CABLE INTELLIGENCE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3079, 28 December 1908, Page 7

CABLE INTELLIGENCE.

1 ' BERNE, December 25. "There is acute tension between 'Germany and Switzerland owing to /German millers dumping the finest flour in Switzerland at prices which Switzerland considers only possible by means of disguised export subsidies. wishes to have the dispute referred to arbitration, but Germany will only consent to such a restricted reference that arbitration is considered useless. CALCUTTA, December 25. Gratifying response to the Viceroy's recent appeal to the people was embodied in the presentation at Calcutta yesterday of a most loyal address expressing gratitude for the administrative reforms announced, and promising enthusiastic co-opera-tion with the executive authority. The deputation which presented the •address consisted ot a hundred of the foremost men from the two divisions of Bengal, also several extremist ▼ Jjeaciere. Lord Minto, the Viceroy, .in wel- • coming the address, said no more momentous assurances had ever been offered any Viceroy. They struck a keynote of sympathetic mutual .understanding on which so much depends. LONDON, December 25. A quantity of skilfully counterfeited silver coiricge and an up-to-date ptent has been seized in Essex-road, London. A man has been arrested on susof being connected with the | affair. LONDON, December 25. The Royal Family are passing the * Christmas holidays -it Sandringham, the King's country seat in Norfolk. LONDON, December 25. Sir JRobert Hart, ex-Inspector- ' General of Chinese Maritime Customs, will not return to China. LONDON, December 25. Sir Christopher Furness, M.P. for ■i Hartlepool, has- purchased the Wingate Grange Collier, Durham, in which he intends to initiate a system /of co-partnership on similar lines to v those he has introduced into his ship- . yards. LONDON, December 25. "The Times" states that a Franco- ' Belgian agreement has been signed which delimits the Congo State fron- '■ tiers. It recoanises on the one hand annexation by Belgium, ind on the othsr hand France's right of prefer- ■ ence in the event of Belgium relin- • qjishing. possession of the territory.

•,A remarkable memorial, signed by -many peers, nineteen bishops, seventy-six members of the House of Commons, and numerous Lord . Mayurf, representative commercial : men, philanthropists and editors, has been forwarded to Sir Edward Grey. Foreign Minister, expressing cordial support of the Government's insistence that Belgium must give distinct assurances that treaty rights in the Congo will be. rtspected, and native communal and trigal tenure of land and products be lvcognised. f ST. PETERSBURG. Dec. 25. '• The Supreme Naval Prize Court at " St. Petersburg, in overruling the Libau judgment, declared that while the overhauling of the Saint Kilda was justifiable, confiscation and sinking were not justified. Hence the owneis we"e entitled to submit to another court a claim for damages. Exception was made in the case of a smalfquantity of rice destined for the Japanese Guvernment, and some -cotto-., which might, under the circumstances, be considered contraband. HOBAKT, December 25. The supply of water at Hobart is running short; There is only sufficient in the reservoir now to last forty days. PARIS. December 25. The French Post and Telegraphs Comir.isiijn, in a report to the Chamber of Deputies, recommends the c tablishment of penny postage wu.i England. . "