BRITAIN'S SHARE.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume II, Issue 488, 2 September 1915, Page 8

BRITAIN'S SHARE.

MILITARY DIRECTION CRITICISED THE ANTWERP "FIASCO." "Times" and "Sydney Sun" Services. LONDON, September 1. Colonel Repington, military correspondent of "The Times," says the military direction of the war on the British side has not been happy, or particularly fortunate since the initial decision in August, 1914. We have increased our force in France, but in other improvisations the Cabinet has shown conspicuously an absence of genius for war. We have merely drifted, ungoverned by the strategic sense. Colonel Repington specifies the unorganised munitions supply, and the failure to adopt national service, the dispatch of a force to Antwerp, which was a fiasco, and the Dardanelles expedition, which was directed from London in an amateur, scatter-brained fashion, lacking the elements of surprise and impetuosity necessary to carry it through successfully. 1 VICTORIA CROSS HERO. DECORATED BY THE KING. By Gable. —Press Association.—Copyright. . LONDON, September 1. Lance-Corporal Angus, of the Bth (Territorial) Battalion of the Highland. Light Infantry, who sustained 40 wounds in rescuing a wounded officer, and was awarded the Victoria Gross in June, has received the decoration from the King in Buckingham Palace. \ TRADE UNION CONGRESS. NEED FOR UNANIMITY. LONDON, September 1. The Parliamentary Committee of the Trade Union Congress recommends the Bristol Congress to records its' hearty appreciation of the magnificent response to the call for volunteers to fight militarism, and to protest against "the sinister efforts of a section of the reactionary Press to foist on the country conscription, which would burden the workers and divide the nation at a time when absolute unanimity is essential." The resolution promises every aid to the Government in its present effort to secure the men necessary to prosecute the war to a successful issue. FOOD PRODUCTION. A COMMITTEE'S REPORT. LONDON, September 1. The interim report of the committee of which Lord Milner is chairman, and which was appointed by the Board of Agriculture to report what legislation would be "necessary to increase the food production of England and Wales in the event of war extending beyond the 1916 harvest, recommended a guarantee to farmers of a minimum price of 45/per quarter for their wheat, but this has since been negatived. j The committee found that the only method of substantially increasing the British 1916 harvest was the cultivation of some of the poorer grasslands without diminishing their output of meat and milk and their capacity to maintain live stock. The opinion was expressed that the guarantee would result in an increase of the wheat acreage from the present 2,000,000 acres to 3,000,000 acres, giving six weeks' additional supply for the whole of the United Kingdom. The guarantee would also involve higher wages for farm labour, and greater employment, but no such serious labour shortage as would render the proposal impracticable. It was suggested that the Government should help farmers in organising supplies of manure and laboursaving machinery. It was believed that many farmers would respond to the appeal in the national interest, even at the sacrifice of the certainty of their present profits. The committee refrained from recommending a fixed minimum price at which the Government might buy, because it might dislocate trade and check the importation of wheat. The Council of the Royal Colonial Institute unanimously resolved to support whatever measures the Government should take in regard to national service.