RUMANIA'S DEMANDS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3195, 9 June 1915, Page 31

RUMANIA'S DEMANDS.

LONDON, June 3

The Morning Post’s Berne correspond dent reports that the Austrian Minis* try and German representatives dis= cussed the Rumanian Note and refused its demands. It is estimated that Rumania has an army of 1,000,000 men, perfectly equipped, and their entrance into the war will provide a new 600 miles of front for Austrian strategists. The Frankfurter Gazette says : “ We must play the role of intermediary. There is no reason why Austria should not make just and equitable conces* slons to Rumania.”

GERMAN EXPANSION

LONDON, June 3.

German newspapers report a debate in the Reichstag over the demands of the Conservatives and Socialists for substantial territorial expansion as the price of Germany’s victory. Herr Liebnecht, the Socialist leader, strongly opposed the proposal.

This debate revealed an unmistakable breach amongst the Socialists and other parties.

NATIONAL SERVICE IN BRITAIN

LONDON, June 2.

Sir Oliver Lodge believes that registration for national service is bound to come. The present emergency, he says, is more serious than people realise. Both employers and employed ought to be encouraged to submit willingly to national organisation. Seventy -thousand British women have been registered for war service, and 1400 are engaged, mostly in the clothing and ammunition, trades. The majority of the women, who belong to the better classes, are offering their services for patriotic reasons, but the positions are given to the neediest.

The Government permits only 20 per cent, of its eligible men to enlist. It apparently believes that a woman cannot replace a man who is earning £3OO a year. The women’s new occupations include paymasters, ticket collectors, gardeners, ’bus drivers, bailiffs, and telegraph messengers. Six hundred are employed in the munitions department at Vickers’s factories. GENERAL ITEMS. LONDON, June 3. The export of wheat, flour, and oats has been prohibited to all destinations. A meeting of sportsmen carried a resolution urging the Government to restore racing in centres where it would not prejudice military requirements. Sir T. A. Goughian, New South Wales Agent-general, has handed in New South Wales subscriptions of £SOOO for the Serbian Relief Fund, and £2OOO for the Polish Relief Fund. Professor Arnold, of Sheffield, at a meeting of the Royal Institution, said he was sorry to confess that shortly before the war he was dining with a managing direc-

tor of Krupps, who told him they were mating steel ingots, weighing 110 tons, for guns by a crucible process evolved by an Englishman. The Hon. Thomas Mackenie, High Commissioner for New Zealand, handed the Belgian Committee £24,260, of which £15.000 is the Government’s May contribution, and the balance from other relief funds.

PARIS, June 2

A Rome telegram to Le Petit Journal states that after the elections Greece will possibly join the Entente. The Balkans Consuls at Rome are making great efforts to this end.

SOUTH AFRICAN TROOPS

CAPETOWN, June 2.

Lord Buxton (Governor-general of the Union) says that any definite statement regarding sending a South African contingent to Europe would be premature, for, though Union forces occupy the capital and the greater part of German South-west Africa, the German army has not yet been engaged.

AUSTRALIAN NEWS. SYDNEY, June 3,

Madame Melba’s concert in aid of the Poles realised £6382, which is a record. A Union Jack fetched £2OOO.

New Zealand’s contingent of 31 nurses sailed by the Moldavia on Saturday. Newspapers commenting upon the New Zealand Rugby League’s action say it is doing the right thing in abandoning the Australian tour.

Children’s Empire Day for the Belgian Fond realised over £20,000, and there is more to come.

FREMANTLE, June 3,

A Belgian Band have arrived to give a series of concerts on behalf of their distressed countrvmen.

HIGH COMMISSIONER'S CABLES.

LONDON, June 2 (9.50 a.m.)

Army : —Officers—killed 29, wounded 83, poisonous gas 7 (?), missing 16, prisoners 3; men—killed 364, wounded 945, gas killed 7, gas disabled 149, missing 269.

In the Caucasus, in the direction of Olti, the Russian patrols repulsed the Turkish posts in the region Akha and Todon. In the region of Van, m the Valley of Manghelaff, the Turks rvere forced to retire. An American who has returned from Germany states that it is estimated that at present there are 7,000,000 men in the German armies, and another 3,000,000 in training. The 1915 class of boys of 17 years has not yet been called up.