BRITISH & FOREIGN NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 16 February 1925, Page 3

BRITISH & FOREIGN NEWS

LATEST CABLE NEWS

[IvjJOTEHS TeIECHAMS.]

ANGLO-FRENCH PACT. PARIS, February Li.

According to the Matin, Air Chamberlain and M. Harriott arc seeking to adjust tin' present difficulties I \ nivaii.: ol a pnet constitution and c ()Ti|>rsv:i: e between the treaties < f nHin.ii.-e and Geneva Protocol. It is iiucui.b-d tint all countries bordering on Gel ir any. and finally Germany Mors.4f -iu,i! a i here to the pact, hut at present negotiations are restricted to France and Rritain. When the pact i.s drawn up the signatories will approach the League of Nations and sav any act of

aggression by Oei'many. on any point of the frontier from the North eSa to the Adriatic, will be regarded as an act of aj.'gie.ssion against us all. Germany would be hound herself to iefrain from any act of aggression. The pact is to lie ratified by the League which would then seek to extend its provisions throughout Europe and eventually throughout the world. The Dominions v ill not lie asked to intervene in the early discussions, hut simply to raise no objections and examine the solutions of the problems affecting parts of the world including the Dominions. A DELIE LAND. (Received this day at 9.25 1.m.) LONDON, Keb. 15. The French Government recently proclaimed Adelie Land, Kerguelen Land and the islands of St. Paul and Amsterdam as sanctuaries lor seals, penguins, and other sub-Antarctic fauna. Sir Douglas Alawson in dealing with the subject expressed the hope that France would abandon her annexation of Adelie Land in favour of Australia. He claimed that Durville. the French explorer, did not go ashore at Adelie Land. He simply sighted it and ec.anted for two days, whereas the Australian Antarctic expedition spent t irec years exploring Adelie Land and c her Antarctic lands.

The ‘Daily .Mail.” commenting i n Sir Douglas Afnw.soii’s hope, says that nothing is known in London concerning the French actions, and add-:-

“\Ve do not suppose France attaches much importance to the nominal ownership of a. territory so forbidding, though it, is indisputable that Durville discovered and annexed Adelie Land in 1810. The ownership seems to be a matter for friendly discussion.”

J A PAN ESE PI SAR A! A AIE NT. LONDON. Kel>. 15

The Japanese Embassy announces thaL fourteen .Japanese warships have been destroyed or rendered unlit far lighting service in accordance with. Die Washington Disarmament Treaty. ITALIAN RURAL VOTING ROME. Eeh. 15 A correspondent says the .Senate, by 21-1 votes to 58, adopted the Governmcnt’.s Electoral Reform Bill, including provisions for plural voting for persons of .social intellectual position. ORICA! CON EEH ENCE. OE.VEVA. Eeh. 15. Alter the see.md Opium Guillen n e completed the firsi reading of the Draft Convent inn of articles relating to Ike more effective limitation of the production and manufacture of narcotic dr tigs, the Finnish resolution was di~cit.sued, which proposed that the Conned of the League he asked to draw attention at its forthcoming Gonferenee on the traffic in arms and munitions, aid to the question of the unlicensed importation of arms in relation to Hie drug problem. After the Japanese am! German represent a fives appealed for the. withdrawal of the resolution the Finnish delegate agreed to defer the decision. It, is understood the resolution aimed at the importations of arms into China.

J A P-R USS< >-('! 11N ESE TK EA’I’V. BERLIN. Feh. 15. That the Russo Japanese and Chinese Treaty was signed at Pekin m January is the assertion of the “Lokai Anzeiger” which publishes I rum a hitherto reliable Russian source details of the alleged secret clauses thereof. One clause provides that, should Britain, France or America take military measures against the Pekin Gov wumeiit or against Chinese unnoutraliseil territory .Russia will place two i lionsand men at the tlisposal of China, whom Japan will arm. Russia renounces, in favour of Japan. 50 per cent, of 'her shares :n the Chinese Eastern Railway, which Russia hitherto claimed. Another clause gives the whole of Saghalien to Jap'.m within live years, on condition that Japan supplies Russia. with four small cruisers, one battleship, thirty submarines and seven destroyers. Vhidivostick is to he made a firstclass Heel base, Japan paying 00 per cent, of the cost of construction. The Chinese army, of a pea* a strength of eight hundred thousand, is to have Russo-Japanese instructors. Chinn undertakes to buy weapons ol war and material only from Russia and Japan. The duration of the treaty is staled to he 30 years. The Japanese Embassy at Berlin has issued an emphatic denial ol the '‘Lokai Anzieger's” story. M ENT A L PATIENTS’ TR EATAI ENT. LONDON, Sept. 15. The criticisms regarding the doping and ill tieatment if asylum patients has resulted in now regulations forbidding mechanical means of restraint, except by simple straight jackets, gloves or towels tied over the beds. The new regulations emphasise that a patient under lestrnint must never he left unattended and all medicines administered must bo recorded in a sfccial hook. CANADA AND ANNEXATION. OTTAWA, Eeh. 15. During an important discussion in the House of Commons as to how Canada might end the* rush of her host young hum) and women to take positions in the United States, Doctor ALinimi, a forme!' Minister Sn the Federal Government, declared that conditions were so had in some Canadian cities that there was talk ol either breaking up the Confederation of Canada or annexation hv the Vniteil States. “Nonsense.” interrupted the Hon. James Murdock. Dr Alauion insisted that the exodus to America was drawing the best people in Canada away. % The doctor added that a prominent business man bed informed him that if a vote were taken on annexation in certain sections it would he carried, saving, “I am a Canadian, first, list and all the lime, hut in some of the prairie provinces there is a widespread annexation feeling.’’ Air Alnrdock declared that the unstable tan If policy was the bane of the country.

JAPAN’S TROUBLE. TOKIO. February 15. An official report .shows there are 3.400,000 unemployed in Japan and officials point out that whereas Britain has a bigger number she lias colonies to absorb them, but Japan has no colonies and no openings lor immigration, thus making her position worse. mr Macdonald uneasy. LONDON, February 15. A political correspondent says that Mr MacDonald is finding the leadership of the Labour Party an uneasy matter. He is confronted with the fact that the party still contains a group of irrecomcilables over whom he lias little i no control. Numerically, this group is small, but vocally, easily drowns the great majority of the. party, who are boginning to grow' restless tit the continned refusal on the part of the minority to respect any viewpoint but their own.