Last week a news item appeared in the English-language press to the effect that Mr. Joseph Elias, member of the Board of Local Improvements, has been ousted as a member of the Board. But that is only the beginning of the whole story. Mr. Elias insists that he was not ousted, but that he had resigned from the Board. He said he intended to resign a long time ago, because the Board has not been acting honestly and had defrauded the city of large sums of money.

The main duties of the Board are to keep city streets in good repair, to issue contracts for the cementing of new streets, etc. According to the provisions of these contracts, a contractor who cements a new street must make all necessary repairs to the street for a specified time after the cementing job is completed; the expense of repairing such streets must be borne by the contractor. Mr. Elias insists that the Board has often released the contractors 2before the expiration of the time limit of their obligation to make necessary repairs to the streets. These streets are then repaired by the Board with the taxpayers' money.

Mr. Elias further insists that he has on several occasions brought these ir-regularities to the attention of the president of the Board, but without any results. He said he has documentary evidence to prove his charges.

Mr. Elias' charges have created a great stir among the City Hall politicians. An investigation of the charges has been launched, but the results of these investigations will not be known until later.