OFFICIAL WIRELESS

Hokitika Guardian, 6 December 1929, Page 5

OFFICIAL WIRELESS

IMPERIAL LEAGUE OF OPERA

(British Offieiai Wireless.)

RUGBY, Dec. 3

The Prime Minister, Mr Ramsay MacDonald, in the House of Commons to-day, was asked whether, in view of the fact that £IOO,OOO had been collected from 150,000 subscribers to the Imperial League of Opera, the Government intended to give assistance in ■ establishing national opera. While expressing the warmest sympathy with the Opera. League’s aims, the Prime Minister regretted that he could not promise it a grant from the public funds.

OIL TANKER TOWED TO PORT. RUGBY, December 3.

Rain and high winds with gusts between 50 and 60 miles an hour occurred yesterday over the British Isles the had weather being due to one of the deepest Atlantic depressions observed for the last 50 years. In the English Channel high seas ran, and the cross-Channel boat services were maintained with difficulty. Lifeboats from "Weymouth to Swanage and two tugs from Portland put out and ships in. the Channel altered their courses in answer to an S.O.S. from the steamer Canadian Transport, but a change of wind enabled her to Clear the danger zone. An oil tanker which had lost its rudder in the storm was towed into Falmouth by two Dutch tugs.

Fishing fleets and small craft kept to harbour.

During the day heavy rains, particularly in the West of England, aggravated the flood situation in many parts, as almost all the rivers have now over-flowed their hanks. The low-lying areas in the upper reaches of the Thames are extensively flooded.

IN THE COM At ON S

DEBT PAYMENTS TO U S.A. QUESTION OF ARREARS. • RUGBY, December 3. Answering Parliamentary questions as to when the arrears of £146,000,000 to be paid by Great Britain to the United States of America would he cleared off, if all the Allied debts and reparations as arranged at The Hague Conference were paid on due date, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr Philip Snowden, replied, “The League agreement gives us advantages worth approximately £22,000,000 per year for 37 years, as a set-off against the accumulated deficit between our receipts and our debt payments in the past, hut that deficit will at no time he fully covered, and would not hare been • covered if the Dawes Plan had continued in operation. BRITISH ECONOMIC MISSIONS. RUGBY, Dec. 3. In the House of Commons to-day, the President of the Board of Trade, Air Graham, when asked whether, in view of the success of the recent Economic Mission to South America, it was proposed to send similar missions to other parts of the world, said that the question was under consideration, but he was unable yet to make any statement. TARIFF DUTIES. INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENT PROPOSED. RUGBY, Dec. 3. When Air William Graham, Preside n of the Board of Trade, was asked in the House of Commons to-day several questions regarding the dumping of foreign goods in Britain, he stated that the Government had made it perfectly clear that it was not prepared to support protective duties.of any character. He mentioned that the Government had accepted an invitation to the forthcoming conference at Geneva, the object of which was to conclude a definite international agreement amongst members of the League of Nations, and nonmember States not to increase protective tariffs above the present level for a period of two or three years. > SOVIET REPLY. TO BRITAIN’S MEMORANDUM. (Received this day at II a.m.) RUGBY, December 5. A summary of the Soviet reply to the British memorandum declares the Soviet Policy, to he peaceful, and the Nanking Policy provocative .and states the measures taken, by the Reds are entirely in self-defence and not a breach of the Paris agreement.

The reply disputes the right of any group of States to act as the guardian of the Pact, and says the conflict cm. only he ended by direct negotiations, on conditions with which China is ac<|ua in ted and Mukden has already accepted, and tnat no outside inteiloreiico can he permitted.