GENERAL CABLEGRAMS

Greymouth Evening Star, 4 December 1929, Page 8

GENERAL CABLEGRAMS

UNEMPLOYMENT INQUIRY.

(By Cable-—Press Assn.—Copyright.) LONDON, December 2. Mr Ramsay MacDonald doe§ hot desire to disclose the names of the industrialists and economists who were given a. luncheon by him at No. 10 Downing Street. It is known that they discussed the position of industry, especially in relation to the establishment -of a body of expert advisers, analagous to the Committee of Imperial Defence, or the Committee of Civil Research. Those present included Lord Weir, and Dr J. M. Keynes.

EX-ENEMIES AT PEACE. LONDON, December 2. General Smuts and General Von Lettow Vorbeck, who were opposing war-time commanders in German East Africa, were the guests of honour at a dinner attended by nearly 1000 officers, non-coms, and men (with their, nurses), who served in the British forces. General Vorbeck and his wife journeyed specially to London for the function. General Smuts paid a warm tribute to General Vorbeck’s fine leadership against superior forces. He added :— “This gathering is assisting in ,making peace. Wars are. the sport of youth, but we have reached maturity, and have sown our wild oats. It is time we settled down.” General Vorbeck said that he believed that when General Smuts referred to peace, he meant peace in which great proud nations can live without surrounding themselves with war materials.

EIGHT IN A BED. LONDON, December 3. There were remarkable disclosures made as to the conditions existing in the poor quarters of Manchester, at an inquiry into the death of a four months’ old girl. The evidence revealed that the father, with his six children —two boys aged 15 and 5 years, and three girls, aged 10, 8 and 6 years, together with the baby—slept in one bed. The baby was smothered by the bedclothes. HOMELAND TRANSPORT. • LONDON, December 3. The Main Line railway companies’ negotiations with the largest group of motor ’bus companies in the provinces, have resulted in an agreement regarding the co-ordination of road and rail traffic. The railway companies are acquiring a substantial, although not a controlling interest, in each of the ’bus companies. The agreement covers practically the whole of the English provinces, and also parts of Wales and Scotland, involving 7,500 buses. FORD’S HIGHER WAGES. NEW YORK, December 3. A report from Detroit states that following Mr Ford’s statement in Washington, last month, his son Edsel, announced that the company will spend twenty million dollars yearly to raise the wages of its workers, to become effective from December 1. The minimum scale is now increased from six to seven dollars daily. i “WHEAT KING” CROWNED. NEW YORK, December 3. A Chicago message states that Joseph B. Smith, of Wolf Creek, Alberta, was crowned wheat king at the International Show to-day, with a sample of' hard red, weighing 661bs three ounces to the bushel. AUSTRALIAN MIGRATION. LONDON, December 3. Mr Manning emphatically denies the truth of the statement published in Australia, of the dismissal of the London migration office staff at the rate of ten weekly.