MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

Hokitika Guardian, 16 September 1920, Page 1

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

[I’EK Pit ESS ASSOCIATION.—COPYBIOfiT.]

CHINESE FAMINE. indescribable Horrors. PEKIN, Sept. 13 There is a terrible taimiio in China. Millions are starving. The President of China has issued a mandate ordering tlie Minister of Finance and of the Interior to co-operate witli the bivii Governor of the Chili, Honan, arid Shantung provinces in establishing rice arid grain stores for selling tlie cereals at low prices and exempting them from Customs dues, ini ordei to relieve, the famine situation. The famine is affecting a region of 90,000 square miles and of 30 to 40 million inhabitants. It is conservatively estimated that at least two hundred million dollars relief will be ''required, and the Chinese Government is unable to extend to this. The Diplomats at Peking are now organising an International Belief Committee. f A Chinese eye witness reports that fathers in many, of | tlie villages are poisoning their families in order to save them front starvation. Tlie horrors are said to be indescribable.

JAPAN’S HOLD ON SIBERIA. TOKIO, September 12. According to despatches, the Japanese claim their garrison stationed n Eastern Siberia will he transferred to Siaghalien Island, that is tho Japanese troops in Siberia will be reduced from three to two divisions. This is stated to he in accordance with a policy of a. gradual Japanese evacuation of Siberia.

JAPANESE LEAGUE.. TOKIO, Sept. 13. One hundred nobles and prominent citizens met at the Residence of the Freni ie,r and organised a Japanese League of Nations Society .with Prince Kugawa as President and Viscount Shibfsnwa as Vce President.

IM PERI A L CONFERENCE

LONDON, September 14. The Australian and New Zealand Press Association learn authoritatively that the Imperial. Conference will not be held in Canada in 1921. Tlie Colonial office is now desirous of perpetuating tho Premiers’ Conference as being similar to an Imperial War Cabinet, comprising Prime Ministers only, and independently of tlie ordinary Imperial Conference, comprising other Ministers. Tlie latter might meet in the Dominions successively, but the Premiers’ Conference is said to be only possible in London, • because the British. Premier could not be absent from Europe . Some time ago it was promised to hold a Conference, in Canara as a preliminary to the Premiers’ Conference in Ijondon, but the idea has been abandoned owing to a lack of unanimity among the Dominions. Doubts have now arisen as to whether any conference whatever will he held m 1921. Some Dominions are of opinion that any constitutional proposals regarding Inter-Imperial relations should he formulated by the Colonial , Office and discussed by the Dominion Parliaments, and press before submission to the Imperial Conference. It is understood the Colonial Office prefer that the Dominions should formulate their own proposals. Meanwhile it is suggested teriativcly that the conference should meet in London in June.

LONG COMMERCIAL. FLIGHT. .LONDON, September 14. It. Wright, a Manchester engineer and a brother of the Archbishop of Sydney is a passenger on the longest commercial flight yet attempted,, being from London to Bucharest. He reached Vienna in twenty-four hours. A RESIGNATION, PARIS, Sept. 15. The resignation of M. Dcschanel, President ,of France, is regarded as certain. The summoning of tlie National Assembly.is imminent.

BRITISH COAL TROUBLE

LONDON, September 15,

Mr Robert Smillie in a letter to the newspapers, says that the object of be threatened strike is not the nationalisation of the mines, but is tho outcome of the miners’ desire to obtain a wage that will enable them to live decently. All tlie talk of individuals getting high wages is Beside the mark. The average ‘ pay is the thing. The coal getters now average 21/9 daily. 3 The coal owners’ side of the ease against the miners is Being giv6ii prominence in the press. It is ehntefided that figures the owners publish re the past quarters’ mining profits perturbed Trade Union circles, and destroyed the miners’ contention tluit there is a disposable surplus of sixty-six millions oI profits by the owners: It is assorted a fundamental alteration in tlie miners demands may result, the main reasons for such hope being that there is considered to be an absence of enthusiasm among the. coal consumers for the miners’ help in decreasing prices by a strike, and also a lack of a desire for a strike among Yorkshire and Midland miners. . ~ . A number of Trade Union leaders are substituting for original demands a suggestion that the . Cfoveriiiuent Should pledge, itself not to decontrol coal for at least two years. ~, It is replied that it is doubtful whether this would not mean a.re-im-position of the machinery operating during the war, or only a cohtiniitfrice of the”present Executive control over the maximum price for household coal.

OBITUARY. (Received this day at 9.30 a.m.) TOKIO, September .14. . Obituary—Saku Takaliasbi, a former President of the bureau of legislation and famous international law expert. . -

EXPLOSION OF SHELL.

(Received this day at 9.30 a.m.)

TOKIO, September 14

Five were killed and nine fatally injured and others severely wounded by tlie premature explosion of a shell aboard the Japanese, battle cruiser HaI'una, while off Hokkaido. The damage was confined to one turret. ViceAdmiral Fushyima was aboard the Haruna, but was uninjured.'