VIENNA IN STATE OF CHAOS

Otago Witness, Issue 3212, 6 October 1915, Page 30

VIENNA IN STATE OF CHAOS

BERNE, October 2. Travellers describe the condition at Vienna as chaotic. German officials are endeavouring to dominate every= thing, and have assumed an entire censorship of the press. The news* papers are appearing with whole pages almost blank. There have been numerous political arrests, and the prisons are overflowing The financial situation is deplorable, and Viennese exchange with Switzerland is impre* cedcntiy low. DANISH DAIRY PRODUCE. COPENHAGEN, October 2. Ths co-operative leaders have decided that it is desirable to supply Britain with butter and bacon as before, despite Germany’s offer of higher prices, and have appointed a committee to control sales and maintain supplies to Britain at the highest possible mark. GENERAL NEWS. LONDON, October 2. There are now 979 establishments under the Minister of Munitions. The Hon. T. C. R. A gar-Robertas, Liberal M.P. for St. Anstell, has been killed in France. Lord Petrc, who is a cousin of Mr F. W. Pctre, of Dunedin, has been killed in action in France. The casualty lists contain news of the deaths of eight nurses. Three occurred in France and three in the Mediterranean. Fifteen thousand Welsh miners have accepted the federation’s recommendation to continue work pending an inquiry into their demands. Mr Oppenhelmer, the South African diamond pioneer, has offered £IOO to each of the first four South African Victoria Cross gainers. The War Office has issued a report by a party of munition workers from Manchester, who, after visiting the front, advocated that everything humanly possible should bo done to increase to the fullest extent the production of guns and shells. The representatives of tho dominions, India, and the Crown colonies will have

a further conference with Mr M'Kenna and Mr Bonar Law with regard to finance next week. Ten thousand troops at Glasgow and 8000 at Birmingham paraded in connection with the national recruiting rally. Six thousand khaki-clad men made a recruiting march from the centre of London to the north, south, east, and west with a view to impressing young Londoners with the urgency of the call to arms. Members of the House of Commons and others witnessed the recruiting meetings along the route. The conference between Mr M'Kenna and the banks has resulted in joint financial actions being arranged. The AngioRussian treaty regulations are to operate in London after October 11. The Daily Chronicle states that the American Ambassador approached the Ports and offered to transport to America the whole of the Americans (? Armenians) who have been driven out of their homes. The Ambassador personally offered 1.000. dollars and to find another 4.000. in the United States to cover the cost. The president of a central unemployed body stated that since the war there has been no evidence of .distress. Employment has been plentiful. COPENHAGEN, October 2. A German seaplane has been picked up without a crew off Trellabong. AMSTERDAM, October 2. Germany is requisitioning blankets and horse cloths. WASHINGTON, October 1. Unless Germany recalls von Papen, her military attache, who has given great offence by describing i the Americans as “idiotic Yankees,” the. United States will request his recall. NEW YORK, October 2. An American, Mr Curtis Allen, who has arrived at San Francisco, states that Dr Cook, who alleged that he discovered the North Pole, has been arrested and imprisoned at Rangoon. Mr Allen alleges that he shared a cell with Dr Cook. The British authorities believed him to be a German acting in conjunction with Dr Cook, and threatened to hang him. AUSTRALIAN ITEMS. SYDNEY, October 2. A demonstration to-morrow will celebrate the diamond jubilee of the eighthour movement in New South Wales. BRISBANE, October 2. Six per cent, of Papua’s white population have enlisted. The war funds total £2OOO. “ PLAYING INTO THE HANDS OF THE ENEMY.” SYDNEY, October 2. A prominent mining director declares, with full knowledge and after deliberation, that the Imperial and the commonwealth authorities, in holding up all Australian supplies of wolfram, molybdenite, scheelite, and other alloys, are playing into the hands of the enemy. Owing to the creation of the new metal exchange and fixing of prices nearly £IOO,OOO worth of munitions metal is being locked up. INTERESTING STATEMENTS. SYDNEY, October 2. Senator Pearce, speaking at a banquet, stated that it had been said that the Australian soldiers were the best-equipped of those stationed in Egypt. No other part of tho dominions had put the amount of materials into the war that Australia had. The war had tested the patriotism of trades unionism and had found that it was really true right through. They had had to ask unionists to waive for some time principles dear to their hearts, and they had never asked in vain. M. Chayet, the French Consul-general, stated that he had learned from a private letter that the French had possession of a very powerful new weapon. He did not doubt that if this were correct the recent advance must have been connected with the use of this weapon He hoped it would help to shorten the war.