NEW AGE GROUPS INCLUDED

Southland Times, Issue 24012, 30 December 1939, Page 5

NEW AGE GROUPS INCLUDED

TRAINING SCHEME IN AUSTRALIA

MEN OF 21 AND 20 YEARS 20,000 AFFECTED IN NEW SOUTH WALES (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright) ’(Received December 29, 9.5 p.m.) SYDNEY, December 29. The universal military training scheme which will begin in January has been extended so that two additional age groups will be called up for training after next June. The new groups are men who will reach the age of 21 years between July

1 and December 31, 1940, and men who reach the age of 20 between January 1 and December 31,1940. It is expected that about 20,000 men in New South Wales will be affected by the extension of the scheme. FOOD RATIONING IN BRITAIN SCHEMES FOR SUPPLY OF SUGAR AND MEAT (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, December 28. Food rationing which so far has only applied to butter and bacon —schemes for which come into operation on January 8, in the fifth month of the war —is to be extended to sugar and meat. The Government’s decision was announced today. The scheme for sugar will come into effect simultaneously with the schemes for butter and bacon on January 8, and the allowance will be 12 ounces a person weekly. The amount of meat ration and the date will' be announced later. It will certainly not be enforced in January. In a statement issued by the Ministry of Food it is pointed out that for the foodstuffs now to be rationed Britain is dependent to a large extent on overseas sources of supply. The amounts of rations are based on the present import programme, which is determined in the light of available resources in foreign exchange and shipping space. The requirements of other imported commodities, especially armaments and raw materials, make large demands on these resources. In restricting the demand for imported foodstuffs resources are made free for the needs of the defence services. In this way, it is explained, every consumer will make an important contribution to the national war effort.

SEIZURE OF GERMAN MERCHANDISE CONTRABAND CONTROL OF ALLIED NAVIES (British Official Wireless) (Received December 29, 5.5 p.m.) RUGBY, December 28. The Ministry of Economic Warfare states that on December 26 there were 48 neutral ships in three contraband control bases in the United Kingdom, of which 21 had been there for five days or less. During the week ended December 23 the contraband committee had considered many cargoes of ships which had arrived since the previous week. In no case was the entire cargo released. The system under which advance copies of manifests of cargoes are received and considered before the ship's arrival at ports in Britain resulted during the week under review in 27 cases being so dealt with. In 24 of these, the ships were released, subject merely to formal checking of the original manifests on their arrival at the control bases.

According to a Paris message, the contraband control of the French Navyheld up 16 ships and intercepted 40,000 tons of goods destined for Germany during the week ended December 24. France so far has intercepted 402,000 tons of German-bound merchandise since the beginning of the war.