BRITISH AND FOREIGN ITEMS.

Hokitika Guardian, 22 March 1922, Page 3

BRITISH AND FOREIGN ITEMS.

(by TELEGRAPH—PER PRESS ASSOCIATION]

THE KING ILL. LONDON, March 21

The King is slightly indisposed. His Majesty has cancelled a dinner engagement at the last moment.

LENIN SERIOUSLY ILL. BERLIN, March 21. Professor Lodercs, the specialist in internal diseases, lias been summoned to Moscow to attend M. Lenin (Russian President), who has been seriously il! for some time.

ENGINEERS’ LOCK-OUT. LONDON, March 21

In the House of Commons, Rt. Hon Mr Clynes, speaking on an adjournment motion, on the question of the engineers’ lock-out, averred that tho greatest mistake which the Government has made was in regard to its failure to see that the Trade Union ballots were conduced honestly.

Mr Robert Young urged that they should not darken their debates with references to Soviet control of workshops. If some of thei engineers were now Bolsheviks, it was the employers and Parliament who were responsible. “Every promise to the men has been -epudiated,” be declared. There was a. natural objection to overtime, and it was because of that thousands of the engineers wore now unemployed. Mr Austin Hopkinson said it was ludicrous for the members of the Employers’ Federation to claim managerial functions when they bad abdicated the same by joining their Federn tion. Only {the employers who are outsido the Federation, like himself, had really tho control of their own works. He did not think an Industrial Court could usefully decide the question of overtime, which no employers wanted if it were avoidable in any way.

Mr Macnamara, -replying for the Government, said he was profoundly disappointed that his efforts at mediation were unsncdcssful. Since January 'there had been a reduction of 152,000 in the number of unemployed, but there were still 1,792.000 workers in Britain without work. It was impossible to put the Industrial Courts Act into force while ballots were progressing 47 Trade Unions. Ihe Lnions themselves would have resented such an intervention, if the employers had demanded it. He appealed to both sides to compose their differences.

Sir Allan Smith (chairman of the Managing Committee of the Engineering Employers’ Federation! said the difficulty of the employers was that they had to deal with 72 Trade Unions. If the Unions conceded the principle that the employers had a right to manage the factories, the employers would be pleased to eon lei with the men regarding the manner which the managerial functions would operate. Tho employers did not want to smash the Unions. The motion was negatived by Idvotes to 80.

ARMENIA'S PLIGHT

(Received This Day at 30 a.mA LONDON, March 20 The “Daily Mail’s” Constantinople correspondent descrilK's the desperate straits of the famine stricken inhabitants of Bolshevik Armenia giving evidence of the grisly spectacle of armed reds encircling the cemeteries at Erivan, to pir vent the disinternment of corpses. An organised attempt lias been discovered to sell them as butchers meat. Numerous arrests were made. Wolves »>*• harrying the outlying villages. Tu-i soldiers on outpost duty, were devoured. Food riots are breaking out in flic towns. BELGIAN ESPIONAGE TRIAL, n eut i;n ’ s tei. eg hams. (Received This Dav at B.AO a.nO LONDON March 20 Belgium’s greatest espionage trial has opened at lTaiuault Assizes. Armand Jeannes, denounced as the informer of Nurse- Cavell was charged with espionage and treason. The prisoner. who was cool, surveyed tn«» crowded court with the utmost a.vuir ance. It is expected that the trial will last several weeks. PRINCE IN CEYLON. -Received Thi“ Dav at L).L> a.m.) COLOMBO, .March 21. When the Prince of Wales landed lit came into a different atmosphere. He found himself afnong a friendly sympathetic people, who gave a loyal, warn reception. Instead of being hedget about with troops and police on tin route, and protected by riflemen reach to shoot at a moment’s notice, he motored pleasantly in an informal way unattended, through the boulevards, great crowds lining the route. It wn. ! a gala day throughout the island, wit I feasts everywhere for school children To-morrow the Prince inspects the loca troops and goes to Kandy on Thursday to attend a Durbar whereat Kand> chiefs participate, and one hundred elephants will he a feature of the cere- . monial j I

INDIAN UNREST. (Received This Dnv at 1.30 p.m.) j DELHI, March 21. 1 Jn consequence of intimidations of j violence offered Government servants : and loyalists during the Royal visit and subsequent hostility there havebeen numerous arrests in Resliawnr City, with a view to checking the spread of lawlessness. As it is impossible to protect Government servants in 'Pcshawiir, the city post and telegraph offices have been closed. Sympathisers demonstrated during the arrests and stoned the police who had re couse to frequent baton charges. Tt transpires the resulting Intimidation by agitators caused the closing of all shops for two days during the Royal visit, and prevented numerous .people seeing the festivities. Agitators jeer:ed at loyalists and destroyed their i shops and tore down decorations. There was widespread molestation, par ticularfy of service pensioners. BRITISH ASSOCIATION. LONDON, March 21. Ernest Rutherford has been nominated for the presidency of the British Association for 3022.