GENERAL ITEMS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16537, 10 November 1915, Page 5

GENERAL ITEMS

IRISH SHIRKERS. SHIPS' LISTS FULL. (Timse and Sydney Sun Services.) LONDON, November 8. ■(Received Nov. 9, at 5.5 p.m.) The Irish Times says the majority of the emigrants belong to tihe migratory labour class who left England and Scotland rather than sign the national* register. The passenger lists of the liners St. Paul and New' York, due to sail on the 13th and 20th inst., have been long filled. For months past SCO young men ihave left Dublin weekly. GERMANS IN PUBLIC SERVICE. AGITATION IN NEW SOUTH WALES.. SYDNEY, November 9. {Received Nov. 9, at 7.30 p.m.) Mr Holman (Premier) is being much heckled on the question of the employment of Germans and Austrians in the public service. It is stated that 40 have been dismissed, and some 65 are still retained. They are mostly elderly men of unimpeachable character, who are married to Australians. This is in a total of 65,000 Government employees. DEBATE IN HOUSE OF LORDS. THE GOVERNMENT FIERCELY ATTACKED. A FORMER COLLEAGUE AS CRITIC. ' LORD CURZOnVcAUSTIC REPLY., LONDON, November 8. (Received Nov. 9, at 11.5 p.m.) In the House of Lords, in the course of a debate, Lord Loreburn said that unless collective common sense prevailed Europe might become a, wilderness of peoples, with only odd men, women, and children. The idea of a small Cabinet reporting to a full Cabinet was unsatisfactory. It would merely secure a maximum of delay with a minimum of efficiency.

Lord Milner declared that the war news sent to this country had been seriously •misused. It was constantly doctored in an optimistic sense. If we had prepared against contingencies which were a likelihood for. months, it would have been possible to give Serbia six weeks ago such assistance as would have enabled her to resist the combined attack of the Central Powers and Bulgaria with reasonable prospects of complete success, and at the same time carried Greece with us. (Received Nov. 10, at 1.30 a.m.) Even when Greece left us in the lurch, said Lord Milner, we could, if we had acted with promptness, have put such a force into Serbia as to save the south and south-west from destruction. On the contrary, we seemed paralysed until General Joffre helped us to make up our mind. The Dardanelles campaign should have been determined by military considerations alone. To bring politics into it was to court disaster. If our prestige had suffered in the Dardanelles the way to recover it was to do better elsewhere.

(Received Nov. 9, at 11.15 p.m.)

(Presumably Lord Curzon is speaking.) The Government could not be expected to deal openly in *-debate with acute diplomatic negotiations while tihey were in progress. The Ministry unanimously desired- to give as much information as the naval and military authorities considered desirable. Only cables from the country were censored, and no compulsion; existed as regards leading articles or military correspondence published by leading newspapers. He thought the system worked well, thougih it might be that the narval and military authorities took an unduly narrow view of the points submitted to them. The Government was now consulting with the leading military authorities with a view to better co-ordinating with regard to the supply of news'.

Lord Curzon condemned tflie cruel an'd slanderous attacks upon Ministers, and especially Mr Asquith and Sir Edward Grey. He paid a tribute to the latter's ability and integrity, but because two kings in the Balkans had disappointed the expectations of the public they bespattered him with abuse. Eeferring to the suspension, of the Globe, Lord Onrzon said the paper untruly stated that Lord Kitchener had resigned, and assigned a false and malicious reason for his alleged resignation. The offence was worse because it was made during a crisis in international affairs, when Serbia, in agony, was appealing for help. The whole East was watching for England's action?' The Globe even dared , to repeat the statements on Saturday, declaring that the Government denial was untrue. The Government accordingly authorised the suspension of /the paper. [Only three sections of the report of the Houso of Lords' debate have como through ; the others are delayed—presumably owing to bushfircs in New South Wales. The introduction has not reached us, so that there is nethiii" to indicate how the debate arose. The beginning of Lord Curzon's reply is also delayed.]