GENERAL NEWS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 195, 19 July 1941, Page 8

GENERAL NEWS.

(Rec. 1.35 p.m.) LONDON. July 18. A further increase iii the United Kingdom note circulation has brought the total about the £050,000,000 mark, but financial circles still see no particularly disquieting inflatory' implications, says the Financial News. Some commentators, however, say the increase in the country’s cash requirements is now due much less to the expansion production than the rise in tho wage rates, which is regarded as j fa purely inflationary phenomenon.! Some accept the opinion that the re-j cent increase in taxation has probably I not succeeded in curtailing spending bv wage-earners. WASHINGTON. July 18. President Roosevelt has announced that the occupation of Iceland has been partly completed, but lie is not going to reveal the future movement of the troops. “Obviously we are going to defend Iceland and protect the American garrison ; it is the unwavering policy of the United States to protect the sealanes to Iceland and the other outlying defence bases against any attack or threat of attack.” VICHY, July 18. Admiral Darlan lias relinquished the post of Ministry of the Interior, but retains his other portfolios. M. Pierro Pucheux (Minister of Industry), who is a Fascist and a Gcrinanophile, becomes Minister of the Interior. CHUNGKING, Julv 18. Sir Archibald Clark Kerr and the Embassy staff again narrowly escaped injury when a bomb exploded near a hilltop dugout during a raid by 27 Japanese bombers. CAIRO July 18. Australian patrols are keeping the Cherny on their toes in the Western i Desert. For the third successive night patrols negotiated the barbed wire and advanced towards El Adem. After attacking the posts they returned as ' silently as they left. The purpose of the raids is primarily identification, but the effect on the enemy morale has become most apparent. . RUGBY, July 18. Addressing Home Guards, tlie Financial Secretary to the War Office said : “I think there is a lesson that has been thoroughly learned from Crete, and that is the immense value ot the Home Guard in an invasion. If there had been a few battalions of the Home Guard in Crete to assist the Regular Armv there I have no doubt that the resuit would have been very different. I do not think it is possible to overestimate the value of the support which the Home Guard can bring to the Army in the event of an air force invasion similar to that of Crete.