GENERAL ITEMS.

Feilding Star, Volume XI, Issue 2464, 5 October 1914, Page 2

GENERAL ITEMS.

RATES AND A BIG LOAN

London, October 3. - The Australasian Associated-Banks have -'reduced the rate on purchasing drafts by 20s per cent., and the commission on collecting bills ou Australia and New Zealand "by 5s per .cent. The Government is inviting tenders for £15,000,000 in six months' Treasury bills. London, October 3. Extraction of German bullets has been tried successfully at Lyons mili,lary hospital by means of an electromagnet. One embedded 4$ inches in the ilesh was extracted. The Berliner Tageblatt, in a remarkable- article, says the Germans, who at first had -vonr are iv a difficult position. " The British are working through the force of their masses, and do not stop either." Amsterdam, October '6. Eighteen thousand prisoners of _war at Wezel, near the Dutch fron- __ .tier, occupy a camp surrounded by high fences of barbed wire. The French soldiers amongst them are digging trenches under" orders of armed Germans. The British aro playing football. A German commission in Belgium is investigating atrocities by troops. Pretoria, October 3. Boer irrccoucilables in German "ft est Africa are reported to have issued an appeal to Boer farmers over the border to overthrow "the British, rule. They offer to send a commando whereto Germany grants free artillery, arms and equipment. The Germans are circulating an appeal through the natives. Washington, October 3. Russia and America«have signed an arbitration treaty re-establishing the treaty relations broken off by President Taft. Melbourne, October 4. Ihe Defence Department cabled to bn* George Reid asking if Earl Kitchener's cabled statement "that the war is not likely to last long was correct. Sir George Reid replied that the statement attributed to Lord Kitfliener is absolutely incorrect. London now cables that Earl Kitchener'a statement was taken from the London Globe's report of a farewell gathering of Territorials at which the captain repeated to his men what Earl Kitchener has said to him when inspecting them. m- o-i ■ -.- ? ar - s - octobe r 4M. Ribot, Minister of Finance, states that the financial situation in trance is favourable. The gold reserve m the Bank of France ia valued at £163,000,000, and Ihe silver reserve at £12,760,000. M. Ribot bones to re-open tho Bourse conjointly with, the re-opening of the London Stock Exchange. Ostend,*October 4. Ihe Germans have placarded Brussels with a proclamation inciting Belgians to desert their army, declaring that having fully done- their dnty, turtlier sacrifices on the part of the Belgians was purposeless. Washington, October 4iiie- Stale Department announces that all plans for holding an international peace conference at The Hague in 1915 havo been abandoned.