EARLIER MESSAGES.

Colonist, Volume LVII, Issue 13784, 3 June 1915, Page 6

EARLIER MESSAGES.

THE MUNITIONS QUESTION

ME. ASQUITH ON NON-PARTY

GOVERNMENT,

NATIONAL SERVICE.

London, May 31

A special correspondent of "The Times/ dealing with the munitions question, says:—"Drinking is worst on the Clyde, and is an appreciable evil on the Tync. In the Clyde workshops I saw a batch of men turn out. The first man was tco drunk to work, and the men brought in spirits. The unusually large wages are the principal cause of the evil.

"An advocate of the prohibition of spirits remarked: 'Many of the men are overworked and subject to a continuous strain and the danger of a break-

down.' "

Mr. Asquith, in a letter to Mr. J. W. Gulland, the Liberal Whip, t*id that the new Cabinet implied the temporary abandonment of the party government that had been in operation since 1832, and whi"h he believed to be beat adapted to ■.i.itional requirements under normal conditions. It was possible that the <n:'idea upheaval might astonish jmd c-3.:.5e misgivings to many Liberals. Tbe.'C-.'tnnge was justified only by the urgent'; of the er.se and the national necev-il :■•'. The cunviotion had been force • f-'i him, at the cost of infinite perse.:.~j anxiety, thai- non-party government, was the most efficient instrument fi-r the succ^Ksful prosecution of tho war. When the national cause had been %i;i']icated they would again take up the unfinished, tasks of the Liberal Party.

"Tr.1 Times" declares tliat evidence is ar- i!',iulating on all sides proving that '.<J country requires an early declarai:?-". for national service,, followed by im/-:v; actio:i by the new Government. ; THsj" says vbe paper, "is'tho only r< i-'.dy for unfair methods of recvnii' ;•■;-; and the deficiency in munitioitt<- '-abour disputes are depressing, and ;ihi is a time when every man and worn;,'! is needed."

CABLE NEWS,

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"The Times" correspondent at Amsterdam says: "Holland is uneasy %t the spread of the war. It is doubtful if her army is sufficient for her safety, and leading men are advocating universal service. Six hundred thousand men are necessary to preserve her neutrality."

"The Times" correspondent at New York says the British Consulate used X-rays on bales of cotton, and has had indicted five Austro-German merchants on a charge of conspiring to smuggle rubber into Austria and Germany. The German authorities had furnished the merchants with large credits. The rubber was packed in barrels of resin, but this was declared contraband, and it was then hidden in cotton, which it was sought to export on British ships to Genoa.

The merchants are also to be charged with defrauding the American Government by means of false declarations.