MOTHER COUNTRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 29 August 1919, Page 5

MOTHER COUNTRY.

RETRENCHMENT POLICY,

REMOVING THE "LIMPETS/*

STRIKING EXAMPLES OP WASTE AND LOSS.

By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. Received Aug. 28, 10.5 p.m. London, Aug. 28,

Mr. iiloyd George's ultimatum has caused consternation at Whitehall. The wholesale dismissal of so-called "limpets" has l>egun in the War Office and Admiralty. Many more will receive notice on September 1. Mr. Lloyd George, in a letter to a member of the House of Commons, vigorously protests against charges of extravagant finance and faulty administrationsinvolving the loss of Government prwtiffe. It cannot, he says, be too strongly emphasised that the primary fluty *f controlling departmental expenditure" rests with the Minister and not with the Treasury. The only way of, ensuring Ministers co-operating with Treasury control lies in the establishment of collective responsibility, which the abolition of Cabinet governments seems to to have entirely destroyed.

The newspapers continue their antiWaste'campaign. They have unearthed a new example in Poole harbor, where, against expert advice, a quarter of a UttUidtt -was expended in 1918 in order to provide an alternative port for crossChannel traffic. It was subsequently discovered that shipping was unable to Crew* the bar j>f the harbor during gales, and the Work wan abandoned. > The hartal! -H'iHHo% used. It is also pointed 6nt that scores of jwd engine* and hundreds tf waggons aire W at the Leeds depot, Whilst a vast quantity of army and air force stores is rusting in a derelict depot at Didcot, which covers eight square miles. There are thousands of ambulance waggons, water-carts, gun carriages and limbers axle-deep in the, mud. Millions of washleather gloves were tied in Bundles and wed a* footballs.—Aus. N.Z. Cable Association.

TffiS PROFITEERING ACT.

INVESTIGATIONS OF COST BEING MADE. London, Aug. 27. Mr. McOnrfly has begun the administration of th» Profiteering Act. He has secured expert representatives of employers and workers to inquire into producing costs in several industries, including boots, clothes, underwear, household utensils, and necessaries. The object is not to fix prices or institute a prosecution, but to publish the facts for ptrbiic information. The Ministry is also creating temporary machinery to investigate the methods and profits of any business pending legislation for permanent machinery.

tW.W. REVOLUTIONARIES. AECOMMINDED FOR DEPORTATION. Received Aug. 28, 5.5 p.m. r London, Aug. 27. .n connection with the seizure of Independent Workers of the World literature is an East End gambling raid, the magistrate to-day convicted two Russians and one Roumanian Jew, recommending them for deportation. He declared the literature was not political, but revolutionary stuff of the most dangerous sort. The police said that the prisoners associated with the worst type of criminal, and took an active part in I.W.W. propaganda, and they regularly addressed revolutionary mettiifs.—Aus. NJZ. Cable WW-

DESUNE IN OOAIi OUTPUT. -,. Sill A. GEDDBS' WARNING. fieceived Aug. 28, 8.43 p.m. London, Aug. 27. Sit Auckland Geddes, interviewed, said ne to tort the first and greatest danger lies in the decline of the coal output, Iffejcfi was necessary to secure the re-, iteration of Europe.' British trade can&ot teeover unless Europe recovers, despff* Jje'faet that Europe is not the Wy market. British manufacturers, employers, 'and; workers must appreciate 1 the essential fact that Britain's unsatisfactory economic position can he alleviated only by greater production, and should aim at exporting one hundred fiißions sterling worth, monthly.—Aus. W.Z.' Cable Assoc.