LATE CABLE NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 18 December 1929, Page 2

LATE CABLE NEWS

BRITISH DEPART. . COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF’S FAREWELL. RUGBY, December 12. At two o’clock this afternoon the British flag was lowered at the Hohenzollern Hotel, Wiesbaden, announcing, the end of the eleven years of British occupation of the Rhine territory. The ceremony of departure took place in the presence of the. British Cominander-in-Chief, ,: General Sir William Thwaites, and' J .General Guillaumat.

After a general parade, at which music, wa's provided by military bands, the"’last body of British troops left for England, travelling via Saarbrucken. General Thwaites, speaking in German from the steps of the Town Hall, bade farewell to the citizens of Wiesbaden. “Since we came to this zone,” he said, “you Germans and we English have worked together in delicate circumstances. It has not been a pleasure to you and it has not been easy for us, but:# I feel we can congratulate each other on our behaviour to each other. The memory ’of our long sojourn in your wonderful Rhineland will always remain with us. Our life here has help ed us to understand the German people better. You on your part have learned to understand the sterling qualities of the, British soldier.”

ITALIAN ART TREASURES. SAFE ARRIVAL AT LONDON. RUGBY, December 12. The steamer Leonardo de Vinci, carrying the Italian art treasures for the Burlington House exhibition, which opens on Januay Ist, to-day proceeded from Gravesend, where ite arrived safely yesterday, to West India Dock, where the Foreign Secretary (Mr Arthur Henderson) and others will be present at the ceremony of welcome. During the voyage from Genoa, the vessel, with its precious cargo, weathered one of the worst gales of recent years, and the. master Captain Starles, until yesterday, never once left the bridge. The Italian Admiralty tug, which acted as escort, left her temporarily to assist a distressed Italian ship. The art treasures, which are packed in hermetically sealed metal cases were carried in' 14 pantechnicons, which were tightly lashed and wedged with mattresses and lifebelts to prevent movement. These vans, the contents of which are valued at £14,000,000, will be unloaded to-morrow and taken, with a police escort, to Burlington House. The unpacking will be a delicate operation as most of the pictures each in its separate case, are over 400 years old, and the paint has been subjected to the varying peratures of the Italian summers and winters. BOY SUSPENDED. SOUGHT PRINCE’S AUTOGRAPH. LONDON, December 6. tVhen the Prince of Wales opened the Leyton County High Sehool last week, a 15-vear-old-boy, Geoffrey Gill, a member of the Matriculation form, ,asked the Prince for his autograph. The headmaster, Mr M. Gompertz, has now suspended Gill for “gross breach of discipline and grave impropriety.” Gill says that the Prince did not seem angry. “He put both hands on my shoulders and said, smiling, “Sorry old man, I can’t give yo"U my autograph, or I’ll have to give it for the whole school.’ ” Several boys agreed to ask for the autograph, but the others backed;put. Gill’s father has sent a letter, asking the Prince to inform Mr Gompertz whether he was annoyed or otherwise.

DRESS REFORM. INSANITARY MONSTROSITIES. LONDON, December 6. “Trousers are ill-favoured, insanitary monstrosities,” declared Dr. Jordan, secretary of the Dress Reformers’ Association, when addressing the Institute of Public Health. “Men’s evening dress is the acme of beastliness, for it carries the accumulated dirt and sweat of years. There is no place or excuse for the hideous and ridiculous bags known as plus fours. “Shoes deform and torture. We have come to regard our feet as mere props and toes as useless relics. We ought to wear sandals.

fTOur clothing should allow a big surface of the skin to he exposed to light, and air. In the springtime the gifts, come out in dainty frocks and dimjdes, and the men come out in pimples.”

SACRED RELICS. IN CLEMENCEAXPS COFFIN. PARIS, December 6. Tt is revealed that the late M. Georges Clemenceau, in, his will directed fthat various articles be placed in his) coffin, including an iron-headed walking-stick, “which is of my youth,” also “goatskin-covered box, leaving in it a little book, put therein by the hands of my dear mother”—the book as a 1828 edition of the “Marriage of Figaro”—and dried-up bunches of flowers in a vase made from a German shell. These have a tragic history. When Clemenceau visited the front

before the German offensive in July, 1918, he was informed of new French tactics, placing a thin line ahead of the main forces to give confidence to the Germans. He paid a farewell visit to men selected for the sacrifice, and a non-com. offered him the bunches.

Clemenceau, almost in tears, replied “My children, these shall go with me in my coffin.”

GO TO THE SNAKE. CULT OF SLIMNESS. LONDON, December G. Jui-jitsu is the latest ally off fashionable Mayfair persons, in their efforts to secure slimness. An Oriental expert holds the ankles ol clients who endeavour to emulate the movements of a snake. The treatment lasts four days. The greatest secrecy is observed, says the “Weekly Dispatch,” only women clients who had been recommended being admitted. SERVANT GIRL BRIBED. PAID TO DEFAAIE PASTOR. CHICAGO, December fi. John Warren, pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Durand, Illinois, two years ago, was unfrocked upon charges of an illicit love affair with a servant of his household. This week he sued five wealthy members of his former congregation, upon the girl’s confession that they paid for her lying statement, which resulted in the clergyman’s disgrace. The jury awarded £4OOO for defamation.

MINES BILL. A MIXED RECEPTION. RUGBY, December 13. The Government’s Coal Mines Bill has met with a mixed reception. The miners favour the proposals for reducing the hours of work to seven and a half a day, and welcome the National Wages Board proposal. The coal owners dislike these features, but approve the Bill’s marketing scheme proposals. A feature of the Bill to which the indutsry generally objects is that it permits of an increase of the price of coal for domestic use. An interesting position in the Ilo” of Commons is likely to arise on the Bill. The Liberals have tabled a reasoned amendment for the rejection of the Bill, which, if carried with Conservative support, would defeat the Bill. The Conservatives, however, according to the newspapers, will find it impossible to give such support. It is suggested that the Conservative amendment for rejection, which will take precedence over the Liberal amendment, will be more direct, and that the Liberals will take no part in the division on it. The Liberal amendment, while favouring the reduction of hours and the establishment of the National Wages Board, opposes the Bill, which it asserts does nothing to promote reorganisation of the industry or secure a reduction of the costs of production through higher efficiency. On the contrary, it would give statutory vested interest to inefficient pits which would curtail the production of efficient pits and it would subsidise the coal supplied to competing manufacturers abroad, while increasing the price of coal to British industries and imposing a heavy burden on home consumers in ge'neral.