ITALY AND AUSTRIA.

Otago Witness, Issue 3214, 20 October 1915, Page 18

ITALY AND AUSTRIA.

OUR ALLY SUCCESSFUL. ROME, October 14. A communique states ; The enemy has suffered heavy losses on the Tyrol-Trentino front. We were victorious in encounters at Val Ribor, St. George Plain, and Yal Campez. We repulsed a furious attack at Palpulo, on the Santa Croce Pass, and inflicted severe enemy losses.

THE BRITISH CENSORSHIP. LONDON, October 13. Controversies are raging over the censorship, which is condemned everywhere. The newspapers are demanding that the public be told the truth. Sir J. A. Simon, in a letter on the censorship, replies to the complaints against the Press Bureau. He says he is not the author of the policy being pursued, but is merely the instrument for carrying out instructions. He gave instances where the excisions from reports had been made in France arfd not in London. GENERAL NEWS. LONDON, October 14. Lieutenant L. H. Beauchamp (of the South Lancashires), a New Zealander, was killed in France on the 7th inst. Mr Pratt, in the House of Commons, stated that property owners at Glasgow and Tyneside had made extortionate increases in rents. Mr Lloyd George proposed to deal with the matter drastically. PARIS, October 14'. The Messageries steamer Yunnan (6474 tons) has been torpedoed; her crew were landed. 'COPENHAGEN, October 14. Ten German steamers are known to have been sunk. Only nine out of 27 due have arrived. THE KIDMAN CASE. SYDNEY, October 14. In the Kidman case—in which Arthur Kidman and three military officers are charged with conspiracy to defraud the State in connection with Defence Department contracts—the case for the Crown was closed to-day. Counsel for the defence submitted that there was nothing to connect Sergeant Leslie with the charges. The jury' and judge endorsed this, and Leslie was discharged without a stain upon his character. Kidman, in a lengthy statement, declared that he was absolutely innocent of the charges of collusion with any of the defendants. His business was of a speculative character, and might be described as gambling on the rise and fall of the market. He made big profits and big losses; certainly he made big profits in this case. As to what were called “dummy” tenders, he saw no harm in submitting them.