liner sinks , burning . full death toll may never be known . the British liner Dara , abandoned after being gutted by fire in the Persian Gulf on Saturday , sank yesterday while being towed by the Glasgow tug Ocean Salvor . there was no one on board when she went down . salvage vessels were being used in an attempt to beach the liner to let the fire die out completely before she was towed to Bahrein , but she sank in about 60 ft of water five miles off shore . it is now estimated that 212 people lost their lives , but it will probably never be known how many Indians , Pakistanis and Arabs were travelling as deck passengers . among those still missing are 30 of the crew , a few Europeans , and an American couple . all known survivors have been landed at Dubai or Bahrein . there is little hope of finding any more . rumours that the fire was caused by a bomb have been discounted . indications are that an explosion took place in a boiler space . &amp;pound;785,000 insurance . the Dara , 5,030 tons , had more than 700 people aboard when she caught fire . she was owned by the British India steam navigation Co , a subsidiary of the P and O line . three British frigates helped in the two-day battle to get the fire out , and it was planned to tow her into Bahrein yesterday . the insured value of the hull of the Dara was &amp;pound;785,000 . a proportion of this amount was taken by the owners , and was therefore uninsured . of the remainder approximately &amp;pound;15,000 of the reinsurance was placed at Lloyds . the ministry of transport will fly out a senior engineer and surveyor today to make a preliminary investigation into the ship &apos;s loss . a decision whether to hold a public inquiry in London will be taken after they report . 2,000 stop as convener is suspended . two thousand workers at the American-owned Burroughs business machine factory at Cumbernauld , near Glasgow , struck yesterday when their convener was suspended along with two other shop stewards , the convener , Mr Callaghan , was meeting the management over a pay dispute . he was suspended when he refused an ultimatum to operate the firm &apos;s bonus system rejected by the workers . on Friday the men had decided to work to rule unless the firm reconsidered their claim for roughly &amp;pound;1 a week more . they claim the firm &apos;s bonus system only pays flat-rate wages . skilled workers average about &amp;pound;14 to &amp;pound;15 a week . semi-skilled about &amp;pound;11 to &amp;pound;12 . unskilled start at &amp;pound;9 5 s . a mass meeting will be held outside the strike-picketed factory this morning . teenage ban row . thrasher quits the council . because he thinks an example should be made of teenage rowdies by taking their breeches down and thrashing their backsides , Mr Peter Firth has resigned from the urban council at Stevenage , Herts , where teenagers were banned from the local cinema . tory Mr Firth , who is 39 , said yesterday in letters to the B.B.C and Associated-Rediffusion , referring to their programmes on the cinema ban : the aspect of this which appals me is that you took your cameras to the trouble-spot and to the cafes to which the lay-abouts were when not engaged in creating trouble . what is the remedy ? is it to spend more money on youth which we parents eventually have to pay ? I do not think so . I think we must teach by example &amp;hellip; . the thrashing need not be hard . the indignity of having their trousers taken down would be most salutary and effective . it is also imperative that we give back to our policemen the teeth that they once had . the poor peasants of Britain . a quarter of Britain &apos;s food is produced by small farmers , including hill farmers who are little more than peasants , sweating out each day without thought or hope of tomorrow , the country landowners &apos; association was told yesterday . giving a lecture in Cirencester ( Glos ) , Mr Travers Legge , 1959 Fison award winner , said there were 166,000 farms of under 20 acres . the hill farmer &apos;s life was one of pointless , profitless drudgery , with no money to spare for improvements to farm or home or even things which most of us take for granted . if Britain could reach a stage at which the minimum was 35 to 40 acres of the better land , it would be able to offer competition in the common market which no country in Europe could match . banish killer dust call by Welsh pits . daily worker reporter . Cardiff , Monday . a call for an all-out effort to banish the scourge of killer dust from the pits has been made by the executive council of the south Wales area of the national union of mineworkers . drastic revision of the approved dust standard , which he says is not a safe standard , is urged by safety officer Linden James , writing in the current issue of the area &apos;s magazine . publicity is the first necessity if we are to get the extraordinary measures implemented that are necessary to rid mining of dust disease , says Mr James . such measures will cost money and , as there is some reluctance to spend money , there will be resistance . 346 in a year . dust kills many more people than gas , bad roofs , haulage , explosives , electricity , and all the other hazards of the mines put together , he says . between 1951 and 1958 in the whole of Great Britain 183 lives were lost as a result of explosions in the pits . in south Wales 346 died from dust in 1959 alone . miners who had worked during the long period of dust-approved conditions , including younger men whose whole working lives were completely within the suppression era , had contracted the disease . in some coalfields dust was merely a nuisance . in south Wales it was a matter of life or death . not an excuse . present approved standards could be achieved throughout the coalfield , and in many cases without difficulty . as the achievement of these standards was now the ultimate aim , the standard has been reduced from an incentive to suppress dust to an excuse not to suppress it . the existing standard was no longer effective , and should therefore be discarded as a hindrance to progress , says Mr James . urging a campaign for improved conditions , he asks the miners to set their own house in order and make full use of the suppressive equipment provided . dust kills ; if we make dust unnecessarily , we are killers , he warns . pop &amp; gas baron for Australia . daily worker reporter . the Queen has appointed a tory , aristocratic , soft drink , beer , insurance , gas light and coke , match , banking and estate company chief to be governor-general of Australia . he is 51-year-old Viscount de l&apos;Isle , V.C , chosen to replace Lord Dunrossil , former Speaker of the House of Commons , who died in February . Lord de l&apos;Isle&apos;s appointment has caused a certain protocol confusion , with the Melbourne herald announcing it first and congratulating Mr Menzies , the Australian Prime Minister , on his acceptable choice . a little later yesterday Mr Menzies said he was delighted with the appointment . chief among the new governor-general &apos;s business connections has been the managing director &apos;s post in Schweppes , balanced , of course , by a directorship in Courage and Barclays . he claims descent from the Elizabethan poet and hero Sir Philip Sidney . early in the 19th century one of his ancestors named Shelley came into the Sidney property and had the name added by royal licence . later he dropped the Shelley . an Anzio V.C . an Eton and Cambridge boy , he served with distinction in the grenadier guards , winning the V.C at Anzio . he was tory M.P for Chelsea for a year at the end of the war , joint treasurer of the conservative party and - for four years - Secretary of state for air . he followed the 3rd Baron de l&apos;Isle , who married a daughter of the 4th Viscount Gort in 1902 and himself married the daughter of the 6th Viscount Gort in 1940 . they have four children . Australian labour party leader Arthur Calwell said yesterday : there are many Australian citizens who will fill the office as well or better than Lord de l&apos;Isle will fill it . the Australian labour party &apos;s attitude was that the governor-general must be an Australian , Mr Calwell added . this view was supported by the overwhelming majority of the Australian people . CID in brewery shares quiz . daily worker reporter . the C.I.D yesterday entered the mysterious situation surrounding the anonymous &amp;pound;21 million bid for the Liverpool brewing concern , Bents &apos; breweries . Mr T Halton , Bents &apos; chairman , said he understood the City of London police and Liverpool C.I.D were examining the whole matter . two C.I.D officers saw him and asked him about the take-over . he told reporters that he welcomed the inquiries . the council of the stock exchange decided yesterday to allow the resumption of dealings in shares of the brewery . unknown bidder . dealing were banned on Friday because of lack of information about the bidder , who still has not made himself known . Mr Halton said that he was very pleased dealings had been resumed . we did not stop dealings , but we are glad they were stopped , he said . the brewery owns more than 500 pubs in the north-west . the bid was made known through Anglasi nominees . when dealings restarted yesterday shares fell from the 47 s 6 d they reached last week . they closed at 42 s . Sukarno &apos;s call from Bandung . President Sukarno of Indonesia yesterday called for a full conference of Afro-Asian powers . urge your governments to agree to holding the conference , he told delegates to the council for Afro-Asian solidarity , which opened a four-day meeting in Bandung . major issues are expected to be the situations in west Irian , the Congo , Laos and Algeria . President Sukarno said : west Irian is still under colonialism . let us be united in the struggle against colonialism and imperialism for the establishment of a new world and world peace . - Reuter . 17 years in a home , she wins release . the national council for civil liberties has won the first case it has taken up before the newly established mental health review tribunals . the patient , a single woman , aged about 30 , whose home is in Cornwall , is to be released from Rampton in a few days , the council announced yesterday . she had been in mental hospitals since 1944 and the council first took up her case in 1957 . the case was presented to the tribunal by one of the voluntary panel set up by the council to help patients wishing to appeal against their detention under the new act . an officer of the council said it had hundreds of other cases on the files . easier to hook a man in AD 2000 says registrar . women should find it easier to get a husband in the coming years , the Registrar-General forecasts . but , if present trends continue , they are more likely to suffer a fatal accident in the home . the surplus of women over men in England and Wales - 1,510,000 in 1960 - will have fallen to only 404,000 by the year 2000 . by then , the Registrar-General says in his return for the quarter ending last December , the total population - 45,862,000 last June - will have risen to 55,646,000 . marriage rate . the marriage rate for 1960 - 15 people per 1,000 - was the same as in 1959 . in the third quarter of 1960 the rate of stillbirths and deaths of babies under a week old was 32 per 1,000 - the lowest recorded . although the total of fatal accidents in the December quarter - 4,288 - was 75 fewer than in the previous December quarter , fatal accidents in the home rose from 1,650 to 1,684 . of these 298 were from coal-gas poisoning . only 19 people died from polio in the first nine months of 1960 , compared with 53 in the same period of 1959 . but there were three deaths from diphtheria - none in the previous period . Coventry to greet bomb march today . daily worker reporter . Coventry , Monday . trade union officials , shop stewards , trades council leaders , aldermen and councillors are among the local personalities who have urged support for the London to Holy Loch Polaris protest marchers when they arrive here after completing their 14-mile stint from Daventry tomorrow . appealing to workers here to turn out to welcome the marchers , they say : throughout Britain indignation is growing at the cynical way in which the government allows American bases to be set up in our land . a meeting will be held at 12.45 p.m in the heart of the Precinct , which has arisen out of the ruins of the city centre shattered by the bombs of the last war . workers have been asked by officials and stewards of half a dozen different unions to obtain passouts from the factories to attend the meeting . rally in the Precinct at lunch-time to welcome the marchers and take your stand with all those who stand for peace , says the statement . striking tribute to achievement of Morris . daily worker reporter . a colourful exhibition commemorating the centenary of a remarkable event opens today at the Victoria and Albert Museum , south Kensington . it is Morris and company 1861-1940 , a tribute to Morris and his associates 100 years after they started their firm . on April 11 , 1861 , the seven young men , poets , painters , an architect , an engineer and a mathematician , launched their undertaking , which marked a new epoch in British cultural life . 