NOTES FROM LONDON.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 144667, 29 April 1915, Page 3

NOTES FROM LONDON.

are able to giro a satisfactory reply. England is literally crammed with troops at the moment when decisive operations are imminent. It' the operations are not successful the blame will be on the Cabinet alone. SUPPLIES FOR GERMANIC. FROM NEUTRAL COUNTRIES. "(Received April 20, 9 a.m.) LONDON, April 2?, Mr. Neil Primrose, in reply to a tiuestion regarding Scandinavian re-exports, said neutral countries re-exported foodstuffs and other cargoes to Germany, despite! their undertaking to prohibit re-exportation. This showed that the consignees were in collusion with the German authorities. If the steps taken to prevent the recurrence of the evil were not successful special measures might be necessary. JAPAN AND CHINA. JAPAN WILL HOLD T3ING-TAO. (Received April 29, 9 a.m.) PEKING, April 2S. The Japanese Minister informed China that, after the acceptance of the Japanese demands, Japan Mould consider the retrocession of Kiau-elmu. hut fslng-tao would be a treaty port with largo Japanese settlement.

TREATMENT OF PRISONERS. SOME DIVERGENT VIEWS'. BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. —COPYRIGHT. LONDON, April 27. Mr. Asquith, speaking in the House of Commons, said the Germans from the beginning had treated the British prisoners with indiscriminate harshness. At the end of the war the Government would not forget the horrible record of calculated cruelty, and would exaot such reparation against the guilty os they might possibly inflict. Lord Lansdawne, in tho House of Lords, said He greatly regretted the reprisals pohey which a Christian country could not deliberately adopt. Ho deplored the Admiralty’s action towards the submarine crews. The real culprits, were the German Government.. There were other forms of retaliation. He suggested compensating the victims out of funds levied on the property of Germans in Britain. Lord Cromer said a strong feeling existed in the army agaifist the Admiralty’s policy in regard to submarine crews. Lord Lucas said that Germany had now given Mr. Gerard, the American Ambassador to Berlin, and nine of his staff, permission to visit the camps, and had also agreed as to the distribution of the British Government’s money placed m Mr. Gerard’s hands, and the sending of simple foodstuffs to 'prisoners. Public gifts sold at Christie's on behalf of the Red Cross realised £‘38,000. Lord Derby, speaking at Manchester, said the people did not seem to realise the tremendous tilings happening, or how critical the position actually was when wo were acting on the defence snd had to fall back. Mr. Asquith’s speech suggested that we were doing very well as to munitions, but this was absolutely opposed to facts, and not a single man in the army or at the Mar Office would support that view. Lord Kitchener had told him yesterday that the demand for munitions was absolutely unlimited, as the more shells and cartridges we got the more men we would be able to put in the field. He had Lord Kitchener's authority to say that he was satisfied with the rate of recruiting for the moment, but the time would come, sooner perhaps than was expected, when, we should be asked to redouble our efforts. Lord Derby added that he believed it would be necessary to make a compulsory demand upon the services of the country. The first day’s subscriptions for the national fund for the Belgians include £23.7,30 from New South AValcs, £20,000 from the Lord Mayor of Melbourne, £IOOO from Geelong district. £7OOO from South Australia, £IOOO from the Commonwealth. £IOOO from a M est Australian newspaper, £7OO from Launceston, and £250 from the Mayor, of Dunedin’s fund. The War Office official doctors report that a number of Canadians died from the poisonous gases which were used contrary to the Hague Convention. The War Office has issued particulars for respirators against asphyxiating gases, composed of cotton wool or stockmgettc. and are inviting the public to provide a Bupply, SALE OF MANUSCRIPTS. TIMES AND SYDNEY SUN SERVICES. (Received April 29, 8 a.m.) LONDON, April 28. At the Red, Cross sale, five pages of Dickens’ autograph manuscript and chapter nineteen of ‘Pickwick” fetched £450; Kipling’s draft, “For all we have and are,” £36; and a poem of Hardy’s £24. THE GOVERNMENT CRITICISED. TIMES AND SYDNEY SUN SERVICES. LONDON, April 28. A military correspondent has pointed out that Mr. Lloyd George did. not say that there were 36 divisions in France, but said.thev were abroad. Consequently considerably less than that number are actually in France. A period of great and decisive operations finds us wdth six other campaigns on our hands, all needing men and ammunition. There is scarcely a man in the British armies in. France who does not ask daily when the new-armies are coming out. None