BRITISH & FOREIGN NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 23 October 1924, Page 2

BRITISH & FOREIGN NEWS

LATEST CABLE NEWS

THE POWER OF THE NAVY. COMMENT BY THE “TIMES.” [’’Tjh-: Tunis” Service.] LONDON, Oct. 21. A leader in the “limes” says that even irom a purely British and Imperial viewpoint, the powers of the Navy lmvo been brought down perilously near the margin of safety and any further reduction, would lie suicidal madness. The determination of tiio country’s naval strength is, or should be*a question outside the region of party polities; hut tho trouble is tho Labour Party and many Liberals in their consuming zeal for universal peace and disarmament blind themselves to tlie reality of dangec. Mr MacDonald and his party declined to carry out the. •programme of naval construction, modest as it was, which their predecessors regarded as tlie minimum essential for safety. 1 here aro no doubt among the more temperately minded members of the Labour Party, many who are alive to the vital necessity for maintaining the Navy at the full srength permitted by the Washington Agreement, but here, as •Kewhcre, tlie party as a whole, has shown that its policy is dictated by a fear of its extremists that it cannot he trusted to take the necessary precautions fur the safety of the country, -Hie supply of its food and the security of its Imperial communications.

A HEROIC GIRL. LONDON, October 21. Bessie Chalmers has arrived at Edinburgh from New Zealand, 'having travelled as a stowaway, dressed as ft !,oy aboard tho Port Hunter. She said that she was doing well in New Zealand. and earning good wages, when she heard of her mother’s death in Scotland. Then she felt that she must return to help her invalid father, and his motherless family, but she could not save the passage money, as slio had been sending home every penny she had to spare. She tried to obtain employment ns a stewardess on tho Port lluntcr, and when she failed, sho bought a pair of trousers, a jersey and a cap. and then stowed away ill an empty cabin. She went foodless for three days. A storm then came on, and she became terribly ill. She managed to change hack into girl’s clothes, and then to crawl out from her hiding place. She gave herself up to tho captain, who, though in the first placo was very angry, finally allowed her to work her passage in assisting the stewardess. Tragically, the girl’s father, a veteran soldier, who liad been a crippled invalid for 18 veals, died 'before tho girl’s arrival. GERMAN ELECTIONS.

BERLIN, October 21. The 'Reichstag elections arc fixed for December 7th. PRUSSIAN ORDER. LONDON; October 21. The “Dailj* Express’s” Berlin'correspondent says: —The Prussian Minister of the Interior has ordered tho police to arrest the whole of tho 02 Communist Members of the Reichstag who all are alleged to he involved in the recent dicovcry of a Communist factory for forging passports. Tho order is now issued because tlie Reichstag dissolution deprives the deputies of Parliamentary immunity. Seven have already been arrested. Tho remainder have not yet been found, and are believed to he hilling. N.Z. EXHIBITS AT WEMBLEY. LONDON, Oct. 21. A portion of the New Zealand Wembley exhibits will lie sent to Dunedin Exhibition, and the remainder to tho Imperial Institute. The fate of tho New Zealand Pavilion has not been decided.

ADMIII V I, PERCY SCOTT. LONDON. October 22.

To-day the funeral obsequies of tlio late Admiral Sir Percy Scott will tako place. The remains will T.c cremated after a funeral service at St. Mararet’s. Westminster. A cruiser then takes the ashes away twenty miles off Nali Lighthouse, where they will he committed to the sea, with full naval honours.