CURRENT TOPICS

Southland Times, Issue 17533, 22 September 1915, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS

trang E’s great gulu j:eIn the course oL' a con versa i ion that the Paris ivprescn t at ivo of a Eotidon paper hail with one of the high officials of tlic Bank of franco a few weeks ago, tlie t-orrespondent learnt some interesting particulars concerning tile results of the public request for gold by the finance .Minister. The reserve of gold will be able to sustain french credit until the end of the war without serious difficulty, notwithstanding the considerable payments effected abroad for munitions, foodstuffs, machinery, coal, and other manufactured goods and raw materials. The reserve of gold at the hank is now nearly £100,000,000, notwithstanding these heavy payments to foreign exporters, and the loan of £110,000,000 in gold to Great Britain. Gold was flowing into the hank from the public very freely, and at the hank it is believed that the figure for the whole of franco will considerably exceed the sum of £f,000,000 for the lirst throe weeks, 'fin- town of Nancy alone gave floo.OOo in a few days. “.It may he difficult," said the writer’s informant, "to induce some people to part with their gold hoards, especially peasants in remote.- districts, hut if the public brings a milliard (l l0,o0a,000), that means credit in the form of fiduciary to three times that sum. lienee the £(0,000,000 added to the £ 100,000,000 in gold, means the acceptation of J’rencii paper money at its face value to the tunc of £000,000,000, without counting the remaining gold in tlie country that will surely come in gradually to cover tlio outgoings. In regard to Russia, tlie gold reserve at the imperial Bank is not far .shor*? of £100,0110,000, and Ilussia lias groat .stores of wheal ready to sell for gold. The Russians are in no need for money now; they waul munitions of war. As far as franco is concerned, we, who surely know who keep the french purse, can state that this country can well fight out the war financially to the end.” HOLLAND’S OPPO RT L’N ITV. In an article signed ”En Vedette.’’ in the fortnightly Review, the writer urges that the time is ripe for Holland to en- '

ter the war on the side of the Allies. She would not only render great service to the Allies, he urges, but for fighting for the rights of the small nations would safeguard her own interests. "As the Germans are showing in every way." he continues, "not merely their determination to retain Belgium, but their confidence in their ability to do so as a minimum result of the war, the Dutch nation must consider the contingency they so rightly apprehend, not as a remote possibility, hut as a visible reality which may, by the fortune of war, become a permanent fact of very dread significance." Holland, it is pointed nut, could put "60,000 men in the field—-just twice the number Belgium bad ready when the Germans crossed her frontier (Mi August 11, Jlt 14 —and at the present stage these fresh troops would prove a very powerful factor. The difficulty of piercing the first line in Flanders affords evidence of how long it must take to break through the inner lines in Belgium. The article concludes :—"Holland alone can provide the means of turning this formidable position, and of opening the door to a new theatre of war which would deprive the elaborately created German fortress of Belgium of any value. That is the real secret why Dutch co-operation would be most welcome and most valuable.” STATISTICS FOR NEUTRALS. The German wireless news received on August 1 by the Wireless Press, says the London Times of the day following, contained the following , statement ; “The newspapers report the Central Powers have up to now occupied 70..112 square miles of foreign territory. The enemy occupies only )2{G square miles. The total of prisoners of war for the first year in Germany and Austria-Hun-gary makes a round total of 1,69;,,400. Altogether the booty in Germany can be calculated at. from 7000 to SOOO cannon and from ”000 to :;oott machine guns.” The Times adds the following pertinent comment : —"ln their statistics of square miles occupied by the enemy, the German newspapers omit to include the area of German .South-west Africa, Togoland, New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, the Solomon Islands, the Samoan Islands, Tsing-tau. and a considerable part of Cameroon. These German territories occupied by the enemy make a total of over -150,000 square miles.’’