BUOYANT REVENUE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 3, 5 January 1938, Page 7

BUOYANT REVENUE.

AUSTRALIAN PROSPECTS. (Received 12.30 p.m.) CANBERRA, this day. Customs and excise revenue for the first half of the financial year exceeded that for the corresponding period of 1936 by £2,587,276, and was £1,833,792 higher than the Budget estimate.

It is believed that should the buoyancy in Federal revenue continue, the financial year may end with a syrplus of nearly £3,000,000, and Cabinet may abandon its proposal to borrow £2,000,000 in London for defence and provide this money from revenue. FOR AUSTRALIA. FOUR AMERICAN CRUISERS. SAN FRANCISCO, January 4. A message from San Pedro, California, states that four cruisers have left for Australia to attend the 150 th anniversary celebrations in New South Wales. They will make the voyage by way of Honolulu an 3 Samoa. The ships to visit Australia are the heavy cruiser Louisville (9050 tons) and the light cruisers Trenton, Milwaukee and Memphis, each of 7050 tons. The Louisville, completed in 1930, carries nine Bin guns and four sin anti-aircraft guns, and has a speed of 32.7 knots. The light cruisers, built between 1921 and 1924, each have ten 6in guns, four 3in anti-aircraft guns, and a speed of 35 knots. The tentative programme provides for a stay of 10 days in Sydney. There is no mention of visits to other Australian ports. Officially the cruise is described as a goodwill gesture on the occasion of the 150 th anniversary celebrations. RearAdmiral Julius C. Townsend will be in command. American fleets visited Australia in 1908 and 1925.

TRAINED CIVILIANS.

SOVIET'S CHEMICAL ARMY. MOSCOW, December 31.

Russia's Society for Chemical War Defence, a civilian unit with a membership of 10,000.000, is being reorganised. The move is part of the work of the Commissar for War, M.. Voroshiloff, to speed up - tlie' military training of civilians against an emergency.

After the execution of General Eideman, the former chief of the society, its council was dissolved, but special councils are now being formed to stimulate the training of many civilian auxiliaries of the regular army.

Among the activities being fostered are the formation of aero clubs, shooting clubs, and anti-aircraft and chemical warfare groups.

Red Army officers will soon undergo a course of intensified "political training designed to keep enemies of the State out of the army." They will be lectured regularly on spying and wrecking activities, and on means of detecting agents of foreign secret services.