The "Rak OF" in the "hn THE PARLIAMENT ESTIMATES OF $1,500,000 What the 'New York Herald Says -- Colonel J. Wesley Allison Goes to Enjoy the Sea Breeze, New York, April 3.--The Herald says: New York suddenly became the centre yesterday of the investi- gation of alleged scandals in the purchase of war munitions that have stirred Canada from end to end, and which, it now is declared, threatens to develop into a political eruption that will sweep the. Conservative party out of power in the Dominfon. Coincident with the announcement * that General Sir Sam Hughes, Cana- dian minister of militia, is on his way here from London at the request of the otfier Dominion authorities, it was learned last night that British agents already have been asked to keep under surveillance here several men whose names have been connect ed, almost since the start of the Eu- ropean war, with the purchase of am- mupition and other supplies that have gone to England by way of Can- ada, This action followed the discovery, it was declared, that the profit of the alleged members of the so-called "ammunition ring" in "commissions" could mot possibly total less than $6,000,000, instead of only $1,500,- 000,000 specifically referred to in charges already laid before the Do- minion Parliament. ! That Sir Cecil Spring Rice, the] British + Ambassador, undoubtedly | will play a prominent part in the in- | vestigation also was learned. His | entrance into the situation was caus- | ed, it was declared, by several per-| song coyversant with the details of the investigation, because the opera- tion of the supposed "ring" resulted in the non-delivery of huge ship- ments of shells to the home govern-) ment. ! ES -- Sir Alexander Bertram Here, Most of the undeliveréd shells and other supplies, it was learned, were relied up Riss rt an ¢ 2 eads who have charge of map- ping out the : in the next several mouths of the British forces in France and ers. Despite the furore that has been raised in the minion, Sir Alexan- | der Bertram, ¥ hairman of the shells committee, which has had charge of the award of contracts placed either by or through the Do- * minion Government, refused at the Biltmore Hotel to discuss In any way the situation. . With Lady Bertram, Sir Alexander is on his way back to Canada after an extended stay in the south. He asserted he khew nothing whatever of the .d the exposures, and that his ret Canada at this time bore no re. 10 the fact that the ,alleged scandals have resulted in a parliamentary order for an investi- gation, Chief interest in thig city appeared last night to centre around the whereabouts of Colonel J. Wesley Allison, whose name frequently has been mentioned in the parliament discussions that resulted in ordering the investigation. Colonel Allison, whose title is an honorary one, it was learned, has been stopping for several months at the Manhattan Hotel. - He is a close personal friend of General Hughes, who, is declared, many times has re- ferred to Mr. Allison as "his friend, philosopher and adviser." Colonel Allison Out Of City. Colonel Allison was not at his suite in the hotel yesterday, and last night it was reported that he had gone several days ago to Sea Breeze, in company with Dr. Kenneth Van Allen, with whom he has been staying at the Manhattan, Dr. Van Allen has been closely associated with Colonel Allison "for many months. No effort was made yesterday to conceal the fact that, although it has scarcely begun, the investigation has developed that the huge commissions extended fiot only into the award of for shells and other am- munition, but included almost every article for war use which has been bought and shipped to England through Canada. Most of the men involved in the transaction covered by the investiga- tion are Canadians, and few, if any, American firms or individuals. will be involved. American capital, it was admitted, was supplied in get- ting into existénce so-called "mush- room" companies, to which contracts for munitions and. other supplies were awarded aller Ganadian agents had exacted commissions that collec- tively ran into the millions. Even these circumstances would not of themselves have produced the situation now existing, it was assert- ed, if it had not n for the fact that where deliveries of consider- ably more than a million shells, in one instance, were expected long ago, the charge now is made that the company which obtained that con- tract has delivered far less than half that number. And for those, it is charged, the Canadian Government paid prices nearly twice as great as for those purchased in this country and shipped to England. through the purchasing arrangement being oper. ated through J. P. Morgan & Co. Difference in Prices. In connection with this same charge, it was declared last night that a retired captain of the United States army, conversant with conditions in the munitions market here, as early as last May wrote to General Hughes and told him that shells being pur- chased in this country for Canada 'were being sold to the' Dominion at $3.25] when thé same class of muni- tions were being shipped to England through the Morgan firm at a cost of only $1.85, _Several men connected with large American firms which have been ac- tive in supplying munitions to the Allies, but who refused to permit the use of their names, asserted night their belief that the charges laid before the Canadian Parliament are a woeful exaggeration of true conditions, and that such enormous profits in the way of commissions could not possibly have been ob- tained because of the methods em- ployed in making the contracts. They asserted that the investiga- tion is the result of the same condi- tions of exaggeration which have led to the popular belief that huge for- tunes have been built up in this country as a result of the traffic in shells and other war supplies, when they asserted that as a matter of fact the fortunes have been few and the losses sustained many, because of the unfamiliarity of American manu- ENLIST TODAY! WITH SETI yay, 4 ~ Mo fe THE MEN IN KHAKI: 'Oh, Daddy, what part did you take in the great war ?" , NT facturers with what was expected of 'them. One of these men declared he knew positively that of all the American rifles that have been shipped abroad, virtually none have been able to stand up under the required tests, and that almost all of them have been cast aside without ever having been used on the firing lines. NAVAL POSSIBILITIES. Progress In Battleship Bailding -- * = ~Germahy's New Menace. Ottawa Citizen; Russia has three new Dreadnought battleships in the Black Sea and they are the controlling factor there. They were finished since the out- last| break of war; and judging by photo- graphs, would seem to be armed with triple 12-inch guns mounted in four turrets. They have heavy arm- or belts, twelve inches thick amid- ships. Any one of the three could settle the German battle. - cruiser Goeben in a fight to the finish. The Goebeu's armor belt is only eleven inches in thickness, and the Goe- ben's five 1l-inch guns would be outmatched. But the has the speed: probably 28 knets against the heavier Russian ships' 22 knots at best, Most promising is the fact that the Black Sea battleships were built in three years, They are the result ot a curious combine of international armor-platers, in®luding Franco-Bel- gian financiers and British builders at the Black Sea shipyards at Sevas. tapol and Nikolaioff. They were laid dows in 1911 and supposed to be completed in 1914. The internation- al armament group had -also under takes to built first line warships for Russia in the Baltic shipyards. Four battle cruisers were laid down at Petrograd in June, 1909. They had not made any appearance in the war pews up to the time navigation clos- ed in the Baltic Sea Jast December. The Bailtlo should: be free of ice by the end of thié month. It is just possible there muy be a certain live- lunes alorig the Baltic coast of Ger- many during the next few in three years at the Black Seal yards, it should be possible to -do better than seven years in the Petro- grad yards; and it is seven years since the Gangoot, Poltava, Petropav- lovsk and Sevastapol were started. Four years ago there were four extra heaylly armed battle cruisérs laid down, presumably on the slipways made vacant by the launching of the Gangoot group. . They were to carry triple 14-inch guns mounted in three turrets along the center-line, and their speed would be over 26 knots. They were started in 1912, and were Iding in 1914, Even one of th no class, with the four of the Gangoot class and the Vickers cruiser Rurkk, with a con- siderable fleet of }ghter cruisers and a little surprise in the way of sub- marine strength, should be able to provide Germany with a warm naval entertainment. . . and the last thing Germany can afford is to keep its fleet ih harbor with a Russian navy in thé Baltic Sea. « Becomes Independent. Amoy, April 4.---Chang-Chow-Fu, one of the largest cities of China, has declared its independence of the Government of Yuan Shi-Kai. Chang- Chow-Fu is a city. of about 900,000 inhabitants in Fo-Kien, province, 24 miles north-west of Amoy, which is its port. or and other Skin Troubles re We (Juarantee itching and D hohe tat application rn ing FSi Sane hay we antee like this. Why don't you try it? GEORGE W. MAHOOD, Druggist, s KINGSTON, Ont. : weeks. whole structure of . When Russia can build battleships charges. ' _ . " " - mh . 'a . N 9 - : " A Little Mud in One's Soup Is Annoying N -| three miles to the south-east. | GERMAN TASK CLEAN CUT They Mast Blast Their Way to Hil 1304. THE _ RIGHEST POINT: IN THE WHOLE OF THE VERDUN REGION And Dominates . the Surrounding Country---Vanx of Mere Local Im- portance--Object of Verdun Cam- paign, London, April 3.--History will ac- cord to the operations in the Verdun sector a, classification vastly more im- portant than that of a battle. In fact, they passed the stage of a bat- tle more than two weeks ago. They have become a major campaign, pressed 'relentlessly, and Jer have assumed a . sighificance passing any development in the western the- atre since the battle of the Marne. While the battle of Verdun, as the first three weeks of the Meuse fight- ing riglitly may be called, ended in a distinct German defeat in the failure of the immediate object of the bat- tle, a new danger has arisen for the fortress which Paris and London both keenly recognize. This is fully established by the remarkable steps which are being taken to strengthen the garrison army and its defences. The situation, as is natural, is the cause of anxiety, but it can be for- cibly said it is causing no alarm. The campaign against Verdun, while exerting itself on the whole of a forty-milé front, is being pressed almost exclusively as. a flanfing op- eration to squeeze out the French by cutting their supply lines in the rear and endangering the route over which a retirement would be effected. GIVEN INCREASE IN WAGES. | Men in Charge of Pittsburgh Boats | Given Good Boost. | A big change was decided on in | the engineers' wage scale, at - the] meeting of the Pittsburg Steamship Company, says the Cleveland Leader, and the men will get an increase all along the line. In addition to the| increase in wages, the chief engi- | neers, who have heretofore been paid | for eleven months per year, will be paid. for twelve months, and .assis- tant engineers who were _Tofilerly paid for the time they were employ- ed, will receive wages for ten months per year. { Chief engineers of first-class gteam- | ers will be paid $180 per month. | First assistant engineers will get $140, and second assistant engineers $100. The cHiéf engineers 'of sec- ond class vessels will be paid $158 per month. x Two Forts Destroyed. London, April 4.--Forts St.George and Sanjak, as well as the other coas- tal defences of:Smyrna, were destroy- ed Friday in a three hours' bombard- ment .by a British warship, says a despatch to the Times from Salonika. The Turks did not reply to the fire of the warships. Sanjak is the chiet work commanding the entrance to Smyrna harbor. St. George is about | The Hanover Racing Club's rule penalizing alien jockeys five pounds in all races other than those for their contract employers is criticized in a German sporting paper as a slur on German jockeys, the inference being that the Americans, the only. aliens) concerned, are better riders. It alldy that the rule will really prove a greater handicap to owners of out, side stables than to Archibald an the other American jockeys. Hon. George Langley, Minister of Municipal Affairs in Saskatchewan defending himself, was completely exonerated' from the charges of re- Celyjng bribes In connection with ho- tel licences, and underminded the the Bradvhaw The main battle, which lasted for three weeks, up flush with the outer circles of forts, many of which their heavy ar- tillery has destroyed. But the strength of the defences within the fortress ring, defensive organizations which cover virtually every inch of the ground, is so great that more frontal assaults were hopeless, At- tacks here were abandoned,and only enough pressure was applied to hold the 'French in front of them to the full force while preparations were made to drive in to the flank Of the salient and reach the Verdun- Paris railway. ------ The French Salient. By tracing this line on a map it will be seen that the French occu- pied a decided, although an irregu- lar; salient approximately four miles across, within the greater Verdun sa- lient. Malancourt and Bethincourt, both on a little creek that runs into the Meuse and both strongly fortified, were held by the French. Hill No. 304, the highest point in the whole region, arises about one and three- quarter miles within the French lines, to dominate all the surround- ing - country. The., French have made of this hill a veritable honey- comb, filled with men and guns and brought the Germans | 3 2 of the if {8 Prince second | old on the Vetdun Platean the | footing being at Douaymont. foot- 1 Sn, FINANCIAL MATERS, A Dividend 'Reserve - Is New York, April 3.--The States Stent Corporation daiod quarter of 1916 on Frida the statement will a be ie after the meeting on April nT: is expected that net will be around $60,000,000, which would 'mean & surplus of over $38,000,000,000, or $7.50 for common, and $30 annually. The New York Times says that U. S. Steel is expected, in Morgan eir- cles, to establish in the current year a dividend reserve of at least $50,- 000,000, which i¢ believed to be sm. ple to assure. the-current annual rate of five per cent. on 'the common Stock. indefinitely based o pres- ent outlook. i the Dividend Declared, New York, April 3. Ameri- can Beet Sugar any ho Aue a dividend of six per cent. on the com- mon stock for the present fiseal year payable quarterly. on the following dates: Apt 29th, July 31st, October 31st, 1916, and January 31st, 1917, i. This is the first dividend declara- | tion on this issue since October 4th, 11912, when a fourth quarterly divi- | dend of 13% per cent was declared, | making five per cent. for that yoar. During 1911, one dividend of 1% | per cent. was paid on November 15th. These are the only dividends - which have been paid to Beet Sugar common stockholders since the or- ganization of the company in 1899, Sun Life Got $500,000, Montreal, April 3.--The sucecss of the flotation of the Canadian loan in- New York, and. the extent to. which it was oversubscribed, is indicated by the faot that "Aw surance sub- . Canada +scribed for $3,500,000, of the fifteen year bonds, the company was allott- ed only about $600,000. ° This allotment brings up the total "purchases by the Sun Life of Cana- dian Government bonds to $2,520, 000, and its total purchases of Cana- dian, British, French and Anglo- French bends to over $5,260,000. Canadian Westinghouse. Hamilton, Ont., April 3.--The Ca- nadian Westinghouse' on- joyed a prosperous year. The finan- cial statement to Dec. 31st of last year showed net earnings of $860,- 628. The company now has & surplus of $2,370,000 and is ¥n a strong condition financially. A dividend of 9 mines, with heavy artillery well per cent. was paid during the year. STAN HEAD OFFICE SOLDIERS, ATTENTION! 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