NULLIFYING NOXIOUS GASES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3197, 23 June 1915, Page 18

NULLIFYING NOXIOUS GASES.

MELBOURNE, June 16. Mr R. J. Fletcher, of the chemical works at North Geelong, claims to have discovered a specific for nullifying poisonous gases. It is understood that Ills discovery solidifies the gases, rendering them innocuous. THE NAVAL CASUALTIES. LONDON, June 15. Mr Asquith, in the House of Commons, said that the naval casualties to May 31 were 13,547. BRITISH WAR PASSED. LONDON, June 15. The war vote of £250,000,000 lias been adopted. In the House of Commons, Mr Asquith, in moving for an additional vote of £250,000,000, emphasised the need for national co-operation and concentration on.

the single purpose of prosecuting the war , to a successful issue. The daily expenditure on the war for the last financial year was about one million and a-half, the daily expenditure since April 1 to June 12 £2,660,000, and the estimated new vote, which will last to September, was at the rate of £3,000,000 a day. GENERAL NEWS. LONDON, June 15. A man named Ahlgriot, a German waiter, was fined £25 for possessing 598 military maps of the English coast, docks, and military stations. ' Sir S. O. Buckmaster, Solicitor-general in the Asquith Party Ministry, and Lord Chancellor in the present one, has been raised to the peerage under the title of Baron Buckmaster. Great Britain is considering the propriety of declaring cotton contraband, in view of the enormous German imports for shell-making. It is estimated that Austria and Germany are firing 5000 bales of cotton daily. The fail of Garua ends the arduous task of the Anglo-French forces in the Northern Cameroons. The Germans were strongly entrenched, and transport presented many difficulties. The success at Garua will release an important force for service further south. James Marshall was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment at Glasgow for assaulting a fellow workman because he > was producing more shell than the others. The sheriff remarked that in another country the offender would have been shot. In connection with the charges against two partners in the firm of Jacks and Co., of Glasgow (of selling iron ore to Krupps), an accountant who inspected Jacks and Co.’s books gave evidence that Krupps and other Germans had paid the firm over £17,€00 since the war began. ORGANISING COMMITTEE APPOINTED. MELBOURNE, June 16. The Federal Committee appointed to organise the manufacture of munitions comprises a member of the Naval Board, the directors of the Government ordnance and the chemical branch departments, the advisor to the Defence Department, and Mr M‘Kay, head of the Sunshine harvester works. The Victorian State Government has offered Mr Fisher the use of all, its departmental workshops for the production of munitions. BRISBANE, June 16. Information is being collected showing how many factories in Queensland are able to produce shells. AUSTRALIAN NEWS. MELBOURNE, June 16. The Federal Statistician states that the cost of food in 10 months of the war has advanced by 18.8 per cent. The Prize Court has ordered the release to the Admiralty of the detained German steamers Altona, Wildenfels, and Pfalz, . and at Hobart of the Lothringen and Hes- , sen. SYDNEY, June 16. Suburban councils are taking up the crusade against employment of enemy sub--1 jects on municipal works. A public meeting formed a committee to . organise collections for Australia Day on July 30. The City Council acrimoniously debated . a committee’s recommendation that their i enemy subject employees he retained war

less proved guilty of disloyalty to the Empire. An amendment that all such employees be dismissed, whether nationalised or not, was lost by 19 votes to 4. THE JAPANESE NAVY. MELBOURNE, June 16. Senator Pearce (Minister of Defence), speaking at a civic banquet to Admiral Chisaka, said that the Japanese'Navy had rendered Australia greater service than most people were aware of. Australia recognised that in all things Japan kept both the letter and the spirit of the scrap of paper which was the basis of her friendship with Britain. i HIGH COMMISSIONER’S CABLES. LONDON, June 16 (2.20 a.m.). Army casualties : —Officers—killed by gas 2, killed 10, wounded 19: men—killed by gas 1, killed 428, wounded 1498, poisoned by gas 17, missing 249, prisoner 1. Dardanelles : —Navy : Officers —killed 1, wounded 3.