MEDITERRANEAN ENTENTE

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23001, 22 April 1940, Page 7

MEDITERRANEAN ENTENTE

FRENCH PROPOSAL TO ITALY OVERTURES WITHOUT RESULT (UJIITZP PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT.) (Received April 21, 9 p.m.) PARIS, April 21. The French Prime Minister (M. Reynaud) told the Foreign Affairs Committee that France would continue to seek an equitable regulation • of all pending questions with Italy in the hope of reaching a Mediterranean entente. France had informed Italy that she was prepared to seek an equitable settlement by friendly exchanges. These overtures had been without result, but in spite of the attitude the Italian Government had taken up it had not changed the disposition of the French Government. He added that apart from all ideological considerations, France would continue to seek the Mediterranean understanding with Italy and Spain, which was an indispensable basis of peace. SOLDIER’S ACT OF COURAGE DECORATIONS AWARDED IN FRANCE t (British official. tosixss.) RUGBY, April 19. An outstanding act of courage resulted in the immediate award of the Military Medal in France to Lance-Corporal Gallacher, of the Lancashire Fusiliers. When. Gallacher’s section was in a post on the look-out for the enemy just before dawn, a fusilier, thinking he heard Germans approaching, snatched a hand-grenade and drew out the pin ready to throw it. The grenade, however, caught against his leg and fell into the bottom of the trench, disappearing in the mud under a dudkboard. , Gallacher tried to locate the grenade by groping with his hands. He suddenly felt a hard object under his foot, which was obviously the grenade, but there was no time to pick it up. So he pushed it hard down into the. mud under the duckboard with his foot, while the other nien took what cover they could. The grenade exploded, and Gallacher was only slightly wounded, and the other men were not injured, although nearby sandbags were burst by the explosion. Immediate awards for gallantry in France were also made to Lieutenant Hudson, Lancashire Fusiliers, who received the Military Cross, and Fusilier Worsley, of the same regiment, awarded the Military Medal. CASUALTIES IN K.A.F. (British official, wireless.) RUGBY, April 19. The Air Ministry’s latest casualty list includes the names of three killed in action, six previously reported missing but now presumed killed in action, four wounded or injured in action, 29 missing and believed killed in action, 38 missing, 18 killed on active service, eight who died on active service, three previously reported missing but now reported safe, and one/previously reported killed on active service but now reported killed in action. ■ Omitted from earlier lists but now included in the latest list are the names of six wounded or injured in action and 13 wounded or injured on active service. _ The list includes one New Zealander killed, two missing and two ’ wounded, and seven Australians killed. The New Zealanders included in the list are: Pilot Officer K. Brooke-Taylor, of Wellington, killed in action; Pilot Officer D. A. Ranking, of Wellington, missing and believed killed; Acting Pilot Officer G. J. D. Yorke, of Foxton, missing; Pilot Officer M. A. Poulton, of Christchurch, wounded in action; Pilot Officer N. W. Walders, of Palmerston North, wounded on active service. CANADA’S WAR EFFORT EXPENDITURE ON ARMAMENTS (BRITISH OinCUI. WIRELESS.) RUGBY, April 19. _ The latest details of Canada’s war ttontracts serve to illustrate • the magnitude of her war effort. Canadian purchases- of war materials and supplies from the middle of July, 1939, to the end of February, 1940, amounted to 142,573,838 dollars. More recent purchases have averaged about 1,700,000 dollars a day. In January and February about 14.000. dollars worth of aircraft and supplies were purchased by the War Supply Board, including 404 Be Havilland Tigers, 404 Fleet Trainers, and a number of Noprdwyn Harvards. Orders placed in the same period for new ships and the refitting and conversion of old vessels totalled 48.000. dollars. Canada has also spent 1,100,000 dollars on special machinery for manufacturing a secret type of war vehicle. • Anzac Day Service—Although there will not be a ceremony at the Cenotaph in London on Anzac Day, the Australian and New Zealand High Commissioners will place wreaths there, and the annual service will be held in St. Clement Danes Church; General Carpenter, of the Salvation Army, will give the address, and the Dominions Secre- ’ -tary (Mr R. A. Eden) will attend | .the service.—London, April 19.