NEWS ITEMS.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 11, Issue 475, 21 April 1920, Page 4

NEWS ITEMS.

Pensions for Mothers. The Labor Party's Bijl to provide pensions for women with children proposes that these should be paid to (.1) widows Avith one or more dependent, children; (2) married women with one or more such children, whose husbands have deserted them tfr, arc judicially separated from them; (3) , wives of men, also possessing chil-( riren. who are invalids or are unable 1 , 1.0 work through illness or incapacity. The rales suggested are 38/6 per week for a motler possessing, one dependent child, and range upwards to 50/2 for a. mother with three children, with 6/- for each additional child. That CcnsoasMp! Jn answer to a question in PArlia*menfc as to the alleged opening ot letters addressed to the Berlin correspondent of the "Daily Herald," the-, Home Secretary gave an interesting definition of the Government's idea of the abolition of the censorship. "The postal censorship as established during the war," he said, "has been entirely abolished, but I retain the power which has always belonged to the Home Secretary of directing the opening of letters, and this power has been exercised with regard to certain, correspondence to and from Germany, and Soviet Russia. . . . T can assure i honorable members that the corres- ■ pondents of Labor papers as such arc . not subject to any special censorship." ' Soldiers 1 Plea for Russia. In the course of a reniafkable memorial presented to the Prime Minister hy.General Gaugh. and. others, wJio had been engaged on official business in Russia duriug the past two years, it is stated that "the stability of Europe depends mainly on the Central European- Stalos being adequately provisioned during the coming year, and it is impossible to see from what source, they can be provisioned except , from Russia. As the Russian grain moves westward the danger of famine. and it-R consequent** will disappear. But- without a general peace-, the resources of- Sussia ca-miof be made available." The Suxt »aiV In a war book just issued ("Tanks in the Great War"), the author, Colonel J. F. C. Puller. D.5.0., forecasts wha,t the. next war will, mean, not to the soldiers who fight it, but to the civilians at. home. "Fastmovin.g tajiks., equipped.. wijh toijs o£ UauilL '£§&," he says, "will cross, the ,frontier and obliterate every living thing in the fields and farms, the villages and cities of the enemy's country. Whilst life is being swept away , .. !around the frontier, fleets of aero-: (planca will attack the enemy's; great' ■industrial and governing centres. All : these attacks will be made, at first, noi. .ugalnel; the enemy s army . ~.. iUut agayigt the civil population,, in ; order to ; compel it to acewt. t&e-. will ■of tbo attacker." A pleasant sequel ito "the war to end war." POT*ttj I Two men, concerned, in a hightra) robbery, have just been sentenced to 18 months' har.d labor and, 12 strokes of the cat, though. thj»y had handed ' back to. one man he-id up. by Humt tajs, few pence found ott him, with the words, "We do.not. rob-pooj*.men." A, ,Siri ol 14, who has. be&a placed, oa •ffroUatßii for stealing tureeßewwerth otcoal. cays she d(d# so 'because ,the babj was ill and they had, no fuel, in ,tbe house. A 'AllHEipU'jgtsv "jjoyerty