NEWS BY MAIL.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 January 1921, Page 2

NEWS BY MAIL.

WAR STORE FRAUDS THAT RUN INTO MILLIONS. Milan, Oct. 28. General Maglietta, who distinguished himself on the Italian front both for military valor and inventive genius, waxs arrested to-day at Vicenza at the in- I stance of the State inquiry Commission,' on a charge of being concerned in colossal frauds in a private sale of war material. In company with Colonel Conti, and other superior officers already in custody the General is accused of having realised millions as the result of speculations with a clique of Government contractors in war stores, which were afterwards set down as destroyed during bombardments. Sandrigo sawmills, with £20,000 worth of timber belonging to the Sixth Army Corps, was passed nominally to a Milan contractor, formerly an Alpinist lieutenant, for £lOOO. The mountain population in the redeemed provinces is alleged'to have been deprived of aerial railways that linked up the villages in the plain, while large funds assigned for replacing their rotten wooden cabins with stone dwellings went into the pockets of Government agents. TWINS WHO PUZZLE THE DOCTORS. New York, Nov. 2. What is regarded as an unusual psychic demonstration is engaging the attention of medical men here. Clarence Marsh, of Abron, in the State of Ohio, became ill recently, and was placed tinder an anaesthetic to be operated upon. At that identical instant his twin sister Clara, who lives with their parents in the town of Frederick, in the State of Maryland, 27 miles away, was seized with nausea and fever. RUSSIA A GERMAN MARKET. London, Nov. 14.

A London business man who has just returned from Berlin points out that in the present state of the exchanges the Russian is the only market in which the German trader can get real value for his depreciated mark; while conversely Germany is the only country with which, at the present price of the rouble, Russia can trade profitably. Therefore the exploitation by Germany Of Russia’s enormous natural resources, with close political and commercial co-operation between the two countries, seems to him inevitable.

German banks are prosperous, the earnings of one amounting to 10(1 per cent per annum. British financial standing is higher than ever in Germany to-day.

In all Gorman businesses with 20 employees or more the latter are entitled now to have a representative to look after their interests. In businesses with more than 60 employees these have the right to inspect balance-sheets. Motor cars are rare in Germany today, as a license is necessary, and this is so grudgingly granted that many people who could afford a car are without one. COST OF LIVING SOARS HIGH IN ITALY. Milan, Nov. 2. A speedy return to war-time restrictions is foreshadowed in a declaration from the Government Food Controller. Italy, he says, cannot afford the seven milliards of lire (nominally £277,000,000) requisite for the purchase of foreign grain at current exchange rates, hence the Italian people will have to put up with a worse quality of bread, and do without cakes and sweetmeats. Prices of the most primary necessities of life are soaring higher and higher, till'they have reached an average of 450 per cent above pre-war cost, and, coupled v'ith the shameless prevalence of speculation and profiteering, may force the Government to turn back from the high road to commercial freedom. In fact in some cases drastic measures cannot longer be delayed, and fixqd prices must be enforced anew.