London, Jan. 3.
Berlin, Jan. 5.
General Smuts, the South African statesman, made a remarkable speech on the British Empire at luncheon given by the Canadian Club at Montreal, He said he felt it was a unique characteristic of the Empire that it had given scope and offered opportunities to small peoples Empire in the past had ever done. The British Empire had deliberately set itself to encourage a variety of types and institutions and to produce a great interwoven pattern in which scope was left for every Kind of diversity. Since for smaller }peoples there could not be a better or more beneficent system he held that they should be foremost in ing it as a guarantee for their liberties and privileges such as they could secure by no other agency.
He claimed that the Empire had served as a king model for: the League of Nations and expressed the belief that the existence of the Empire was the best augury for the permanent success of the League, which was achieving invaluable results.
Germans are drinking more beer and smoking far more cigarettes. This is one of the lighter aspects: Gisclosed in the welter of statistics provided in the annual reports published by the office of the Agent-General for Reparations.
'The report of the Commissioner Jof the Reichsbank says that the Reichsbank is in every' way sound, but emphasizes the strained position of capital in the market, and the Commicsioner of Industrial. Debentures reports 205 bankruptcies and 848 voluntary windings up, involving about 7,000,000 marks' and 15,000,009 marks, respectively.
Nevertheless, Germany's key industries cre holding their position fu the world market and she is steadily developing hor industrial relations abroad. There are 1,250,- 000 moter-cars on German roads and Germany ranks third in the list of countries using rabbor.—Reuter,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.