UNDER ESCORT

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 265, 9 October 1939, Page 7

UNDER ESCORT

ADVICE FROM IROQUOIS.

DETAILS A SECRET

SEARCH OE YESSEL.

(United Press Association. —By Electric Telegraph .—Copyright.)

Received October 9, 9.50 a.m WASHINGTON, Oct. 8.

It is announced that the liner Iroquois, a warning of whose intended sinking was issued by Germany, is now under the escort of naval vessels. The position and particulars of the vessels are not disclosed.

The Iroquois lins reported that so far her 566 passengers and 210 members of the crew are safe. The master searched the vessel for explosives, and look-outs and watchmen were doubled. Since explosives were not mentioned in the report it is presumed that none was found.

GERMAN SHIP CAPTURED.

FRENCH SUBMARINE’S FEAT.

Received October 9. 11.30 a.m. LONDON, Oct. 8. Tho British United Press Paris correspondent states that it is revealed a French submarine was cruising in mid-Atlantic when she sighted a German freighter. After chasing the steamer, the submarine’s gun crews fired seventeen rounds from the deck guns before the ship stopped. The submarine put on a prize crew, who constantly guarded the German officers navigating the steamer on the 115 miles voyage to Casablanca. The submarine’s feat was enhanced by the fact that she travelled on the surface for several days and nights in order not to lose her captive.

MOBILISING OF LABOUR.

PROTECTING BRITISH PORTS. AGREEMENT COMPLETED. (British Official Wireless.) Received October 9, 11.30 a.m. RUGBT, Oct. 8. To meet the needs of the country at ports in any circumstances arising out cf the war, the Minister of Transport will have at his disposal a great mobile civilian force created as the result of an agreement reached between the Minister of Labour, the National Council of Port Labour, the employers and the Transport and General Workers’ and Associated Union.

The scheme provides for the voluntary enrolment of dock labour willing to transfer to any port as necessity may arise and where tho number ot registered dockworkers is inadequate. Lists of volunteers will be prepared at tho union’s port offices and normal arrangements for transferring men will be made by local labour exchange machinery. Long-distance transfer will only take place whe 13 at least six days’ work is expected. The Government provides free travelling expenses and there are arrangements made for subsistence allowances and guaranteed minimum earnings. The scheme evolves from proposals made by the union, which states that the whole problem must be dealt with on an industrial basis by mutual arrangement and, while assuming a necessary labour force, avoids introducing a mass of temporary, unskilled men and retains work for the experienced docker.

The union appeals to dockers to volunteer “in the interests not only of the war, which are vital, but for the sake of their own future,” and concludes by asking members to make a success of the scheme, which preserves civilian liberties and enables industry to carry on effectively under civilian conditions.

NEWS IN BRIEF. London.—As a protest against the attitude of the majority of the Anglican clergy towards the war, Canon Stuart Morris will renounce Holy Orders. He said that no cause, however righteous, could be achieved by resorting to violence. Cairo.—lt is announced that the British Government is shortly purchasing 1,500,000 kantnrs of Egyptian cotton. This quantity had created a market problem because formerly it was annually exported to Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Austria. The kantar corresponds to the cwt. Stockholm.—An espionage Bill introduced makes foreigners liabje to punishment instead of expulsion, as was the case formerly. Espionage includes the dissemination of information about tlie country’s .supplies and commerce, as well as military, matters. London.—lt is announced by radio from Belgrade that a • British trade mission is expected to visit Yugoslavia shortly. . Montreal.—The War Risk Committee is reducing the insurance rate between Canada and the United Kingdom by 1 per cent, to 4 per cent. London. —The German wireless, defending the recent 50 per cent, increase in income tax, declared that the increase was intended to demonstrate the popular gratitude to the soldiers, which can be expressed only by considerably lowering the living standard. For this reason employers are forbidden to pay the increased tax for their employees. Balboa.—The United States Army has ordered a black-out of the Panama Canal Zone some time on Tuesday night next. No reason is given. Ottawa.—The British Purchasing Commission which recently arrived here is going to New York if Congress lifts the embargo, leaving the Canadian War Supply Board to make Canadian • purchases on behalf of Britain.

Mexico City.—Puerto Mexico and Salina Cruz have been proclaimed free ports. The Government is improving the connecting railway, anticipating that the 150-mile strip over the Isthmus of Tehuantepec will become an important Atlantic-Pacific trade route. A second rail service will cut 1500 miles off the all-water route from Europe to San Francisco via the Panama Canal.