GENERAL CABLES.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 July 1920, Page 3

GENERAL CABLES.

By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Two lady delegates from Melbourne, representing the Victorian Women's Broken Hill Clothing Fund, in a lengthy report to a miners""meeting, stated that able-bodied men boasted in Melbourne that they preferred collecting alms for Broken Hill at 5s in the £ to doing hard work. Speakers against the report were subjected to hostility, the meeting adjourning. Mr. Justice Scott gave a verdict for Admiral Sir Percy Scott in his claim against Vickers, Ltd. He found that Sir Percy Scott was entitled to 20 per cent, of the selling prices of his Inventions (which were mainly connected with gun-firing on battleships) where orders were obtained without competition, and 10 per cent, where orders were competitive, for the period January, 1&05, to January, 1913, and thereafter at a rate fixed at 10 per cent, all round. Sir Percy Scott announced that he waived claims prior to 1913. British and American tobacco interests, with English, American, Belgian and French bankers, are negotiating with France for the purchase of ' a tobacco monopoly for 400,000,000 dollars. It is understood that France is considering the sale in order to pay her war debts, including her share in AngloFrench bonds due on October 1. Count Hara was bitterly assailed in the Japanese Diet for referring the suf-frage-question to the nation, despite tho decision of the Diet to grant universal suffrage. Count Hara replied that it was improper to adopt universal suffrage without giving the amended election law a trial. The Government was therefore justified in «ppealing to the people. The Federated Seamen's executive at Sydney has dispatched a letter to the maritime bodies throughout the world with a view to arrange a conference with the object of preventing future wars. The letter states: "Without our consent and co-operation the calamity of war cannot again fall on the world." - In the Budget discussion in the House of Commons, the Labor motion for the abolition of the tea duty was defeated by 242 votes to 45. Replying to questions, Mr. Bonar Law stated in the House of Commons that the suggestion to establish an Allies' Court in Holland to try the ex-Kaiser was impracticable.