LATVIA SEVERELY SHORT OF SOLDIERS.

Parties in Latvia’s governing coalition yesterday rejected a cabinet proposal to urgently enact a law on military conscription. They objected to conscription in principle and also to the absence of exemptions for pacifists. Latvia is desperately short of soldiers under the present, voluntary enrollment system. President Guntil Ulmanis has spoken out on the issue, and defense minister Andrejs Krastins said yesterday that the country’s borders will be virtually unguarded unless conscription is introduced immediately. (BNS, April 2)

Tajik President Wants More than SSR.