RUSSIAN RETIREMENT ORDERLY.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXIX, Issue LXIX, 1 July 1915, Page 5

RUSSIAN RETIREMENT ORDERLY.

A QUIET DAY IN FRANCE.

BY Gi.BBS—FftIBB ISSOGIVnOir—COPTWQHI.

LONDON NEWS.

I BRITAIN'S FINANCES

ECONOMY URGED

EXPENDITURE ON SUPERFLUOUS

LUXURIES DEPRECATED

THE MUNITIONS BILL

NEW CLAUSES INTRODUCED

MORE MEN FOR THE NAVY

"LONDON, June 30

Mr McKenna, in the House of Commons, said that only owners of consols and old war stock can exercise the opportunity to convert. •The annual income of the United Kingdom was between £2,250,000,000 and £2,400,000,000, and the expenditure was about £2,000,000,000, hence the utmost normal saving was £400,----000,000. There were various methods of meeting the cost of the war. It WftG only possible to borrow infinitesimal amounts abroad, and our power to sell investments in property was limited by the power of other countries to buy. Payment out of gold reserves could be - discarded as impossible, as by this Bri-f-tain would impair its great system of credit. The only remaining course was to diminish expenditure. The state of the trade balance between ourselves .and other countries at this moment afforded ground, he would not say for anxiety, but for serious thought. We I had been entrusted with the guardianship of interests and ideals stretching " to the confines of our world-spread Em- j pire—ideals which concern the whole; future of humanity. It has to be de- I cided whether right or force shall dominate humanity. (Roar of cheering.) It is possible that a well-fed existence, ■with consolations in art, literature, and ciome conventional type of religion, may toe purchased at the sacrifice of all that makes life, national and personal, worth living, but we were not going to make that sacrifice. Rather we will fight to the last farthing, the last ounce of strength, and the last drop of blood. (Tumultuous applause).

Tv£he latest figures showed our indebty edness to other countries at the end '<? of the year would reach £269,000,000. ; We could only reduce this by reducing expenditure on tea, tobacco, wine and petrol. All money spent on superfluous comforts and luxuries meant a diver- , sion of energy which would be better employed in the national interest. Mr "MeKehna concluded with a passage of striking eloquence, which aroused the audience to a high pitch of emotion. He said: ''It is not merely a question of self preservation or safe- 1 guarding against attack the fabric which has withstood 6O many storms. There is something larger at stake in this great testing of our people." Mr Bonar Law said it would be a great thing if wage-earners could form the habit of laying aside something weekly and lending it to the country. k There was a feeling of pessimism in the country, but it was not justified. The " resources of the Allies were far beyond those of the enemy. In iSie Finance Bill, in committee, Mr McKenna secured the insertion of a new clause relieving assurance companies of a tax on incomes accruing] from foreign investments which had not ', been brought to England. j Mr Lloyd George introduced a clause I in-4he Munitions Bill restricting com-j pulsory arbitration to disputes interfering with the manufacture and transport of munitions, also restoring trade union regulations after the war and providing compulsory arbitration for a year afterwards as to little disputes connected with the restoration. The South Wales miners are not inclined to come under the Bill, but are prepared to do voluntarily all that is required and to prevent strikes. Mr Lloyd George is prepared to exempt them by a special clause. The House of Commons has adopted I the vote for fifty thousand additional men for the navy. Mr Macnamara explained that the men wer.e not required foiHsmmediate needs, but were merely No difficulty had been experienced in meeting the expansion of the fleet.