MISCELLANEOUS

Hokitika Guardian, 22 May 1922, Page 1

MISCELLANEOUS

j IT" ,KALIAN AND N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION. PRINCE IN BORNEO. 1 I i LABUAN, May 18. Tho Prince of Wales had a rather wonderful experience of the wild men j of Borneo-during his visit to Jesselton. ’ Members of the native race were brought together from the jungle districis. forming a considering gathering. ' A 'feature; was scurry racing, the principal wberof apparently being the first home gets tile prize and no questions . asked,. The winner was requested to I pose (or his portrait, hut' was deeply offended, asking in Malay, “Am I a wo-

' man that lam mocked at.” At the residence, the Prince saw an exhibition of blow pipe shooting by Dysiks. 'I he proclivity of these folk' for poison darts is so notorious that as a precautionary measure every competitor had to consent to have his arm scratched with his own dart, before being admitted to the grounds. ! RUSSO-GERMAN TREATY. UNITED SERVICE TELEGRAMS. LONDON. May 19. A full text of tho secret Russo-Ger-man military convention has been published by the “Daily Mail.” It re1, veals that the Germans undertake to 1 supply the Bolsheviks with five hundred German all metal aeroplanes i which tlie Daily Mail declares are war machines, of the most formidable character, violating Article GO <>t the Treaty of Versailles. | FRENCH ENQUIUIES. REtJTER’S TELEGRAMS. PARIS. May IS. France has instrueteod the l< reneh ni<rh Commissioner at Constantinople, to "co-operate with his Anglo-ltahan colleagues on the Commission enquiry, into Turkish atrocities, but proposes r sentline a small commission to Smjina .'to investigate alleged Greek misdeeds.

EX-SERVICEMEN UNEMPLOYED LONDON, May 20-

Karl llaig, addressing the Northampton branch'of the British Legion, referred to the complacency of the Minister of Labour’s speech in the House of Commons regarding what had been done lor the ex-servicemen. They wanted the Ministers to show a little of that lierv spirit on behalf of the ex-service-men that the servicemen showed in the Denches on behalf of the nation. Thousands of ex-servicemen were awaiting industrial training. Half a million of them were out of work. M lint comfort was it to he told tlmt trade depression was responsible for the delay in training them? What must the exservicemen tlifbk when nothing was said about taking steps to save them from continued want and misery! The difficulties might he great, hut the obligation was far greater. Unemployment relief might not he economical, hut the obligation was overwhelming. Nothing was more uneconomical than to leave the (lower of the nation to go to seed.

CANADA'S NAVAL POLICY'. OTTAWA, May 10.

Despite the recent T/Oiulon speech of Lord Lee (of the British Admiralty) in which he complained that the Dominions were not fulfilling naval obligations tha Canadian Dominion Government have decided to cut the Canadian Navv. Two years ago the British Admiralty gave tlie Dominion the cruiser Aurora, and the destroyers Patriot and Patrician and alto two submarines.

The Canadian Minister for Defence, the Hon. Mr Graham, now has announced that the cruiser Aurora and tin- two submarines will be laid up. He says the only naval units to be now maintained, will lie one destroyer and two armed trawlers each in the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. All the Imperial officers will return to England. Canada proposes creating a volunteer naval force of her own.

This policy is now before the Dominion Parliament.

The proposals are meeting hitter opposition from the aiiti-Liberal section.

BRITAIN AND GERMAN DEBT LONDON. M‘>y ‘->O.

The lit. lion. H. 11. Asquith, addresI sing the National Liberal Federation ' Conference at Blackpool, said: Nothing is more vital to the future of Europe than a cordial friendship between Britain and France. Such friendship need not, and does not involve an identification of policy or methods upon every international problem. For instance our French friends must lie told quite frankly that we. would not countenance the association of Britain with any ooereive measures to extort impossible payments from Germany. A restoration of our relations with France all depends on the immediate readjustment of the questions of reparations and indemnities. If asked what he would do if in power, he would reply: “Scale down the aggregate of Germany's indebtedness, so as to confine it to the materia] damage actually caused by the wai. lie would then endeavour to arrive, through Longue of Nations methods at the terms of such payments as Germany could carry out without disaster or ruin to her trade, or her trade with the rest of flic world, and such as would enable he,- to obtain an international loan. He would abandon in favour of France and Belgium. British claims to German reparations. He also would cancel tlioir indebtedness to Britain. He piedieted the foregoing policy would soon be Britain’s policy. People now talked lightly or incomprehensibly of a rupture of Britain’s relations with France. What was the alternative? “Are we going track to the isolation of the latter part of the 10th. century,” he asked, “or to the system of groups under the name of the balance of power? Tf so, for what was the war fought?”

DA TRY CONFEREXCE. I l .p,Nl)()X, May 20. The “Financial News” has published an article by a colonial importer, declaring that after its formation, the New Zealand Dairy Produce Pool, when it has made use of tire existing channels of distribution long 'enough to give the pool people an elementary knowledge of marketing and distribution, will then appoint their own agents in tlie United Kingdom, eliminating all the private firms, 1 and threeby confiscating businesses that were built, up by millions of capital in the past half century. He says tlie assurance given by the supporters of the pool that it is intended to distribute all their produce through the existing channels, is valueless, as the: proposed company to finance and eomUiet the pool is not yet formed, and therefore nobody has the power or the authority to give such an assurance. LOXDOX, May 20. A meeting of the Scottish Provision Trade Association at Glasgow discussed the New Zealand daily pool. They denied it would bo injurious to the daily industry, and would lead to loss o! goodwill towards New Zealand produce, and a diversion of buying to other sources of supply. CALCUTTA GAOL. CONFI .TOTI NG ALLEG ATKINS. DELHI. May 19. Giving evidence about the recent Calcutta Gaol mutiny at an inquiry one witness said the mutiny occurred through a warder kicking a convict, who was praying. Tj’wo other convicts, in their evidence, stated that this was a false accusation, and was manufactured with the object of intimidation of the gaol authorities to let the convicts have their own way. They said that, apparently, until the arrival of non-co-operation prisoners, the convicts were docile, hut subsequently they became discontented because the political prisoners got privileges and better food, while the latter told the ordinary convicts that, by agitating and making the position of the gaol people intolerable, they would get better food. Tile political prisoners were allowed to read extremist newspapers in prison, which were passed to the ordinary criminals, inflaming them, resulting in a hunger strike, which culminated in ti mutiny. One witness said that convicts asked him to send an erroneous report to the extremist papers regarding kicking a praying prisoner, and also that another was throttled to death secretly. Another witness gave evidence that the prisoners made weapons secretly for some time io a gaol workshop.

STATE SHIPS. LONDON. May 20

The head of the Commonwealth Line of Ships, Mr Larkin, on helialT of the Commonwealth Government Line, and Mr Phillips,Atho European Manager of the Government Line, have scut a joint letter to the newspapers regarding the legal immunity of Stateowned ships (as cabled April 30). They point out that both their o:ganisations, since llicir inception, have definitely adopted the policy of voluntarily submitting to the ordinary jurisdiction of any court regarding liability or legal action for the recovery of claims lor salvage, damage to cargo, or claims of jiii v other nature.

THE RUSSIAN FAMINE. LONDON, May 20.

The International Committee on Russian Relief, of which Dr Nansen is the High Commissioner, has issued its Investigators’ Report on the famine in the Southern Ukraine and the Crimea, where there are over 4.0! M),000 starving out of a population of IG.tXKUM.'O. It says: “The laud is burnt black, and is stripped of trees, and plants. One sees tint straw of the roofs being used as food for men anil cattle. One hears people tell how they have eaten all the dogs, cats, and cows they could get, and even dead cattle, harness, leather, wood and furniture. You meet parents who have eaten their children. \on see people lying like skeletons awaiting death. You. see hospitals where the patients are starving. Others sick are brought ill to receive care hut there are no beds, linen, or medicine, ami often no physician. The patients are lying together on the tloor in the utmost misery. Yon see heaps of dead bodies, no one having sufficient strength to bury them.

ITALIAN COUNT SENTENCED. ROME, May 20. Count Morozzo Della Boeoo, formerly a departmental eliiel at the Italian Mar Office, who first was charged in 1918 with selling military documents to the Austrians, and was released owing to a lack of evidence, has now been sentenced to eight and a half years’ imprisonment on charges of espionage and treason. UPPER SILESIA. BERLIN, May 20 Following a police and military raid in Upper Silesia, which has been in a state of seige for a week, owing to bandit outrages, thirty persons were rounded up, and arrested. Two are believed to he implicated in the murder ol Sergeant Storer belonging to the British army of occupation.

KAISER’S BOOK. LONDON, Mn v 20

Tiio “Daily Chronicle” Merlin respondent states : —Fho ex-Kni.-wu s Ikhil; is completed. I’arts have been slum 11 to a foreign buyer. The exKaiser standing out for 1.000.('00 dollars for tlie book’s foreign lights. lie is practically certain to got this, which is equal to' 00,000,000 marks, or foi l' times what lie has thus far received from Germany since the revolution. The Kaiser had literary help, and he appealed to 1 iis triends, including v< n llindetiburg, for details ot the story. Generally it is guarded, hut it is argumentative, and provocative regarding some happenings during the war. r l he manuscript has been in existence some time, but the Kaiser hope to return to Germany was impossible. The “Daily Chronicle” suggests its title should he “Apologia l'io Bello Suo.”