LATE NEWS.

Hokitika Guardian, 22 May 1919, Page 1

LATE NEWS.

HUN PALACE LOOTED. BERLIN, March 26. The palace at Eisenach of the Grand Duke of Sachsen-Eisenaeli was stormed and looted by a mob to-day, according to tlie Abend Express. The Grand Duke had given permission for furniture from the palace to be sold at moderate prices to needy soldiers, especially the wound ed. Herr Hill, a so-called “People’s Com. missioner” proceeded to sell valuable furniture at ridiculous prices, not to the people, indicated in the Grand Duke’s rescript, but to dealers and all sorts of people wbo had no justifica tion for their presence. The larg* crowd of war veterans and (tilers who attended the proceedings became infuriated by Hill’s methods end attacked him and his semi-Spartacists supporters. When they had given Hill and Co., a thorough thrashing they forced their way past the guards, into the palace which was looted. The furniture taken belonged mostly to the suite orig inally occupied by the Princess Helene of Orleans.

HELIGOLAND FOR BIRDS. LONDON, March 26 A proposal that Heligoland should be made into a sanctuary for birds was put forward at. a meeting of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds t Middlesex, Guildhall yesterday alternoon. Lord Desborough wrote: “Heligoland for a bird sanctuary instead of a hidimrplace for submarines and destroyers is o most attractive scheme.” The Duchess of Portland, wlio presid ed, said she hoped that the Board if Agriculture and the Board of Education would use lhe.il' ample opportunities for spreading accurate knowledge in regard to the value of birds as the one mies of vermin and insects. The Duchess of Somerset said that two big West End stores had been selling •thrushes and blackbirds for food. Protests were made, and they were taken off the market.

A PARIS LAUGH. PARIS, March 26. Paris is laughing over the escape from custody—and the dentist—of on American soldier who, by posing as captain, had obtained jewellery in rx change for bad cheques. While under detention awaiting an American escort the man complained of toothache, and sympathetic warders led him to a neighbouring dentist. While they waited at the door a smartly dressed young woman came out, but the soldier had disappeared. In the dentist’s waiting room he had donned a woman’s attire brought by a woman confederate.

WIRELESS TELEPHONE HELP. MONTREAL', March 26. The wireless telephone will play an important part in Transatlantic flights, says Mr Thomas Rabb, managing director of the Marconi office here. “ Wc are taking every precaution.” he adds, “ so that the risk to airmen may be considerably modified. By steamship and land the stations will keep touch all the way. Aeroplanes will have wireless telephone sets, also wireless telegraphy, but the ships will have wireless telegraphy only. “ Newfoundland has a splendid wireless telephone base. Its Government is co-operating. Wireless telephone communication has been established experimentally overland from Newcastle, New Brunswick to New Jersey. The voices of operators at wireless stations thousands of miles away have been heard at the Marconi office here.”

CENTENARIAN DIPLOMAT. MILAN, March 2(5. Senator Count Giuseppe Greppi, the oldest diplomatist in the world, celebrated his 100th birthday to-day in splendid physical and intellectual fitness. He entered the Austrian diplomatic service in 18-12. and was Metternich’s pupil at the Vienna Foreign Office.

The 1848 revolution made him resign, and in 1859 be entered the Italian diplomatic service. He was legation secretary in London, and, after many changes, Ambassador to Russia. Moderation in everything and unshaken serenity are apparently the secret of his long life.

FOCH MEMORIES. PARIS, March 24. On the eve of the anniversary of the day when the Huns broke the Allies defonccs near St. Quentin, Marshal Focli was present yesterday at a meet, ing of students in memory of their fallen comrades.

To a representative of the “Matin’who asked by what moral force he “ galvanised those armies which had received such a formidable shock,” Marshall Focli replied: “You ask me to tell you many things in a few words. Victory, it is true, is won by science, but also by faith. When one. has faith one does not retreat. One stops the enemy there where bo happens to b«. “You say I gave victory to France, but it was our admirable soldiers who did that. I had only one merit—l never despaired.” Reminded that at Compiegiie on March 24th and at Doullens on March 25th there were certain notable men, not easy to depress, who began to lose confidence, Focli replied: “T told them simply what I thought, trance is France and cannot die. W e will stop the Boche and stop him now. One has only to say he shall not break through, and I guarantee he shall not. There is no question of evacuating Paris. Paris is far off and has nothing to do with the question. We will stop the Boche just where he is. I 1 ranee is France. And his hearers believed him.