NEWS BY MAIL.

Hokitika Guardian, 19 February 1921, Page 4

NEWS BY MAIL.

SURGERY BY WIRELESS

LONDON, Dee. I

How several injured sailors, cut off I from outside help in mid-Atlantic by | a gale, were treated by wireless was | described by Dr R. S. Burns, ol the j Leyland liner Winifredian (10,428 tons) which readied Liverpool yesterday. The men, who belonged to a Belgian steamer, bad received broken limbs and internal injuries during the gale, and the captain sent out a wireless message for surgical help. It was picked up by the Winifredian and it being impossible to launch a boat, Dr Burns ! sent by wireless instructions for setting the limbs and for the treatment ol , their other injuries. He kept in conslant communication with the vessel for two days, when a report was received that all the men were out of danger. ROBBERIES IN PARIS. LONDON, Jan. 12. A Paris message says that the “stand ; and deliver” type of robbery is so j fashionable that the papers are pub- J lishing cartoons representing jewellers! showing their wares, and as a precau- j lion holding a revolver at the prosper- , live customer’s bead. j The latest robbery was in the "Suburbs . „f Auhcrvillers. A youth was inspecting a tray of rings and was very careful until assured that, the assistant was •Bone. He then drew a bar of copper l’ n)I „ bis pocket and struck the assistant’s bent head. The assistant grappled with bis assailant in the pluckiest manner, but j 1 1C latter, after a hard fight, escaped tramear. He was pursued by agile street urchins, who were most helpful to the police cyclists. The latter unearthed the culprit in a wooden hut inhabited by a girl, under whose bed lie was hiding. SELF-STYLED 'SPY. NEW YORK, December 18. •I am really Hans Willers until 1914 a cadet in the German Military Academy.” This surprising statement was made last night by John Willet, a former captain in the 48th. United States Infantry. Willet was recognised in 6th. Avenue, New York, yesterday by Mr Hugh Hannhfjin-, a former lieutenant, as an officer who shortly after the armistice absconded with £1,500 of regimental funds. At the police station lie made an extraordinary confession. “T came here,” lie said, “in 1011 with MOO other ,cadets, who, like- myself, had been trained for spy work. We knew English perfectly. Other groups of cadets went into the French and , British Armies. “When the United States entered the , war T got a "commission. My heart was nearly broken when T discovered that . my regiment would probably not go to Franco. “As I could not die for my country, T took my company’s funds, 15 days after the armistice.” Asked what he would have done if be had been sent to France, \\ illers or Willet said that he would probably have led his men to the slaughter. Army officers here express themselves sceptically regarding Willet’s story.

NEW ZEALANDER LOSES £2O. SYDNEY, February 9. Herbert Clough, a visitor from Auckland, New Zealand, was robbed of £2O in a train coining from Mt. Victoria at Sydney. It has been the habit for some time for a gang of ticksters to travel in the trains between the Mountains and Sydney and rob passengers. What is known ns the “madman's act” is worked. A man who acts in a distinctly eccentric manner enters a carriage in which confederates and other passengers i re. He behaves in a startling manlier, and talks of the many money-mak-ing schemes he has, and particularly the one with cards. He offers to show anyone how to make money quickly by these means. The confederates induce strangers to play with the man, and they generaly lose all they stake. Clough was one of the many persons who have been robbed in this wav.