road metal that faces the very llimsy barricade presented by the camp gates.

Another story was to the effect that the seamen and stokers were going to hold up the vessels that had been engaged to take the soldiers oat on their Christmas leave. It was an absurd rumor, since the workers concerned Would certainly not have chosen that particular point of attack if tliey had contemplated the ventilation of a griev ance during the Christmas season. But the canard spread through the camps rapidly, and one rather interesting result was the appearance of volunteersseamen, stokers, engineers, even masters —among the men in camp, who were willing to work t"sib ships, if required, rather than see their, fellow-soldiers deprived of the Christmas at home.

The rumors, as a matter of fact, .do not appear to have had any foundation at all. There tuay be industrial trouble in New Zealand before the close of the war, but there are fewer indications of it at the present time than there were a .week or two ago, when , nervousness was felt in many quarters. Your' correspondent is inclined, after making inquiries, to attribute the improved feeling to the desire of the workers' leaders to avoid a quarrel at what they recognise to be a very inopportune time, racier than to any effect produced by the Government's regulations and. repressive measures. However that may be, the outlook at the moment is reassuring.