GENERAL CABLES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 265, 7 October 1940, Page 2

GENERAL CABLES

U-BOAT WARFARE. The British, Allied and neutral shipping losses for the week ended beptember 22, which were official y stdued to be'•159,288 tons, were nearly SU,W tons more than in the est week (ended August 2o). Hie ternporary upward trend in 'losses is considered to be not unexpected, since the German occupation of the iuenen ports in the Bay of Biscay was bo unci to result in increased activity by enemy submarines in the Atlantic, Based on Brest, Lorient and Bordeaux, they are manv hundreds of miles nearer their Atlantic hunting grounds than at Kiel and Wilhelmshaven— British Official Wireless. Scouting in France. In order that the French Scout movement may be carried on, “tree.’ Frenchmen have registered a Scout Association with the Boy Scouts’ International Committee. This association lias made its headquarters in London, where hospitality has been given it by the Imperial headquarters of the Boy Scouts' Association. —British Official Wireless.

Escapees Arrested. - A report from Valparaiso says the police have arrested four members o* the crew of the Graf Spee from a Japanese mail boat. They crossed the Cordilleras and hid in Valparaiso for several days. The Canadian Director of Internment Operations has announced that a posse shot dead Ernest Meuller. a German merchant seaman who escaped from an internment camp in the north-west. Gibraltar Raids.

The Tangier correspondent of the British-United Press says a number of French airmen w’ere courtmartialled at Casablanca for refusing to participate in a raid on Gibraltar. South African Gift.

A Johannesburg message says the woolgrowers at Veiiterstad are contributing half a crown a bale to the British Fleet for the duration of' the war and a year after. Cardiff’s Contribution.

Nearly £640.000 was promised within half an hour of the launching of Cardiff s war weapons week. The Lord Mayor ‘ expressed dissatisfaction, with the city’s aim of only £1 000,000. “It should have been £2,000,000,” he said. Commerce in Britain.

Despite a long struggle to maintain independence there is now hardly a commodity with anything like an open market in the United Kingdom. The few with any scope for the influence ot supply and demand have fixed schedules for minima and maxima prices. Revolutions are. occurring weekly in Britain’s business systems, despite a hard fight by traditionalists, who fear that the restrictions imposed in w'artime will be very hard to overthrow in peacetime. Nazi-Rumanian Trade.

A new' Rumanian-German trade agreement has been concluded, increasing Germany’s allotment of Rumanian petrol products, but cutting dow'n on grain, “owing, to the cession of territory decreasing the Rumanian crops.” Swedish Protest Rejected. The Swedish Minister in London called at the Foreign Office to protest against the reported dropping of bombs by British aircraft on Swedish territory early last Thursday. The Air -Ministry issued an emphatic denial that any . British aircraft were over o r near Bn;euish territory during the period in question.—British Official Wireless. ' > . Italian Concentrations.

Italian forces totalling 130,000 men and 120 tanks have moved into new positions near the Greek frontier in the last few days. The Greek precautions are almost complete and the frontier garrisons are wholly manned. Speedy Production Urgent. The Federal Conciliation Board of Canada, adjudicating between the John Inglish Company, manufacturers of Bren guns, and a group of employees, declared that the war emergency is justified in declining the workmen’s petition for union recognition, the labour representative concurring. The Judge asserted that at this junc-' Jure speed in the production of war materials . was paramount. Escape From Nazis.

The Sunday Express says the Countess of Toerring-Jettenbach, sister of the Duchess of Kent, has escaped from the Nazis and is safe with her other sister, Princess Paul of Yugoslavia.

Release of Belgian Prisoners. The London Times’s Belgian correspondent says that the German newspapers in Belgium announce that Belgian prisoners of war in Germany, except professional offeers, are being released before the winter.. The Germans apparently do not wish the responsibility of feeding them.

Bombing of Civilians. At Allahabad Pandit Nehru appealed for the support of the Chinese for the observation of a world-wide day of protest on October 15 against the bombardment of civilians' in China and Europe. Ho said: “The bombardment of civilians in London or Chungking is the quintessence of violence and barbarism.” Soviet Army. The Commissar of Defence (Marshal Timoshenko), in a message to graduates of the Moscow Military Academy, said“ You are entering the ranks when the flames of the second Imperialist war are enveloping West and East. The Soviet Union is outside the orbit of the war, but that does not mean we are safe from provocations and threatening of our borders, s We must, therefore, be ready for any emergency.”

Railway Agreement. Announcing the Russian-German agreement on railway communications, which was signed on September 30, a Moscow communique says that it provides for direct freight and passenger traffic between the two countries. War Savings Campaign.

Last week a total of £9,923.263 were raised in the British war savings campaign. A total of; £2,878,553 was from the . sale of savings certificates. £2,139.650 from the sale of defence bonds, and £4,914,000 from the increase in the balance due to depositors in the Post Office Savings Bank and trustee savings banks. Since the onening of the campaign, £386,791,696 has been raised.—British Official Wireless. Sudan’s Gift.

The Sudan Government’s gift of £IOO,OOO for the purchase of a squadron of fighter planes is officially stated to have been made to signify in practical form the gratitude of tbs people of. the Sudan for the benefits conferred by the British Government and their confidence in British victory. Dye Markets Captured.

.Month, by. month ithe production of. British dyestuffs, has been increasing and it is now approaching 125,000 tons'! which is about half the world supply Industrial undertakings hitherto dependent upon Germany, France and Italy for their supplies are progressively increasing their .purchases from Britain.—British Official Wireless.