BRITISH & FOREIGN NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 24 March 1927, Page 2

BRITISH & FOREIGN NEWS

[IJT TELEGRAPH—PER PRESS ASSOCIATION'.] A LABOUR, BOYCOTT. LONDON, March 22. The Labour members of the Glasgow Municipal Council, who form almost half of The Council, have reaffirmed their decision not to participate in tho ceremonies when His Majesty the King visits the city of Glasgow on tho 12th of July next. The Labour Party at Glasgow at a meeting to-day, resolved as follows: “That no Labourite should serve on any Committee engaged in making arrangements for the visit, and that every vote of'money should be opposed.” The Daily Express’s Glasgow 'correspondent states:—“Unless the Labourites change their attitude, the Lord Provost of Glasgow may be forced to ask His Majesty the King to cancel his intended visit to tlie city.” LABOUR AVOP.LD. LONDON. March 23. The General Council of the British Trades Union Congress has decided to meet representatives of tlie Russian Trades Unions in Berlin, on March 29. in order -to discuss alterations of Jhe constitution of the Auglo-Russian Committee with a view to preventing any intervention by either country in the domestic affairs of the other, and also to consider the rrosition of the international working class in connection with the economic offensive of capital-

LONDON, March 23. The Council of the Trades Union (Congress has decided that Trades Councils affiliated with the Minority Labour Movement in Britain should not be accorded recognition, nor associated with the General Council’s work. AFRICAN WORK COLONIES. CAPETOWN, March 22. The “Work Colonies” Bill has been road a second time by the Union Parliament. It is generally approved. The Minister in charge pointed out that men who depended for support on their wives, or men who refused to work, would be committed to a work colony for a year, but they would not lie regarded as criminals.

A fully-equipped Forestry Settlement in the Cape is to ho utilised to start the scheme. Work will he provided in forestry, roadmaking and railway construction.

The inmates of the work colonies are to be given every facility to rehabilitate.

Magistrates are empowered also to commit both the inmates’ wives and children to a work colony, the men interned paying for their upkeep by their labour Tlie inmates of the eolonlv would lose the franchise.

JAPAN BANKS CLOSE. TOKIO, March 22.

Three more banks have announced that they have closed for an adjustment. This makes five within a week unable to pay their current depositors. A bankers’ meeting has been called to consider methods to meet the situation which is regarded as grave, hut not as critical.

A number of secondary, hanks are' endeavouring to meet the demands of nervous depositors. A cable reporting the successful flotation of bonds amounting to twent' millions in New York has somewhat steadied the finances, but this alone is quite inadequate. MURDER TRIAL. PARIS, March 22. Sensational charges are being made agtiinst Doctor Bougrat. whose trial has opened at Marseilles tu-dayy It is alleged that he murdered a patient, Jacques ltumehes, in his surgery, and then locked the corpse in a secret cupboard. and'assured the widow of Rumebes that his victim was alive and well.

Enormous crowds besieged the Court. With Dr Bougrat in the dock was his mistress, Mdlle Andrea Aurbibert, for whom the doctor divorced his wife, and for whose sake it is alleged, he committed the crime with which he is charged. Dr. Bougrat, who is thirty-two years of age holds the Croix de Guerre, and also is a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. He and the late Jacques Rumebes hid been comrades together in war time. Latterly Mr Rumebes had been under bis treatment, and when the man mysteriously disappeared it was known that he had £3OO in his possession.

Three months /afterwards the remains of Rumebes were discovered by the police, who visited Dr. Bougrat’s surgery to execute a warrant for a series of cheque frauds, 'i he police .were overpowered by an unbearable stench. They then investigated and they found the corpse. The prosecution alleges that there is an amazing record of cases where girls on visiting l)r. Bougrat’s surgery have been drugged and robbed of money and jewellery. Enquiries are also proceeding into the deaths of several former patients of Dr Bougrat, following on the discovery of large quantities of poison in his surgery.

The doctor lias denied the charges, lie has admitted that since lie was divorced lie lias led a deLmuched life, and been frequently in the lowest establishments.

UNWRITTEN LAW PLEA. DELHI, March 23

Kharag Bahadar Singh, a brilliant Nepalese law student, is on his trial for the murder of Kirilal Agsrwals, a millionaire, of Marwari. He pleaded the unwritten law. 'The accused said that he killed Kirvdal because the latter had purchased a Nepale girl, who was the accused’s cousin, for 1,300 rupees. Ho ruined her. and then he made her the plaything of himself and of his friends. The accused declared tldt- the Government should be made aware of the wide spread organisation that was carrying on a traffic in girls. The girl in question was a member of a Nepalese royal family. BANKRUPT PEER. LONDON, arch 23. A delicate situation has arisen at Boulogne, where Lord Terrington lias refused to appear 'at the Extradition Court. He stated that the British Government had authorised him to proceed to England, and that lie was actually embarking when r. crested. Lord Terrington has appealed to Sir Win. Joynson Hicks (British Home inister) to secure a withdrawal of the tediow-s French exthadition proceedings, whereupon, he says, lie will at once sail for England.

FRENCH RUGBY. PARIS. March 22. The French Rughv Union has postponed its forthcoming season’ visit to Australia and New Zealand. This is owing to difficulties it encountered. NEW INVENTION. LONDON. March 23. The newspapers arc puzzed about a statement made by Sir Frank Heath (who recently visited New Zealand in connection with the application of science to industry), in a speech at Leeds, in which lie alluded to “the early introduction of an invention which, if it possessed half the merits claimed for it, would affect, he hoped for good, the lives of every man, woman and child in the country.” No details were disclosed. art treasures for u.s.a. LONDON, March 23. ' The Earl of Northbrook has sold his Flemish pictures, including two famous Vandykes, recently exhibited at Burlington House, for considerably more than one hundred thousand sterling. The pictures are going to America.