MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS

Hokitika Guardian, 4 October 1927, Page 1

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS

LONDON IS SATURATED

LONDON', Sept, 24. Sinco noon yesterday OO.OttO.OO!) tons 4’ lain have fallen in London.

Last alone as much foil as tiring the whole of September last

year. This September is likely to lie the wettest for half a century. As a result of yesterday’s downpour. big tracts of land between Brighton and Eastbourne, are under water, cattle are knee-deep in the floods, and late crops have been washed up. Abbe Morrcaux, the French astronomer, whoso prediction of a wet summer has been remarkably borne out, seeks to comfort the British public by an explanation that the excessive dampness is due to the sun. and that it will be even wetter next year, and thereafter.

■MAKES ’EM GROW. LONDON. Sept. 24. Remarkable results followed a fortnight’s holiday in Switzerland by a party of Nottingham coal-pit lads which was conducted with the object of studying the effect of the son and clearer air on them. Their weights increased by from 2ib to 17Jib, their chest expansions by from a /fpiartcr to one inch, and tbeii thigh measurements by from lin f o Uin. Two of the boys gained nearly an inch in height.

HUMAN DERELICTS. DOPE AND WHITE SLAVES. GENEVA, September 24. The League Asemhly considered the report of the traffic in women and children, the committee recommending that all Governments endeavour to close licensed houses as soon ns possible, these being the root of all the evil.

Dame Edith Lvttleton declared : “Men and women took their lives in their hands in investigating this evil on behalf of the Committee. When a man commit murder he is executed; when he murders the spirit of a women or a child he gets a month’s imprisonment. The iniquities in regard to procurers have revealed a quagmire of degradation.” The report on the drugs committee, which was also considered by the Assembly, showed the enormous extent of the illicit traffic in drugs throughout the world. The opium statistics were given in tons, those of heroin and morphine in thousands of ounces. “These figures,” said Lord Lvtton, “mean that millions of men and women have fallen victims of the drug evil. Now, ladies ail’d gentlemen, with the picture of your friend rotting to death before your eyes, are you going to allow people to make* a living at this trade?” He pointed out that there are. nrobablv not more than thirty factories in the World in which drugs are manufactured, and he urged the Government to put a fence around them.

The Assembly passed a resolution urging the Governments to enforce the Geneva 1925 resolutions at the earliest possible date, as a most valuable single step in the desired direction.