NEWS BY MAIL.

Hokitika Guardian, 27 January 1921, Page 3

NEWS BY MAIL.

“TINO’S” DECEIT.

PARIS, Nov. 30

Hitherto unpublished telegrams from ex-Queen Sophie of Greece to her brother the ex-Kaiser, which will be printed in the Revue Universelle on Wednesday, openly express the desire of Constantine and his consort to join in the war on the side of Germany and to attack the Allied army at Salonica from the rear.

A long series of wireless despatches sent during December 1916, and January 1917 implores the German General Staff to begin an offensive in the Balkans with which the Greek King undertakes to co-operate by attacking .General Sarrail’s left wing. Hindenburg, however, pronounced against the desirability of a Balkan offensive, and in a final telegram Queen Sophie assures her brother that the Greek people will continue to work in favour of Germany against the Allies. “May these infamous swine,” she added, “receive th«i punishment they deserve.”

ROLLS-ROYCE LUXURY

' LONDON, Nov. 30,

The Emperor and Empress of Japan are giving up their horse-drawn carriages and have placed “rush” orders for two motor cars with the Rolls-Royce Company.

“We hope to get the cars to Japan early in the new year,” a representative of the company told a Daily Mail reporter yesterday. The ears, one for- the Emperor, the oilier for the Empress, will be 5-6 seaters, of 40-50-horse power, and will cost about £3.000 each. Painted red and with broad gold lines, the cars will have one or two special features about them, including foot-warmers heated from the engine and additional seats so designed that the occupants can face either backward or forward.”

BAKU “BLACK HOLE.” LONDON, Nov. 30. Details of the horrors endured by 57 British prisoners, 8 of them women, in the “Black Hole” at Baku, the Caspian oil centre and the scene of many Bolshevist crimes, have been given to the Daily .Mail by one of the released naval prisoners who are due to reach Portsmouth to-day in H.M.S. Heliotrope. “The cells in which we were placed,” he said, “were about 12ft square, and 12 of us were put in each one. The prison was in a very filthy condition. After wc had been shut in the cells a packet of vermin was thrown in among us. “They gave us one pound of halfcooked black bread and a little rice per day per man. Very often the bread did not arrive. “The British Vice-Consul (Mr Heweleke) was taken out of bis cell and placed in the condemned cell and told that be would be shot. He was c.rn put into the motor car used for the con demned people. Then his execution was postponed, and finally, through the torture to which lie was subjected, he became very ill and his life was spared. “The condemned cell was next to ours, and we frequently heard people being taken ont.pt it and placed against the wall of our cell and shot. We could see the Hashes of the rifles as well as bear the reports. “Typhus, typhoid, and other diseases were rife among the people, and there was a continual stream of dead bodies being carried away in sacks.” GIRL AT HIS BILLET.

NSW YORK, Nov. -J!f. The Immigration Board of New York has been trying to solve the problem presented by a pretty French girl, .Maria Schneider, who arrived in New York recently to be adopted by a retired army doctor, Captain Robert Gill. The doctor’s wife strenuously opposes this increase of tlie family.

The doctor was billeted at the girl’s house in Paris during the war, and when her lather died sympathetically offered to adopt her as a daughter. In due course she crossed the ocean. .Ai rs (till communicated with the immigration authorities and appeared before a board special inquiry yesterday and declared that the girl had a "strange evil influence on my husband.” When Maria arrived she informed the immigration officials that site was Gill’s wife, but afterwards suhslitiuted a different version of their re lationship. The Board is uncertain how to act, and proposes to apply to the Secretary of State for a solution of the delicate problem.

MINE’S HAVOC ON SEA-FRONT

LONDON, Nov. 20,

A derelict mine which exploded on Snmlgate beach yesterday morning killed two men and caused great havoc among houses on the sea-front. It was washed up on Saturday night opposite the Parade, and was immediately secured by Chief Officer George Eveieigh, of the local coastguards. He left Coastguard James McDermott on guard aml instructed Leading Boatman William Walker to remove the detonator at daybreak.

Walker left the coastguard station just before seven o’clock yesterday morning, and a lew minutes later there was an explosion which was heard for miles. A labourer named Hudson was hurled to the ground as he was walking down Granville-road East, and on limping to the beach he found a huge crater in the sand and near by what remained of the bodies of McDermott and Walker.

Within. 300 yards of the spot every pane of glass was shattered. Boors were hlo'wn off their hinges and tiles stripped from the rools. The occupants of the houses on the Parade were almost throw if out ot their beds and feared that the walls would tall in.

Describing his experiences, Councillor Maltey, chairmdn of the urban council, who lives about 100 yards from where the mine was, said: “I felt a tremendous rocking and I jumped up* in hod under the impression that the house was collapsing. Glass from the windows Hew all over the room, which was quickly filled with smoke from the mine. The damage in the town amounts to thousands of pounds.” McDermott leave a widow and three little children, and AValker, who recently came from the Liverpool district, leaves a widow and four children.