BRITISH & FOREIGN ITEMS.

Hokitika Guardian, 21 September 1923, Page 2

BRITISH & FOREIGN ITEMS.

AUSTRALIAN AND N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION. slum menace. LONDON, Sept; 19. At the Economic Section of the British Association, Mr J. J. Clarke, of Liverpool University, described the question of slum dwellings as tho greatest of all our problems of a social, or economic nature. He gave many satuples of the terrible overcrowding ot Liverpool and its suburbs. Ho mentioned that 597 persons, 319 of whom are over IG, are occupying 163 bedrooms in one district, with an aierago of four persons to one bedroom. In another, a man, bis wife, and six children occupied one room. He urged the organisation of tho nation for a war on insanitary slums. The Government should take the unemployed between the ages of 18 and 20, and recruit them into Royal Engineers, in the form of house-building battalions. LONDON DRUG TRAFFIC. LONDON, Sept. 19. There is in progress a long scries of prosecutions for drug trafficking in London. To-day’s cases included two Chinamen, from a Limehouse opium den, ono of whom attacked the polico with a carving knife. A young girl was sentenced to seven months’ hard labour for retailing cocaine to coloured men at the Black Man’s Cafe in Tottenham Court Road. She resolutely refused to disclose the source of her supplies. She said : “I’m not swell a mug to tell you! Ytm’ve got me and tho stuff. That is enough!”

The big profits of the drug trade were revealed by the prosecution. Two Swedish merchants wore charged with offering 3J kilos of cocaine, whereon they wore claimed lo make a profit of £500!) per kilo, by selling it to night clubs. The men’s profits was GO times the real value of the drug.

FINANCIAL STRINGENCY. AMSTERDAM, Sept. 20 In consequence of financial stringency, it was decided to postpone tins Dutch Navy Bill, which provided for the establishment of a stronger navy and the fortification of the Dutch East Indies. WIRELESS DIFFICULTIES. LONDON, Sept. 20. Mr John Scott Taggart, addressing the British Association, declared that wireless communication was becoming increasingly difficult, owing to ether congestion, which was due to the necessity of using longer wave lengths for long distance work, and the fact that all higli-power stations were broadcasting stations. FUNERAL OF JANINA VICTIMS. LONDON, Sep. 19. The funeral of the 'ate General Tellini and the other victims of the Janina murders was to-day solemnly celebrated in the presence of all the Government and diplomatic staffs. Simultaneously, an Allied Squadron entered the Bay of Phnleron, led hy tlie Italian warships, and followed by the British and French warships. The Greek Fleet fired a salute of 21 guns. The commander of the Allied Squadron was then notified of a Requiem for General Tellini.

Thereafter the Allied squadron withdrew, returning the Greek salute. Thus the principal conditions of the Ambassador’s Note were fulfilled. BRITISH EMIGRATION. LONDON. Sep. 20. A Board of Trade return for the first half of 1923 shows 112,268 Britishers emigrated overseas, compared with 95.234 in the corresponding period of 1922. The emigration to the United States increased by 22,783 : that to Canada hy 17,444, and to Australia by 842. That to New Zealand decreased by 2280. COMMUNIST COUP FORESTALLED. LONDON, Sep. 19. The “ Daily Express’s ” Sofia correspondent say’s: “The Government has arrested 1.500 Communists in Bulgaria. It has suspended the Communists’ newspapers. It searched the Communist clubs, and seized a quantity of small arms, machine guns, and compromising documents. This action is belie'ed to have nipped in the hud an attempt to engineer a revolution planned for this week. BRITISH DEATH RATE. LONDON. Sep. 19. The Chief Medical Officer of the Mintrv of Health’s report for 1922 shows the principal causes of death in the order of the death rate per thousand. These, were:—Respiratory diseases, 181 per 100:;; diseases of the heart and circulation. 157; those of the nervous sys-tem,-101; cancer 96; tuberculosis 88; alimentary cancer 52. Cancer alone is definitely, unfortunately, increasing. The deaths from it have risen from 520 per million in 1881 to 1215 in 1921. The tuberculosis death rate is steadily declining. The officer urges ail amendment ot the vaccination law on the grounds that the protection it gives cannot be disputed.