CABLE BREVITIES

Greymouth Evening Star, 31 May 1946, Page 4

CABLE BREVITIES

Salaries of British M.P.’s. The House of Commons, by . 345 votes to 26, defeated an amendment designed to postpone the Government’s proposal to increase members’ salaries from £6OO to £lOOO a year. —London, May 29.

Leaders of Prison Mutiny. The sentences against the, leaders of the mutiny of the North Allerton military prison have been promulgated. Nine offenders have been sentenced to terms of penal servitude ranging from 15 years to three years. —London, May 29.

Arrests for Murder British troops, after combing displaced persons’ camps, arrested five Poles for the murder of a British captain 'who was illed when attempting to prevent a raid against a German farm.—Dusseldorf, May 30.

Queensland Meat Strike. The Brisbane Trades and Labour Disputes Committee recommended to a mass meeting of meat workers today that the meat strike should be continued with a view to settlement on conditions before the strike. —Brisbane, May 30. Brides for Britain.

Nearly 700 brides of British servicemen will leave Sydney about the middle of June in the aircraft-car-rier Victorious. This will be the largest contingent’ of brides ever to travel in a British warship. They are Australians and New Zealanders. — Sydney, May 31.

Locust Swarms in Turkey. The Ankara radio said that after troops sent out by the Ministry of Agriculture had burned 200 tons of locusts which had been moving across Turkey from Persia, a new swarm began entering from Syria. The Ministry warned all local authorities. — London, May 29.

Dutch Nazi Sentenced. Hendrik Lindt, former Nazi edi-tor-in-chief of the labour press in Holland during the occupation, aged 41, was sentenced by a special tribunal “never to do journalistic work again.” He was also sentenced to the loss of his civil rights.—The Hague, May 29.

British Aid to Greece The Minister of Economic Coordination announced that Britain had put at Greece’s disposal 500,006 gold sovereigns, equivalent in value to Greece’s gold reserve abroad, thus reinforcing the Bank of Greece’s funds and enabling it to exercise strict control over the sovereign rate. Athens, May 30.

Eggs by Air from England. Five dozen eggs for poultry breeding, the first to be flown from England to Australia since the war ended, arrived by flying-boat at Sydney. They wore brought out by two chicken sexers and placed in incubators. They will introduce new Leghorn blood which is expected to be of great value to the poultry industry.—Sydney, May 30. Floods in New York State.

At least nine were drowned, four are missing, and thousands have been made homeless by floods in the farming and industrial areas of New York State and Pennsylvania. Damage estimated at more than 3,000,000 dollars has been caused by the flood, the crest of which is not expected until late to-day.—New York, May 29.

War Brides for N.Z. When the Rangitiki sailed for New Zealand via Panama to-day she had more than 700 passengers aboard, of whom more than 600 were wives, children, and fiancees of New Zealand servicemen. Several New Zealand residents who have been living in Britain were also aboard. There are still about 400 wives and 400 fiancees awaiting ships to the Dominion.—London, May 30.

Dispute at Port Kembla. A wages dispute at Port Kembla threatens to throw 1400 employees idle The dispute arose in a section of the plant of Metal Manufacturers, Ltd., following the demand of the yard labourers for increased wages for handling lead ingots. Ihe men asked for 3/- an hour, which is 20 per cent, above the award rate. Forty men declared the job “black yesteiday and drew their pay. The entire plant is likely to be idle by the end of the week.—Sydney, May 30.

1.L.0. Becomes UNO Agency. Representatives of the International Labour Organisation and the United Nations reached an agreement under which the 1.L.0. will become one of the United Nations agencies. The 1.L.0. will remain a separate organisation but will maintain the closest collaboration with the United Nations. Russia, which was ousted.from the 1.L.0. when she left the League of Nations, offered no opposition to the agreement. New York, May 30.

Nazis from Spain. A United States ship has been sent to the Spanish port of Bilbao. This follows the complaint by the Franco Government that lack of shipping was preventing the transfer of Nazi refugees back to Germany. The ship will carry about 950 passengers. It is estimated that there are 2240 Nazi refugees still in the country, and the United States Government wants them to be delivered in Germany as soon as possible.—London, May 29.

Malayan Union Proposals. “Britain for 80 years has built up a spirit of confidence which has been destroyed in three weeks,” said Mr. L. D. Gammans, M.P. (Conservative), one of the two members of Parliament investigating Malaya’s attitude to the proposed Malayan Union. Mr. Gammans said the new treaty was wanted without niggling amendments. He had not spoken to a single European, Chinese, or Indian who was in* favour of the proposals in their pre-' sent form. —Singapore, May 30.

New Industries for Australia.

The establishment of two important factories in Sydney is forecast by the arrival from England of British manufacturing experts, Mr. W. B. Mason and Captain B. E. Wright. Mr. Mason, who is a specialist in cycle and motor-cycle construction, will supervise a factory which will produce both cycles and motorcycles. The factory will be near the central part of Sydney. Captain Wright is representing Begley and Co., Ltd., of Lancashire, who will establish a factory for producing a new type of rubber and leather plastic.—Sydney, May 30.

Forty-Hour Week Claim At the Arbitration Court, during the hearing of the 40-hour week claim of 53 unions, the general secretary of the Textile Workers’ Union said that, under the 40-hour week,

the employers could expect the employees to keep up full production pace till knocking-off time. In reply to the secretary, the Acting-Chief Justice, Mr Drake Brockman, said that no matter how long the working week might be, the women in industry would always spend the last ten minutes of their working day in titivating their hair and using lipstick and powder—Melbourne, May 30. Ex-Soldier Walks In.

After reading a newspaper columnist’s paragraph* that there were three vacant houses in a Sydney suburb, a former Army corporal promptly moved into one of them with his wife and three children and then telephoned the newspaper to thank the columnist. In his paragraph the columnist asked what was going to be done with three houses which had been vacant since anti-aircraft' personnel moved out of them nine months ago. As soon as the occupant of the house finds the owner he intends to apply to the Court for legal possession under the new amended war moratorium legislation.—Sydney, May 30.

Higher Railway Fares. The Minister of Transport (Mr. A. J. Barnes) announced in the House of Commons that railway fares would be increased by one-sixth of pre-war rates, bringing them to onethird above the pre-war level. Freight rates would be increased, by one-sixth and now would be onequarter above pre-war rates. Workmen’s fares and season tickets would be increased by one-tenth. Mr. Barnes added that a surplus of £19,000,000 last year above the fixed annual sum paid to controlled undertakings would be transformed in 1946 into a deficit of £40,000,000. The increases, which would operate from July 1, were estimated to produce an additional revenue of £30,000,000 a year.—London, May 29.