MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS

Hokitika Guardian, 2 January 1926, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS

(Australia A N.Z. Cable Association

PRODUCE PRICKS. LONDON, Dec. 31. Rutter Market quieter after active trade early in the week. New Zealand choicest salted 172 s 1745, unsalteci 168 s, 170 s Danish 178 s Cheese—Market dull. New Zealand 975. 98s; Australian 925, 945. Sugar—Granulated, 28s JOJd

ALL NIGHT SITTING’S. (’Received this day at 8 a.in.' PARIS, Jan. 1. Alter all night, sittings, me Senate and Chamber passed the .January vote. tin account of the measure frequently passing between the Houses for the adjustment of minor differences tin Houses a( six in the morning are still silting. HONG KONG EIRE. • !.}•; MOTEL DESTROYED (Received this day at 8 u.m.) MONO KONG, Jan. 1. ? Ibe biggest, file for yeais gutted a Hong Kong hotel, which is crowdei with guests who bad retire.l in tin small hours of ike m uning after a New Year’s Kvv dance

I he lire started at nine in the morning and many guests were still alien, but escaped will, -:mh Hollies a- were available. Fire Brigades, assisted by 23(1 soldiers Imm the East Surro\ Regiment and Naval l nits from the British warsliips. made strenuous efforts to save the building, but by noon the roof bad fallen in and the whole building was doomed. I In* streets in the vicinity "ere littered with the hotel’s furniture and its guests’ belongings, considerable quantities being saved. The damage is very heavy, and it is at present, impossible to estimate the damage. I liomas Cook and Sou’s offices were ills* damaged. Prime George was among the naval men who were landed. LATER. The fire is now under control. Its origin is unknown.

IMPERIAL MEAT REPORT. LONDON. Jan. 1. The Imperial Economic committee's meat report draws attention to the delay in spending part of the Government’s proposed million sterling grant oil transporting pedigree stock to tho Dominions. The report views the rapidly impro'ing Empire stork and again raises (hr quest inn oj' a ircer iinportatiou of Dominion cattle into Britain, urging a revision of the restrict ivo legislation. THREAT OF WAR! LONDON, January ]. The “ Daily Telegraph’s” diplomatic correspondent- discloses that, according to the most reliable estimate, fifty thousand Turkish troops are now in the vicinity of the Iraq boundary. Nevertheless, the talk at Angora is not of war, but of early uegotiatioss. Maylie the despatch of a British delegation to Angora will be invited. There appears, however, to he a general resolve that a compromise formula if it can be devised must in no way imply the recognition by Turkey of the League’s award. How such a formula can be found, it is difficult to see, inasmuch as the concessions that Britain may be prepared to offer would relate rather to financial and economical collaboration than to territorial considerations, whereby only slight rectifications are

possible. The Exchange Agency’s Baghdad correspondent states it is estimated that the British and Iraq troops on the frontier are over fifteen thousand in number. AFRICAN DEFENCE FORCES. CAPETOWN, January 1. Mr Crcsswell outlined the now defence scheme. It includes the abolition of the famous South African Alounted Rifles, the existing permanent force personnel to lie absorbed in the police force; the air force is to be increased and the active citizen force is to be continued with six batteries of artillery and twelve battalions, whilst a modification of the old commando system will lie adopted.

ROYAL SCANDAL. LONDON, Dec. 31

Prince Charles has renounced the succession to the throne of Rouninnin. The King in a communique, states Charles, having informed His Majesty by letter, of his irrevocable renunciation of tlie succession and all prorogations appertaining to that rank, including mcnilieship of the Royal Family, lie is eoni]X?lled to accept the renunciation, and proclaims his grand son, Michael, aged four, heir to the Throne. The Council of State has approved the step. Parliament meets on .famiary 4th. to ratify the action, which recalls the sensation of September, 1918, when it was disclosed that Charles secretly married a Moldavian girl, Zizi Lambrinu. daughter of n Roumanian General. Ibe King ordered Charles back from bis honeymoon, and he was sentenced to seventy-five days’ close confinement. He renounced his rights in 1919, and asked to be sent to serve among the soldiers at the front. The marriage was annulled and Charles went on a world trip. He married Princess Helen, of Greece, in 1920. He latterly was very keenly interested in flying and has made several flights in England. He visited London to attend Queen Alexandra’s funeral. The Queen ol Roiitnaliia explains that the Royal Family is forbidden to marry Roumanians m order to avoid the family becoming involved in party intrigues. There are no details of the immediate cause of the Crown Prince Cliailes’s renunciation of the heirdom, but it is known that more than once previously he has expressed a wish to relinquish it. notably when lie married in 1918, the daughter of a Moldavian professor at Odessa, in consequence of which he was sentenced to six weeks’ solitary confinement for breaking military regulations, presumably for marrying without permission. But he refused to give up liis wife. He succumbed to pressure, however and the marriage was annulled, and the light to the throne restored. He f"? 9W-

ried a second time (to Princess Helene of Greece), in 1921, and visited England in 1924, arriving by nreoplano from Holland. There wore rumours in 1923 that relations between the Prince and tho Princess were strained, and divorce proceedings were ■lending, hut a denial was issued.