BRITISH & FOREIGN NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 28 January 1925, Page 2

BRITISH & FOREIGN NEWS

IUHTEALIAN AND N.Z. 1 ABLE ASSOCIATION, UNCONSCIONABLE TRANSACTION. LONDON, Jan. 26. Justice Finlay, giving evidence in the Moneylenders’ Case, said the transaction was harsh and unconscionable, and allowed plaintiff tbe principal' plus 20 per cent, interest. R USSIA N ADV ENT URE R. PARIS, Jan. 26. A Russian adventurer named Nestcherskv was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment and ten years’ local banishment for threatening two Turkish diamond merchants with a revolver, obtaining from them three hundred thousand francs for a packet supposed to contain diamonds. Nestchersky has had a remarkable career. He fought in the Russo-Japanese war and later joined a gang of criminals. He was sentenced to twenty years’ but lie escaped from prison and joined a gang of Bulgarian bandits, and made sufficient from ransoms to buy a farm in South America. He returned to France at the outbreak of the war and won the Croix de Guerre, and British Military Medal. Nestchersky is strikingly handsome.

DR.. SUN YAT SEN. PEKIN, January 27. An operation on Dr. Sun Y'at Sen vealed cancer of the liver and his easo is described as hopeless. A FRENCH SCANDAL. LONDON, January 27 The “Daily Express” Paris correspondent reports that remarkable revelations concerning tbe Countess Helene de Chateaubriand, a beautiful and wealthy French woman, have caused a sensation iu France. The Countess states that she was seized in tlio street, and carried off by order of relatives to a. private lunatic asylum, vlier© ox-President Desclianel sent her. The head of tne establishment refused to take the Countess, whom her relatives then took to another asylum. When she refused to enter, seven people held her while a hypodermic needle was inserted and she was drugged. Finally the Countess escaped. Four well known doctors assert that, she is in perfect health. A sonsa tioual sequel in the law courts is expected. CHINESE FIGHTING RENEWED. PEKIN, January 20, Fighting lias broken out again at Wusih. Luyunghsiang is reported to have captured Wusih, causing Chihsie> bviiau to retire to Sooehow. Kaiang yin-is also reported to have fallen. Dr Sun Vat Sen is in hospital. II is understood that he will immediately be operated on for an abscess on the liver. His condition is serious. A GENERAL’S VIEM*. LONDON, Jan. 20. General Bird wood, in an interview, stated that lie bad not the slightest intention of going to Australia again. Evidence of his srong liking for Anzacs was revealed in his speech at Sir J. Cook’s luncheon. He said: “They possessed wonderful c-hnraeteristies in the face of tlie enemy. AVhat a wonderful command of language they had too.” Much attention is at present being , directed to General Birdwood’s sugges- ' . tion that public schoolboys would lie tlie best immigrants for Australia. It has been suggested that headmasters should confer and appoint a committee to supervise an organised effort.

COST OF PARTY POLITICS. LONDON, Jan. 27. The enormous cost of party polities in Britain is shown by a report of Sir Donald McLean’s Committee on Liberal Party reorganisation. Therein it is established that the annual income necessary for efficient associations in six hundred constituencies, including a general election every three years is £390(4. A large central fund is also required for the purpose of national propaganda and for the supervision of > local work. It is recommended in the report that one-third of the offices of the Executive Committee in each Constituency Association should he under the age of 3o years, and that expenses should he allowed to enable workers to attend meetings from a distance. Tlie “Daily Express” political correspondent. affirms that the appointment of Sir D. McLean's Committee was originally a device on the part of the Asquit.hians (o injure Mr Lloyd George’s leadership. It was honed to find a seat for Mr Asquith, while, the report was being prepared, thus averting the necessity for the appointment of a Deputy Leader. A safe seat could not he found, thereupon it was concluded hat Mr Asquith’s leadership could he retained bv bis having a seat in the House of Lords, instead of in the House of Commons. The same writer emphasises Ins declaration that Mr Asquith had no part in these plottings, and. he concludes: ‘Should these intrigues not he stamped out at the forthcoming Liberal Cun volition. we may see an astounding political development. Mr Lloyd George will now have to decide whether he will continue to submit to the indignity to which he lias been consistently subject. to, or whether he cannot greater service to his party by leaving *■. it than by leading it.