MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS

Hokitika Guardian, 7 February 1922, Page 1

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS

ItJSTRALIAN AND N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION. ■e y PUSHING TRADE. ' ” LONDON. Feb. 6. e A company was formed at Antwerp, backed by ;v number of Belgian and French firms controlling a capital of thirty millions sterling, for the purpose le of stimulating trade between South Africa, Belgium and Northern France. e A blackmailing CASE PARIS, February 5. e A curjous blackmailing case has been revealed. In December 1920, Platel, d n young sailor, donried the uniform of l_ an army paymaster and repeated the ° exploiter of the “cobbler of Koepenik.” s He called on the Ministry of Finance, " and by. means of forged documents e secured 1,025 thousand francs, allegede ly to pay French troops on the Rhine. s When Platel was arrested a month las ter, only sixty thousand were recovers ed. He confessed that he had given 7 i seven hundred thousand francs to An- ~ toinette s»la. When the girl heard of y Platel’s arrest, she consulted Iny • friends and then fled to Spain. Each • friend demanded sums ranging, from ' forty to one hundred thousand francs ’ for assistance and silence. Thus four hundred thousand francs were disbursed. Sala opened a dressmaker’s shop ,in Madrid and seemed safe, until last week, when the police searched the shop • and found numerous letters from Paris 1 threatening exposure unless money was remitted. The police told the girl that '1 she need fear blackmailing no longer 1 as they had been arrested in Paris. Sala is non extradited, and is coming f to Paris to explain what became of the s seven hundred thousand francs. r 1 '■ ANQTHER POISON CASE. 1 LONDON, pel). 1. 3 Edward Rlqck an insurance agpnt at ■’ Tregonisey (Cornwall) has been found guilty of the murder of his wife by ’ poisoning her, and -sentenced to death. ’ f. ! i AUSTRIA’S PLIGHT. ; VIENNA, Feb. 5. Dotcor Hainisch, the Austrian President ,has taken a remarkable step by. telegraphing a direct appeal to King George to help to save his country from • disaster. MORE PLAGUE RATS. SYDNEY, Fel). 6. Three plague ra.ts were discovered in premises in Liverpool Street, next to ■ where the' last case of plague was ‘re- j ported. The health authorities have issued a further appeal for a special effort to fight the rat menace. GERMAN STRIKE SPREADS. ' ■ ■/iff: LONDON, Feb. 5? Tiie London “Daily Chronicle’s” Berlin correspondent states: “To the paralysing German railway strike has now been added another crippling strike. During the night the Berlin municipal workers carried out their threat to strike. The city to-day, with its streets deep in snow, is without trams, water, gas, or electricity. The latest strike has caught the peo- j pie unprepared, because a settlement f had been believed to he imminent. Sa- ' turday night’s crowds, on leaving the theatres, trooped into the snow, and were amazed to find the city without trams. The municipal strikers resolved ) not to perform emergency work except j to keep the underground railways’ j pumping stations going. } A railway strike is unabated. A few ' trains are running, manned by a strike • breaking corps. The Government, thus ! far. refuses to negotiate with the strik- [ era. Business is at a standstill. The j supplies of household coal are exhaust- j ed. The large work are closing down. \