EMPIRE WAR EFFORT

Evening Star, Issue 23563, 30 April 1940, Page 5

EMPIRE WAR EFFORT

INDIA'S GREAT PART ' REMARKABLE MANIFESTATIONS (British Official Wireless.) Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright RUGBY, April 29. (Received April 30, at 11.25 a.m.) The scale of India’s war effort is most impressive when its many manifestations over the past eight months are seen in perspective. Regular units of the Indian Army are now serving overseas in France, Malaya, Aden, and Egypt. Indian Territorials and men of the auxiliary forces are serving in India at the side of • their professional comrades. The army is being expanded in all branches of the service, and, apart; from the growth of regular units, eight new Territorial battalions have been formed and more are contemplated. Pilots and mechanics for the growing Air Force requirements are being systematically recruited and trained in India in addition to the five new auxiliary volunteer .flights which have already been brought into being. Recruiting has been so successful that the authorities have had to slow up the rate of volunteers.

The Indian princes have been overwhelmingly generous, and, to quote one instance, the Nizam of Hyderabad gave £IOO,OOO towards the cost of the R.A.F. squadron which bears his name. So many contributions in money or in kind, from rich and poor alike, have been sent to the Viceroy that he found it necessary to open a War Purposes Fund, the total of which is approximately £600,000. Generous donations have also been made to the Indian Red Cross, the St. John Ambulance Association, and other funds. In the industrial field great ordnance factories are producing munitions at a speed and in a quantity which a few months ago would hardly have been contemplated. When the expansion schemes are complete it is anticipated that India will become, an important centre of munitions production able not only to meet her own needs, but, to an appreciable extent, those of the Allied forces abroad. CAPTURED GERMAN SHIPS ■ IN SERVICE AFTER OVERHAUL (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, April 29, ' (Received April 30, at 9,50 a.m.) Twenty of the 31 captured German merchant vessels have been thoroughly" overhauled and refitted, and are in service for the Allies, carrying munitions or food. The refitting of the remainder is almost complete. The Shipping Minister, in a speech on Saturday, referred to the unsatisfactory nature of the crew accommodation in more than half the captured ships, and the necessity for extensive structural alterations, SUNK BY MINE UNKNOWN SHIP LOST STOCKHOLM, April 29. (Received April 30, at 8 a.m.) An unknown steamer sank after striking a mine between Sweden and Zealand. OIL TANKER ON FIRE SHIP ABANDONED BY CHEW CHARLESTON (South Carolina), April 29. (Received April 30, at .11 a.m.) ■ A file is raging ip the engineroom of the Norwegian tanker Willy, anchored in the harbour and loaded with 8,000 tons of aviation petrol consigned to Glasgow, Scotland. The crew of 28 has abandoned the ship. RESCUE OF THE ARGOSHILL PAYMENT OF SALVA6E AWARDS . LONDON, April 29. (Received April 30, at 11.30 a.m.) Seven officers and 138 men of H.M.S. Keith share the £3,000 salvage award, and the owners of the Corinthic receive £IO,OOO arising out of the rescue by towing of the Argoshjll last October after an Atlantic gale had destroyed her steering gear. The claimants contended that their services subjected them to serious risk of aircraft and submarine attack. SOUTHERN RHODESIA SUBSTANTIAL CONTRIBUTION (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, April 29. (Received April 30, at 11 a.m.) In the coming year Southern Rhodesia intends to contribute £1,500,000 to the cost of the war, This amount will be required to cover all the internal defence measures in the colony. BANK OF ENGLAND'S OFFER / SALISBURY, April 29. (Received April 30, at 11.45 a.m.) The Bank of England has offered to buy the entire Southern Rhodesian gold output.