MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

Hokitika Guardian, 20 December 1923, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

AUSTRALIAN AND N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION-. JAPANESE COAL DISASTER. TOKIO. Dee-. 18. Through the- i-oilapse within a coalmine at Kasuya, Fukuoka piefeeture, tliisty miners were entombed. Owing to gas, rescue work is difficult, and it is 1 eared their position is hopeless. GREEK AFFAIRS. ATHENS. Dee. IS. Government informed the King that it was advisable that lie leave Greece, until the National Assembly had deeidei 1 the regime best befitting the uiiintry. FRENCH public- servants. PARIS, December 18. Seventy-seven were arrested in connection with a civil servants denionstiation against the decision of the .Minister of Finance not to grant a uniform increase in the cost of living bonus to eighteen InttuLeil francs. Six of those at tested were detained on charges of assaulting the police. The Minister will submit the matter to tho Cmnnber, as a question of confidence in the Government.

A PARISIAN TRIAL. PARIS, December 19. Perfectly calm and smiling, Germain Barthou, a god 21, appeared in the A-size Court, charged with the murder of Plateau, on January 22. Leisurely removing her hat and coat, the girl adjusted ti mass of bobbed hair, and alter :t glance at a fitly mirror, awaited the questioning. She was dressed in a grey sheath costume. Germaine lmtl the nir of a pink and white schoolgirl. instead of that of a determined anarchist. She 'replied to questions coolly and frankly admitting the murder Site said she went to tile offices of the newspaper, intending to murder Leon Hamlet, the Royalist, hut she only saw Plateau, who mocked . the Anarchist organisation. Turning livid Germaine cried out “My anger swelled til)! lie turned his hack. I pulled out my revolver and fired. Then 1 thought death tumid he a relief for myself who had never known what, tenderness was. I tried to shoot inyscll. ’ The trial is expected to be lengthy, as there are 100 witnesses.

EM PI R F EXHIBITION. LONDON. Dec. 18. It is understood the opening of the Empire Exhibition is fixed for St. George's Day, cut April ‘23rd. MR MASSEY CRITICISED. (Received this day at 8.50 a.in.) LONDON. Dec. 19. The* Manchester Guardian editorially says Mr Massey made a false step *fti suggesting to the “limes” inteivic'wer. on the eve ol his ilepartiuc. th* a Labour or Liberal Government should persist in Mr Baldwin’s preelection polic-v of Imperial preference. The "Guardian” says tlm Commons lire under exnlieit orders to tamper with free trade no more. Mr Massey should plain!v tell New Zealand that protection and Imperial preference are not England's poli.-.v and must never he expected to heroine her policy. AGAINST PROTECTIVE TARIFFS. Received this day at 9.45 a.ntO LONDON. Dee. 19. The Irish Free State fiscal committee reports against protective tarifls on the ground that they would increase tiie cost of living. Only ;1 small volume of industry favours protection. The committee urges caution before introducing lar-reac-lnilg chit ngos.

Till’. MONOCLED MAN. LONDON, October 11. Aa Aberdeen ye-torday John -'simpson Mitchell, described as a journalist, of Westminster Bridge-road, S.h. was sentenced to 15 months’ imprisonment tor I a 1-e pretences. He obtained a motor-ear, it ..t at**d. oil iho story that lie had to interview the King, and when he was driven to the front doot of Balmoral t Castle the police arrested him as an impostor. A doctor said the man was suffering from delusions of a grandoise type. It was stated that Mitchell was sut-iV-ring, doubtless from megalomania or s welled.-headedu ess. He was known as "the bounder” and the mounded man. He started his criminal career in Aberdeen, where he wa> horn, ns a boy stealing 2,500 ft. of kinema film, which caught fire and so badly burned his grandmother and aunt that they died.

He had called himself "Algerton Eaton Dallas Yorke, of Park-lane W.,” under which name he was convicted at Oxted, Surrey, for stealing £35 10s from the Valley Hotel, Cuterham. He had many other convictions.