TREATMENT OF PRISONERS

Evening Post, Volume XC, Issue 89, 13 October 1915, Page 7

TREATMENT OF PRISONERS

RETALIATION "NOT ADVISABLE. (Received October 13, 9 a.m.) LONDON, 12th October In the House of Commons Mr. H. W. Forster (Under-Secretary for War), replying 'to a suggestion that there should be less generous treatment of German prisoners, said we must make regulations in accordance with our own ideas. A 2X>licy of retaliation had been already tried with results not altogether happy. GOODS REACHING THE ENEMY .YON SPEE HAD AUSTRALIAN COAL. (Received October 13, 10 a.m.) SYDNEY, This Day. The Hon. W. M. Hughes, AttorneyGeneral, at a meeting held in connection with the metal exchange, said he deplored the extent to which Australian productions got into the enemy'e hands. He was" sorry to say it was a "fact that, in spite of the whole-souled patriotism of Australia, Australian coal was supplied to the German fleet which sank the Good Hope and the Monmouth. ANTI-ENEMY TARIFFS SUGGESTIONS TO OVERSEA DOMINIONS. - (Received October 13, 11 a.m.) LONDON, 12th October. The Australian trade section of the London Chamber of Commerce passed a resolution urging the Commonwealth and Dominion Governments to impose new duties and largely increase the existing tariffs against Austrian-German and Turkish goods, or otherwise to prevent their importation. It recommends members to discourage or refrain from trading with enemies after the war. The section also endorsed the resolution to urge the Government to grant a bonus, for not less than twenty years, on spelter produced in works in Great Britain from ores mined -within the Empire, to increase the price to £23 a ton when the monthly average falls below £23 ; or as an alternative to guarantee the capital invested. RECRUITING SYSTEM IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENT EXPECTED. LONDON, 12th October. The Parliamentary Recruiting and Joint Labour Committees considered Lord Derby's scheme for utilising the information on the pink form. Lord Derby addressed the meeting in camera and the scheme was generally approved. An important development of the recruiting movement is expected. RIOT AT LIVERPOOL CAMP THREE HUNDRED SOLDIERS BREAK AWAY. (Received October 13, 8.30 a.m.) SYDNEY, This Day. Over 300 soldiers in the isolation area at Liverpool Camp broke away and bombarded their guards witb jam tins and other missiles. They burned the tents and cleared. Very few have been recaptured. GERMAN SENT TO GAOL SENDING A REVOLVER THROUGH THE POST. (Received October 13, 9 a.m.) SYDNEY, This Day. A naturalised German named Becker has been sentenced to six months' imprisonment for sending a revolver through the post. His defence was that the revolver belonged to a friend and he was returning it, and ignorance of the law. Becker had been previously convicted of contravention of the War Precautions Act. The Magistrate, in sentencing Becker, said : " My reading of your nationality is that you are ignorant of nothing that is hurtful to other people." "NO TREATING "- OPERATION OF NEW LAW. LONDON, 12th October. In London the "no treating" law was enforced on Monday in seven thousand hotels and three thousand licensed houses. There were innumerable ruses by the public to defeat the new order. Being liable to a penalty of one hundred pounds and six months' imprisonment, hotelkeepers adhered to the strict reading of the regulation. Most people were disposed to treat the matter as a joke. Customers evaded the intention of the order by exchanging money on entering and leaving bars. Treating is allowed with meals. There was hopeless disagreement at lunch bars as to whether sandwiches of bread and cheese constituted a meal. It is believed that the regulation •will prove effective, inasmuch as it .will minimise the treating of soldiers. THE CENSORSHIP REPLY TO CRITICISMS. LONDON, 12th October. Sir John Simon, replying to Lord Selborne's strictures, states that the Press Bureau merely carries out the War Office's and the Admiralty's rules. Doubtless occasional errors arose, but the fighting departments must decide if the censorship is needed to prevent assistance to the enemy. METAL WORKERS' DISPUTE STRIKE THREATENED IN MELBOURNE. (Received October 13, 10 a.m.) MELBOURNE, This Day. The Metal Trades Federation has notified the employers that if the differ- j ences. including increases in wages ranging from 20 to 25 per cent., are not settled by Saturday, the workers will strike on Monday. Several thousand men are affected.