1940-03-30 — Page 6

BRITAIN'S FOOD SITUATION GUARANTEED SECURE

NO MATTER HOW LONG THE WAR MAY LAST

LONDON, TO-DAY.

NO MATTER HOW LONG THE WAR LASTS, BRI- TAIN WILL HAVE ENOUGH FOOD, ANNOUNCES MR. A. T. LENNOX-BOYD, PARLIAMENTARY UNDER-SECRETARY TO THE MINISTRY OF

FOOD.

Stocks of food are to-day far greater than they were be- fore war broke out, he says, and Britain can face the future with confidence and courage.

"Whatever the future may hold

and however long the war may last, we can guarantee enough food to its vigour," he maintain life in all said.

At the same time, justice is being done to the poorer classes. The Gov- ernment is spending a great deal of money to keep prices down.

For instance, between £300,000 and £400,000 is being spent each week to keep down the price of flour, and

hénce, bread. It costs about the same

to keep meat prices down and £250,- 000 to keep the price of milk down.

The Government, however, looks on butter in a different light. Some peo- ple have complained that the price of butter should have been reduced when the ration was doubled.

mar-

Mr. Lennox-Boyd points to garine as "an adequate substitute." Although prepared to spend to keep prices of essentials such as meat and Aour down, the Government questions whether this procedure is justified in the case of a luxury for which there is a good alternative.-Reuter.

GOERING

ALLEGED

FORCED

CONFESSION

THE CHINA MAIL, MARCH 30, 1940

GRAF SPEE MUTINY REPORT DENIED

Berlin, To-day. According to a Buenos Aires despatch issued by the German nows agency, the statement that the Graf Spee crew refusad to

put to sea is emphatically den- led by the First Officer of the warship, Captain' Kay.

Captain Kay says: "This state- ment is in all details a mere in- vention," and cites a thousand persons-from the First Officer to the youngest seaman of the Graf Spee-as witnesses.—Rey-

tor.

CZECH ARMY HELP FOR ALLIES

Confidence in the defeat

WAR BILL STRAIN ON GERMANY

Germany's financial

position

compare

and man-power are discussed in the cur- rent number of the Bulletin of Inter- national News issued by the Royal Institute of International Affairs.

An attempt is made to Germany's position with our own.

income The German net national in 1937, it is stated, estimated at 71,000,000,000 Reichs- marks. Adding indirect taxation, the figure was about 78,000,000,000 Reichs- marks.

was officially

It is pointed out that at 1928 prices, using the official German index em- national ployed for the deflation of

this- is about income estimates, 94,725,000,000 Reichsmarks, or about £4,725,000,000.

COST PER MAN

Since the pound had increased in value by about 10 per cent, between 1928, and 1937, the German net in- come of 1937 must have been about the £4,270,000,000, compared with English figure of £5,320,000,000.

It has been estimated that in the income per years 1925-34 German of Nazi occupied person was about 60 per German If this ratio persisted, the is expressed

income would be about 85 per cent. Germany and the restoration of the cent. of that in the United Kingdom. Czechoslovak Republic

Dr. article contributed by in an Benes, former President of the Re-of the British, or about £4,500,000,000 un-public, to the Central European Ob- in 1937.

server, an organ of Czechoslovak news and views, of which the first issue is on sale, price 3d.

Contesting his wife's petition in the Divorce Court Mr. Alec Spalter, of Camden-road, N.W., alleged that he had been forced by threats by her. to his wife mother to write a letter confessing infidelity. He declared that the statement in the letter was true.

Mr. and Mrs. Spalter were married in 1935, the wife being then 18 and her husband 23.

The journal is a continuation of one Both were employed in her father's of the same name published in Prague until the post-Munich costumier's business. After the marri- from 1923 age Mr. Spalter became head stock-censorship compelled its cessation in keeper and a Miss Joan Floyd was December, 1938.

The husband's letter, his assistant. which stated that adultery had taken place with Miss Floyd, was written on Dec. 23, 1938, the day on which his wife left him.

Giving judgment, St. Boyd Merriman said there was evidence that Mr. Spal- ter and Miss Floyd had been seen kissing. One witness spoke of their being alone together after the other

WARNS NAZI employees had left. OFFICIALS

has issued Field-Marshal Goering another warning to German officials that they are to do their work without -fighting one another.

On Dec. 23, 1938, Mrs. Spalter chal- with "carrying lenged her husband on" with Miss Floyd, and he admitt- denied adultery. ed it, though he Next day the wife's mother and a Mr. Finegold were at the Spalters' house on business matters.

The wife's case, Sir Boyd Merriman continued, was that, in a discussion between them, Mr. Spalter agreed to sign a confession of his adultery with

Constant quarrelling between civil servants and army representatives on the one side and Nazi Party func-Miss Floyd. tionaries on the other have necessitat- ed the warnings.

would never

The husband gave details of a con- versation designed to show that he Party officials complain, in parti-wrote the confession under the threat cular, that every time they ask for of duress, and by the false pretence details of forthcoming measures which that the wife's mother

trouble with the show it to her daughter. are likely to cause

His lordship thought the confession population, and thus make their work

was given voluntarily, and it was more difficult.

sheer nonsense to suggest that there had been any

All officials have been instructed to co-operate with a view to throttling discontent among the population laws were an- whenever new Nazi nounced.

sort of duress. He granted the wife a decree nisi, with costs and the custody of the two children.

writes Dr.

and are

the

"We Czechoslovaks," Benes; "who are now on British and French territory are organising anew our national armed forces, taking a military part in the war here since it is impossible in our own terri- tory. We wish to help towards ideal of freedom and democracy."

An editorial note predicts the early of fresh provocation by the Nazis disorders in Bohemia-Moravia serve as a pretext for intensified per- secutions.

WAR UNLIKELY TO REACH FRANCE

to

Col. Deneys Reitz, Union Minister of Native Affairs, told the Cape Argus considered opinion no fighting in that it was his France in this war. that there would be

Between the Maginot Line and the wire en- Siegfried Line, he said, there was an intricate mass of barbed-

land tanglements, tank

traps and

mines.

He doubted whether the Germans would be able to break through these obstacles even if the French did not fire on them.

4

The French and British armies had completely, checkmated German am- bitions to invade France.

continued, "I hardly think," he "that I am giving away military se crets when I say that the British are holding a sector along the Belgian frontier. The Maginot Line runs from the Swiss border and turns away at Luxembourg, so that this area below Belgium was not fortified at all when. war broke out.”

་་་

When he visited the front, he said, both the French and British Armies. were busy as ants constructing a net- work of defence, Barbed wire

already 10 miles tanglements were deep.

en-

|

that the These figures indicates be converted at the rate of 17 or 18 Reichsmark, for this purpose, should marks to the pound. Adding reason- incomes of able estimates of the

was Austria, Czechoslovakia and Western Poland, the figure arrived at approximately £5,500,000,000 as in- come now at Germany's disposal.

"The cost per head in the German Army to-day is conservatively esti- force at £2,250, and in the mated to be at least £540; in the air exclusive of new building, £590, The cost per man in the British Army is estimated to be £600; Royal Air

and Force, £2,500;

Royal Navy, £650.

WAR ESTIMATES

navy,

The civil population under German rule is thought to be at least 81 or 82 millions. To keep this, population -at-the standard of living of 1917-18 would require, at 1928 prices, about 50,000,000,000 Reichsmarks, leaving some 57,000,000,000. for spending on be: about the Forces, which would

£2,560,000,000 at 1937 prices.

This, it is noted, is about the same as the war expenditure estimated as possible for Britain on the assumption that the same proportion of income was spent on the Services as in 1917- 18; it was less by £400,000,000 £500,000,000 than we could afford if we reduced our civilian consumption to the same level as in 1917-18.

ΟΣ

of

As to the possible strengths Germany's forces, the writer in the Bulletin states that a total of 100,000 men in the navy, and an expenditure on new building of £50,000,000 year would appear to be a reasonable estimate. The cost would be about £110,000,000.

a

Another £100,000,000 was allowed, as was done in the British case, for capital war expenditure. About £2,350,000,000 - remained for the

army and the air force.

KING INSPECTS THE SOUTHERN COMMAND

London, To-day.

The King yesterday inspected troops of

the Southern Command.

After motoring to his starting point, he toured for 50 miles, leaving the car on several occasions to inspect

up by the roadside.—

troops lined

Roy

SOVIET WITHDRAWING CRACK TROOPS

Reuter,

Helsinki," -day the newly docupled

Soviet military authorities are and replacing thèm

гобра from

Reuter. withdrawing:

Finland

other units.