London, Feb, 18.
The part played by the Royal Air Force in securing the release of British prisoners from the German vessel Altmark, off the Norwegian coast, was described in an announcement by the Air Ministry last night.
"After locating the Altmark and carrying out long-range reconnaissauce flights in support of His Majesty's ships, Coastal Command aircraft provided an air escort for H.M.S. Cossack and other British warships, until they reached port," said the announcement.
Four mines were sighted directly in the course of the warships, a few miles from the Scottish coast, The aircraft warned the leading vessel and went down to deal with the mines by machine-gun fire. Two of the mines were sunk in this way, while the destroyers disposed of the others.—Reuter, were asked to curtail consumption.
Since the preceding month of December was also unusually dry the situation was extremely serious, In the western areas, in and around the industrial districts of Osaka and Kobe, the drought was felt even more sharply. Factories and private consumers mere asked to reduce their electricity consumption voluntarily since the lack of water power was making large inroads on the usual output of electricity. However, factories and business houses were forced to close until finally the government stepped in and ordered reductions on the part of all consumers, Empty Reservoir The "Asahi," one of Japan's most highly regarded newspapers, declared that, "Never before in the annals of the power industry has there been such a calamity as that now being experienced in Kansai (Western Japan.)"
The Yamaguchi reservoir which has been one of Tokyo's main sources of supply since 1933 was more than half empty and six abandoned villages which had been submerged for seven years on the reservoir's site were above water level. Curious citizens found farming implements and home utensils scattered about, many of which were salvaged by the thrifty.
Early in February there was a shower for a few hours in Tokyo which authorities described as worse than useless for office workers were British Imports and Exports Rise
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.