BRITISH ELECTIONS

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 10135, 25 November 1918, Page 5

BRITISH ELECTIONS

MINISTERIAL MANIFESTO

TASKS BEFORE. THE GOVERNMENT. By Tolosraph—Press Association-Copyright Australian and N.Z. ' Cable Association. (.Received November 24. 5.5 p.m.) LONDON. November 22. Mr Lloyd George aud Mr Bona-r Law have issued a joint election manifesto. It says tho Government's first task is to conclude a just and lasting peace, enabling tho formation of a League of Nations and reduction of armaments, averting the possibility of future wars. It- reiterates the proposals for industrial and agricultural developments covered in recent cabled speeches and refers to the proper adaptation to peace conditions of the experience gained in regard to the drink traffic m wartime. Tho manifesto states that it would be premature to prescribe a permanent fiscal policy until the country has returned-fa-norma-l''lndustrial conditions. The reduction-of the war debt must be made to inflict the least injury on industry. Fresh taxes should not be imposed on raw materials. Preference should be given to the colonies. Military institutions will necesarily be dependent upon the Empire's needs, and the prospective requirements of any league for "the preservation of the world's neace. Meanwhile the Government will undertake the inevitable reduction of military and naval establishments. The Government- intends to remove existing legal inequalities of men and women and also proposes the creation of a Second Chamber based on contact with the people. While the Irish question is unsettled there cannot be political peace. One of the first objects will be to explore all practical paths for the settlement of a basis of self-govern-ment. LORD FRENCH'S SISTER A LABOUR CANDIDATE. (Received November 24, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, November 21. Mrs Despard, Lord French's sister, will contest Battersea as a Labourite.

ARMENIANS AT ARARAT

FORM INDEPENDENT REPUBLIC. Eeuter's Telegrams. (Received November 24. 5.5 p.m.) LONDON. November 21. The Armenians at Ararat have formed an independent republic embracing two million Caucasian Armenians.

GERMANS IN RHINE TOWNS

AMAZING SCENES DESCRIBED. Published irr "The Times/' (Received November 24. 0.0 p.m.) LONDON. November 21. A correspondent dispatched to Germany by "The: Timos" during the revolution describes amazing"scenes. The Rhine towns'..are .filled ~ with people drinking, dancing' and hurrahing. Troops ~ are • looting and carrying off plunder of evefv description. Strange equipage and 'trains' are going to Cologne packed with soldiers, whose first act is to destroy or sell loot. Rifles and helmets are sold for two pence, Iron Crosses for one halfpenny. Gangs of Allied prisoners are seen en route, ghastly and famine-stricken. Numbers are dyine on their feet. Large numbers of prisoners have.not yet been released. '■;• ■

FRENCH LITERATURE

ENDOWMENT FOR OXFORD UNIVERSITY. Australian and W.Z. Cable Aseooiation. LONDON.. November 21. Oxford University has accepted an endowment of £25.000 for the establishment of a Marshal Foch Professorship of French Literature.

KAISER BURNT IN EFFIGY

AMSTERDAM. November 21. Violent anti-Hohenzollern demonstrations occur daily at Prague (Bohemia). A gigantic straw effigy of the Kaiser was paraded through the city, and was called "The Invincible Wilhelm," and tho public were invit'ed 'to stick pins in it at a fie of flVe'krdn'er. the money collected being for' the Czech war eharities.

U.S. SHIPS SUNK BY HUNS

DURING WAR PEIRIOD. Australian and N.Z. Cablo Association (Received November 24. 5.5 p.m.) NEW YORK. November 22. The "Now York Times''/Washington correspondent says that 145 American merchantmen, . aggregating 254,419 tons, were destroyed by tho Germans during the war, and 775 lives were lost.

FOOD FOR PRISONERS

FORESIGHT OF BRITISH WAR OFFICE. a. Australian and N.Z. Cablo Association. (Received November 24. 5.5 p.m.) LONDON. November 22. The War Office states that adequate measures were .taken six weeks ago to ensure largo reserves of supplies of food at all large prisoners' camps in Germany, whence it could be distributed to working camps. News has now been received that tho supplies arc proving ample. There is every reason to believe that the majoritv of the prisoners are still in camps. Some have escaped to Baltic ports and to Holland and Denmark, where arrangements have been mado to supply their needs. Tho distressing accounts of tho condition of prisoners arriving at tho Western front refer onlv to those released by tho guards behind tho lines and westward of tho Rhine. They bolong to various nationalities. Tho advancing troops arc assisting thorn in every way possible.