BRITISH & FOREIGN ITEMS.

Hokitika Guardian, 5 April 1924, Page 3

BRITISH & FOREIGN ITEMS.

LATEST CABLE NEWS

AUSTRALIAN AND N Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION AFRICAN POLITICS. CAPETOWN, April 3. fn the Assembly Air Creswell moved an amendment to the Class Areas Bill, that it he referred to a select committee of the House. He argued the Bill left the position unchanged. The debate was adjourned. CHINESE AFFAIRS. PEKING, April 3. The Chinese Government in a lengthy note to Karakhan says that should Karakhan see insurmountable difficulties in modifying the preliminary test regarding the three disputed points, the Government being animated hv a spirit of conciliation and an earnest desire for official relations, is prepared to have those modifications effected through the supplementary notes to he signed with the agreement. NORTHCLIFFE WILL. POINTS FOR THE COURT. LONDON. April 2 A record array of tweutv-six barristers appeared before Air Justice Russell in the Chancery division to argue a question arising out of the administration of Lord Xortheliffc’s will. The ease was mainly concerned with the payments of bequests to directors and two thousand employees. The point raised was that the testator though resigning the directorate of the Associated Newspapers Limited in January. 101.0, retained control generally, and supervised, and therefore his co-directors were entitled to a legacy of Clooo each.

Air Justice Russel! deeided against the directors and also disallowed similar legacies to the directors of Amalgamated Press Limited, on the ground that Lord Northeliffe was not a director of the reconstructed company. His Lordship allowed the legacies to Hie employees on the ground that the old business was still being carried c:i by the new company, eonsequenUy they were still servants of the tld company. The hearing was adjourned. AI ETHYLATED SPIRITS. LONDON. April 3. Mr Adamson told an Edinburgh deputation that Government, intended to deal with the increasing evil of drinking methylated spirits, which resulted in debauchery and crime. Legislation would he introduced to control the distribution of methylated spirits for furniture polisli and also the adding of harmless material to methylated spirits required for other purpose, making it alisoltitolv u 11 drillkable. GERMAN TOURISTS. ROME, April 3. Carriers state that despite Germany’s cry of poverty there—are seventy thousand German tourists in Italy occupying three fourths of the hotel accommodation at- the chief resorts. They are mostly staying at the best hotels.

EGYPTIAN AFFAIRS. CAIRO, April 3

A-mixed Court of Appeal decided the mixed Court was not empowered to intervene in the Luxor dispute because it could not question an administrative act of the Egyptian Government. Counsel for Lord Carnarvon’s executors caused a sensation by reading a telegram declaring the executors had cancelled the previous surrender of rights to share in the antiquities found in Tutankhamen’s tomb. The Government will not restore the scientific supervision of the tomb to Carter unless, the Executors surrender the rights. ’VARSITY BOAT RACE. LONDON, April 3. The crews have finished their preparations for tlie University boat race on Saturday. The closest struggle is expected.

CHURCH FINANCE. LONDON. April 3. A proposal to abolish church collections and for the adoption of a system of assessing each churchgoer for r yearly contribution led to a lively discussion at it conference on church finance held at "Westminster. Canon Turner protested against sixpence being regarded as an offering t* God when spent to piovide a vi-rr coal and gas.

Tho Rev. Fry (Oxford; snid the chief problem was the comfortable member of the middle class who prided himself on sending a guinea to church funds yd paid five guineas golf club fees to say nothing of half a crown each game and whisky and soda at the end. Canon Elliott assailed raffles am' church bazaars. He saw one programme which said: "If von don't speculate you will never accumulate!” It'should be a tipster’s advertisement. JAPANESE PIRATES. LEADERS’ CRUEL DEEDS.

TOKIO, April 3,

At a preliminary trial, the judges of the Tokio Local Court, indicted thirty persons, alleging gruesome piratical activities. The Court made an official statement of the story as follows: Rikichiro, Ezine, and two others heard tales of gold discovered at Okhotsk, in Siberia, in 1022. They induced two Tokio capitalists to advance fifty thousand yen. Then, chartering the 2000 ton steamer Tokininru, at Osaka, they engaged a. crow of sixty and tliei secretly loaded it with rifles. Japanese swords, spears and ammunition. Ezine became the .self-appointed chief. IP announced that he was going on geld exploration. I hey departed on September 17th.. 1922, and went up the River Amur to Nikolaiovik. where 800 Japanese, wore massacred five months previously. Ezure developed an obsession to avenge his countrymen. He abandoned the gold hunt, and descended the liver. He then boarded a Russian schooner with a crew o! twenty. He sabred three of them, and the bodies were thrown overboard, lie removed sixteen Chinese and Russian.' in chains, and took the cargo, valued at seventy thousand yen. and sank the ship. Four days later lie brought out the prisoners and shot and sabreo eleven Russians. On November 6th.. he reached Otani, in Hokkaido, whoie he disposed of the spoils. He paid the charterage, and distributed sixty thousand von. His brutality preyed on the minds of two sailors, who confessed at Tokio in December.

banker murdered. LONDON. April 3. ' The driver of an Aldershot ’bus, on cailling as usual at the Borden suhI, ran cl, of Lloyds’ Bank, to pick u> ,Z »' w «*«• '“I him with a revolver bullet in head. Apparently he had been -mu-deved-Later investigations showed that £IOOO in treasury notes and silver wci Police enquiries elicited that «v stian J wmsseenon board the’bus. to take a ticket for Waterloo.