GERMAN AFFAIRS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3517, 9 August 1921, Page 19

GERMAN AFFAIRS.

TAX FRAUDS. BERLIN, August 1. The police raided a number of sporting institutions and betting establishments which are alleged to be concerned in serious tax frauds amounting to many millions of marks. A casino in the Hartz Mountains was closed. Several prominent Berliners have been arrested and accused of fraud. RHINELAND OCCUR ALTON. LONDON, August 2. The Brussels correspondent of The Times reports that the Rhineland High C ommission has expelled from the occupied area the German Ge'neral von Tessmar on the ground that his presence was a danger to the occupying troops, as bis name figures on the Belgian list of war criminals. PAYMENT OF EXPENSES. PARIS, August, 4. The Reparations Commission on May 1 held a. balance of 124,000,000 gold marks earmarked for payment, according to priority, of the expenses of the armies of occupation. More arrears are due to Great Britain than to the other Allies, and the Commission has decided to hand over this sum to her, still leaving her a heavy creditor. TREATY TERMS COMPLIED WITH. PER UN. August 4. Disarmament, in accordance with the Allies’ ultimatum of May 5, is now complete. The army now stands at Versailles Treaty strength. AVALANCHES OF ROCK. LONDON, August 2. The Daily Mail’s Berlin correspondent reports that Sandling Mountain, in {lie Salzkammergut region, in Upper Austria, is again becoming dangerous. Daily gigantic avalanches of rock slide from the summit, undermining the peak. The pressure of masses of rock is forf'ng out rock, earth, and clay from the interior of the mountain, and this solid matter s driven like a river down the valleys, sweeping a path of destruction. It has aheadv advanced three miles, engulfing a forest in its path. B A YARIAN BRUTAL! TY. LONDON, August 5. The Daily Express’s Berlin correspondent reports that lamentable revelations are published in the Tageblatt, They wore made by a prisoner, who escaped from an internment camp in which the Bavarian Government detains foreigners who do not possess passports endorsed in the regular order. Many helpless victims have been incarcerated for nine months and are nearly starved. They are entirely unable to perfoim the brutally hard labour upon them. Their onlv crime is failure to produce the Bavarian official stamp on their passports. Several British and American travellers, who were ignorant of the Bavarian refusal to recognise the German rise, have been hold up. mulcted in heavy fines, and sent to the internment camp in default of payment. MEMORIAL SERVICE IN BERLIN. BERLIN. .August 3. A memorial service to Sir Roger Casement yesterday was attended bv Hie complete Irish colony, including Mr Gaffney, former Consul-General, and ma-nv IrishAmericans and Germans.