LATEST CABLE NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 18 July 1923, Page 2

LATEST CABLE NEWS

BRITISH S FOREIGN ITEMS.

AUSTRALIAN AND N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION. .MOTOR GLIDER RACE. PARIS, July 10. Eight started in tho motor glider Grand Prix, for a prize of one hundred thousand francs. Coupet was the only competitor to finish, covering two hundred miles at an average speed of fifty one miles an hour. Barbot succumbed to engine trouble.

3’HE TAXI MURDER

MASON SENTENCED

LONDON, July 14. Mason was found guilty of the murder of Dickie and was sentence! to death.

Jacob Dickie, aged about 30, of Tredegar Square, Mile End Road, a taxicab driver, was shot dead in Bay tree Road Brixton, on Wednesday night. May 9. His death followed uopn ail altercation between him and tv.o men who had been riding in bis cab. The trial ended with an unusual episode. Asked whether he had anything to say before the death .sentence was passed, Mason, in a tremorless voice, said: “Taking the evidence on its face value, I expected I would be found guilty. 3’iie only iliing was that I was quite confident tile evidence would bo sifted so that they might see whence it came. I have nothing to say’ against t,he verdict. I have had a fair trial. My people did not help me in my defence. T wish to convey riiy thanks to the kind people in London who put up money for my defence. There is one thing that I would lie grateful for. Mason then proceeded to ask the Press to clear up one point in the evidence, which, however, was negligible. Mason’s solicitor stated that he had made efforts to trace an American whom the accused said he and \ ivian had seen on the night of the murder. He was getting on the trail of this American when he was informed that if he proceeded with his inquiries ho would meet with personal violence. JAPANESE NAVY. TOKIO, July 10. The Japanese Navy Department announces that, in pursuance of its poliey of a gradual reduction of its naval personnel, it will release 1800 officers of various grades during the coming month. The department is having no trouble in securing tho officers’ resignations, which are plentiful, caving to the liberal discharge allowance and bonuses. The naval service is also getting less popular, the number of applicants for admission to the Naval Academy being below tho quota, whereas formerly they wore much in excess of it.

COMMERCIAL. LONDON, July 10. Foreign exchanges rates are:—On Paris 78.55 francs to £1 : on Stockholm 17.35 kroner; oil Christiania, 28.35 kroner; on Copenhagen 26.25 kroner; on Berlin, 1,000,000 marks; on Rome, 106 1-3 lire; on Calcutta, 10 1-8 penco to the rupee, on Yokohama, 25A yen to £1 : on Hong Kong 27 yen; on Montreal 4 dollars 72 3-8 cents; on New York -l dollars 00) cents. The Colonial wool merchants have decided that if the wool sales cannot be resumed on July 24, the present series will be abandoned, and the next series will commence on fourth September, instead of the eleventh. At Bradford tops of merinos are dull, while crossbreds meet with a little more inquiry, hut the actual business is practically nil. TRIBUTE 3’() NEW ZEALANDERS. PARIS, July 10. At the unveiling of the memorial to the New Zealanders in Amiens Cathedral, the Bishop of Amiens -made an eloquent speech in French, eulogising New Zealand’s sacrfiiees. ITe said: The walls of that ancient Cathedral abased themselves before this solemn manifestation of friendship. The names of the New Zealand heroes were inscribed on the hearts of the people of Amiens, whose gratitude would ever guard their memory. Afterwards the Prefect of the Somme, with the Mayor and the Commander of the 2nd French Army Corps, and clergy, lunched with Sir James Allen and party, when the French Army and the New Zealand Defenco Force were toasted. A SOMMF. MEMORIAL. PARIS, July 10. Lord Liverpool unveiled a marblo tablet in memory of the New Zealanders who had fallen in the Battle of the Somme, in Amiens Cathedral, at the conclusion of the Morning Mass for tho Dead. Tho Memorial is attached to a column at the head of the nave, and is inscribed: “J’o tile Glory of God and to who fell in the battles of the Somme 1910-1917.” This inscription is repeated in French.

The New Zealand paity to Amiens, came from l.e Quesimy.

EMPIRE SERVICE LEAGUE. LONDON, July 16. At the Empore Service League Conference, General Sir A. Bussell moved urging that the Imperial and Dominion Governments should consult the League in relation to migration, with a view to preventing the distress arising as the ro-ult of incomplete, schemes. Ho .nigge.sted the League should submit to tbe Imperial and Economic Conferences a elyar, definite expression of what might be done to facilitate the settlement of ex-service men overseas. The delegates wore unanimously of the opinion that the Dominions were opposed to all unregulated schemes of migration. Lord Haig said he could not admit that all the ex-service men who had failed overseas were wasters. The Dominions should ask nothing more than good men of grit and determination. They must, 1m asserted, ask Dominions to he less exacting, especially with regard to the financing iff the settlement of the ex-service men. With the institution of splendid societies to assist the migrants overseas, there should lie an end to the complaints of distress and friendlessness. Eventually a representative suit-com-mittee was formed to investigate the migration of ex-service men.

BRITISH OFFICER SHOT. DELHI, July 16. Another frontier outrage is reported near Pinzharaghza. Lieut Webster, of the Sappers and Miners’ Corps, was shot dead while engaged in road work. The murder is believed to have been committed by an adherent of a wealthy Khan, who recently has shown activo hostility to the British Arrangements are being now completed for the taking over of the administration of the Nabha State. The Sikhs, however, are agitating against this transfer of power, and the Sikh League has declared that it will continue its agitation till the Maharaja of Nabha is reinstated.