MOTHER COUNTRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 January 1918, Page 5

MOTHER COUNTRY.

BLIZZARDS IN EUROPE. WEST FRONT SWEPT FOB 4S HOURS. Received Jan. 10, 12.38 a.m. London, Jan. 18. Blizzards everywhere in Europe are breaking down'telegraphs and telephones and suspending traffic. Germany is almost isolate'. A bitter gale swept the West front for forty-eight hours. Snow is still falling.

ENGLISH PRISONERS IN GERMANY. HORRIBLE PUNISHMENTS. London, Jan. 17. Prisoners who have escaped from German camps and reached England narrate horrible punishments of Englishmen refusing to work in the mines. An offender is stripped naked and thrown into a cell heated with hot air, with the walls and roof double-boarded. The heat is suffocating, and the only ventilation is a hole the size of a crown peace. The man sweats and gasps for a time, and is then taken naked and made to stand outside in any weather. The extremes of climate are a real torture. If the spirit of the man is still unbroken, he is knocked unconscious by a blow on the head with the butt-end of a rifle, then taken to the mine, and not allowed to come to the surface until he agrees to work.

THE COMBING-OUT SCHEME. OBJECTORS ROUGHLY TREATED London, Jan. 17. Some members of the Amalgamated Engineers at Woolwich Arsenal, attempted to hold a meeting to protest' against Sir Auckland Geddes' eombingout scheme. Other workers attended and pelted the engineers with dirty cotton waste and broke up the meeting, THE BOARD OF TRADE . BEING BROUGHT UP-TO-DATE. Received Jan. 18, 8.45 p.m. London, Jan. 17. A memorandum has been issued with respect to the reorganisation of the Board of Trade into two main departments, tlu> first jor commerce and industry, and the second for public services. The administration of the former will be concerned mainly with the development of trade and thinking out and assisting the natural commercial and industrial policy. One of its sections will be devoted to overseas trade de-* velopment and intelligence. NO COMPULSION FOR IRELAND. Received Jan. 10, 1135 a.m. London, Jan. 18. In the House of Commons, an amendment moved on the second reading of the Military Service Bill to forco compulsion in Ireland, was rejected by 13G to 48. HOLDERS OF RUSSIAN SCRIP. Received Jan. 18, 12.35 a.m. London, Jan. IS. Mr. Bonar Law, in the House of Commons, stated he had arranged for the Treasury to take over the rights of British holders of Russian Treasury bills maturing on January 28 in exchange for twelve yeaf three per cent. Exchequer bonds at par.