NEWS BY MAIL.

Hokitika Guardian, 3 May 1929, Page 2

NEWS BY MAIL.

NOBODY’S CHILD. PARIS, March 20. A domestic tangle is puzzling the Paris law courts. \M. Brice-Causse, poet and actor, who is nearly 60, fell in love with Collette Regis ,a young blonde actress. M. Brice-Causse was married and so was Collette.

The friendship resulted in the birth of child. M. Brice-Causse made a statutory declaration in accordance with French law, that he was the father i oif the child born out of wedlock, iHhich therefore bears his name.

But later the poet and the actress fell out. The poet insisted that lie alone had the right to the child, and even tried to kidnap it. The mother however, refuses to give it up. As the law stands, the parent who first recognises a child horn out of wedlock has a prior claim to it. But a married man or married woman cannot exercise this right. In consequence neither the father nor the mother has the legal right to call the child his or her own. The court adjourned the case. FACTORY CONTROL IN RUSSIA. BERLIN, March 20. Herr Cassel, the director of a German factory in Russia, lias been fined £I,OOO by a Moscow court for not conforming to the regulations of the Bolshevist authorities.

'illie charges against Herr Cassel ran to nearly 100 and counsel on his behalf showed that, with the best will in the world, it was utterly impossible to conform to all the orders of the Factory Control Commission. The commission had ordered him to improve the system of ventilating the factory. He had, his counsel showed, ordered the necessary material from the appropriate Soviet department, but it was not delivered. He then applied to the Commercial Soviet for permission to import it from abroad. This permission was refused. He managed, however, to get the material from private tradors, and thereby incurred a charge of obtaining it illegally. Herr Cassel did not appear In court He is in Germany in bad health which is perhaps not to be wondered at. LOST LUXURY. RIGA, (Latvia) March 11. Under the heading 11 Moscow is to be deprived of French rolls” the Moscow “litvestia” anounces that the

population will no longer have a wide range of choice in white and black breads.

White bread was abolished three months ago, but private bakeries continued to supply rolls and buns.' The f ‘grey bread” which replaced when ten loaves is composed of one-third white flour and two-thirds rye and bran. New regulations governing the sale of bread reveal that formerly 60 different sort of white bread were offered by Moscow private bakers. The varieties oif black bread have been decreased from ten to three kinds.

During the coming months the Moscow Provision. Commissariat has promised to open a number of new, bread distributing posts, making a total ol three hundred stores wfiiere bread will be sold to Government employees, Communists, and workers upon the presentation of cards. Thirty stores will be opened by the Government to supply the needs of the other classes Of the population, who have been forbidden to purchase food in the co-oper-atives. Moscow’s population is now more than 2,000,000. CZAR OF CHICAGO’S UNDERWORLD. PRISONER IN HIS ISLAND CASTLF NEW YORK, March 16. A 1 Capone, the “Czar” of Chicago’s underworld and Ace of American gangsters, is a prisoner of fear in his Ppalatial Miami home, living hourly in apprehension or death. The Chicago police believe that the recent cold-blooded murder of seven men who were placed in a row and ridled to death wish majchine-gun bullets was the work of A 1 Capone’s gunmen, and that vengeance has been sworn against the murders. Whether these direful oaths are responsible for Capone’s fears only he himself knows, but it is a fact that when .lie has a drink or two he confesses to his intimates that “sooner or later someone will get me.” His Miami castle of Spanish design is situated on an island, which can be reached only by routes strongly protected by his private bodyguard. His luxurious motor-car is steel-lined and bullet-proof ,and when he takes a ride his great fear is that a tyre will be punctured and that during the enforced halt he will be assassinated. £IOOO PARTIES. He was once a moderate drinker but now it is reported that he drinks too freely. But his days are not all misery. Sometimes he starts from his morose lethargy and gives a party to the elite off Palm Beach. He is a lavish host and

his invitations are eagerly sought. He will sometimes spend more than £I,OO on a single evening’s enteretainment. He never accepts a return invitation because of his fear of a trap. Even when his guests assemble they arc always under the watchful eyes of their host’s young guards. These are /as well dressed as the guests, but beneath their smart evening clothes are automatic revolvers ever ready to spit lire. - ' V HOW TO USE £20,000. BUDAPEST. March 11. Philip Gerber, who is 02 years old, has run a. one-man business in Budapest for some years than he cares to tell. He trundles a barrow from door to door and buys bottles and old newspapers, which he sells at some profit. He received his. first telegram the other day and, his eyes not being what they were, requested his wife to read it. When she bad recovered from the shock she informed him that the telegram was from a solicitor in New York. It brought the news that his brother, who had gone to the United States 32 years ago, had just died, leaving his estate, valued at approximately 100,000 dollars, (£20,000), to ‘my brother Philip, of Budapest.” Philip Gerber says he will buy himself a pair of spectacles and some gold teeth. He will then set up as a tobacconist. He explains that a tobacconist’s is a very’ fine, elegant business, and points to the Russian aristocrats who, having fled to Paris, opened cigar and cigarette shops there. Mrs Gerber thinks that it would b* more refined to open a lace shop. Those who have met Mrs Gerber say that there is no chance of Philip owning a tobacconist’s establishment, though lie may spend the evening of life measureing lace by the metre;