WAR ITEMS

Grey River Argus, 15 March 1940, Page 3

WAR ITEMS

VARIOUS ITEMS. (British Official Wireless.] RUGBY, March 13. Half a million farm workers are affected by a bill introduced into the Commons by the Agriculture Minister, providing for the fixing of a national minimum weekly wage. A war-time trade agreement was initiated to-day on behalf of Britain and Denmark. The objects of the agreement are similar to those already signed with other neutrals, namely, to facilitate the normal' flow of trade as far as is possible, undei’ the present conditions. HONG KONG, March 13. Legislation will be introduced tomorrow to provide for .1,125,000 United States dollars for the construction at Hong Kong of ships for presentation to Britain; also the gift of 500,000 United States dollars as the colony’s contribution to the' war effort. The measure involves the first direct taxation ‘in the colony’s bistory. It affects properties, salaries, and profits. . NEW YORK, March 13. / A message from Sao Paulo (Brazil.) I states that the newspaper ‘‘Diario da

Noite” reports that a Viennese physician, Dr. Paul' Maybach, who has just returned fro ma five years’ journey through the Matto Grosso jungle found a German Jew, Peter Lieberknecht, living among the Apache Indians near the Paraguayan border. Lieberknecht is a former German newspaper correspondent at GenevaHe claimed that he wrote “Mein Kampf,” while Hitler was imprisoned. He showed Maybach the “Mein Kampf” manuscripts, also letters from Hitler. He added that Hitler subsequently sent him to a concentration camp, from which he escaped. He does not intend to return to civilisation. £ LONDON, March 13. Corporal C. B. G. Knight, the first member of the: Royal< New Zealand Air Force to be decorated since the outbreak of war, has been awarded the D.F.M. for skill, courage and coolness in face of the enemy under intense fire. As a wireless operator, his maintenance of communications contributed to the success of the operation in the Schilling Roads and the Frisian Islands, on December 14. Mr. Jordan is to present the medal shortly. Corporal Knight was born at Picton. x [British Official Wireless.] RUGBY, March 13. Mr, Eden, speaking in London, said

that his personal knowledge .of Hitler did not make him unduly depressed by the knowledge that the Fuehrer considered his opponents unworthy of him. His own reflections on his meetings with Hitler had been that he was constitutionally incapable of understanding the working, in mind or spirit, of a free democracy. Mr. Eden said he wished that some of the leaders of Nazi Germany might have shared his experience of work with the Dominions Governments, for then they might have been spared some of the mistakes they had made, and the world might have been spared the war. It was quite impossible to exaggerate the measures and spirit ‘ of the collaboration received from the overseas Dominions. Dealing with the Erppire air-training scheme, Mr. Eden said that, when it was in full working order, the output of pilots, air crews, and observers was estimated at 50,000 men per year. Referring to his visit to the men of the overseas forces, Mr. Eden said: “AU of you would have been impressed by their attitude of quiet determination. They are men with a mission, and witli a purpose. The Dominions voluntarily decided to enter the war to overthrow Nazism. They knew per- ; fecti'y well that this was not.a European quarrel They had no mercen- ' ary motives. They knew it was not a

contest between two dynasties, but between two distinct antagonistic conceptions of life, and a conflict of standards of wholly divergent moral and spiritual values.”