LATE CABLE NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 9 May 1931, Page 6

LATE CABLE NEWS

WOMEN’S PYJAMA RACE. EVERYTHING BUT SLEEPING. NEW YORK, April 24. The summer girl of 1931, now making her debut in a style show by garment retailers, is a saucy eyeful, ’twentyseven models of pyjamas are exhibited. She will wear pyjamas for practically everything except sleeping. Chiffon satin will take the lead, bub many of the pyjamas are of cotton. They are of every colour of tbe rainbow, jxnue trimmed with lace, some plain. Some have ruffles, some are indescribable.

“Cherry bloom pink,” “lantern glow yellow,” and “pagoda green” are among the latest pyjama colours.

Skirts will follow the. sun downward. The later the occasion the longer the skirt—mid-calf in the afternoon, trailing at midnight. The leading colours are brown and white.

RUSSIAN GOODS. COMMONS WANT IMPORTATION. ( LONDON. April 25. Amid Conservative cries of “Slavedrivers!” the House of Commons, by IG6 votes to 137, refused leave to Com. mander 0. Locker-Lampson, (Con., Hnmworth), to introduce a bill prohibiting the importation of goods from Russia. Russian imports were penalising British goods. Commander LockerLampson said, and the conscience of the world was outraged by the horrfirs of Russian labour camps. It was cowardly and “un-English” to encourage them.

Mr E. A. Taylor ( Lab., Lincoln) said that conditions in India and the West Indies were worse than anything in Russia. Tbe bill was only propaganda to stir up hostility against Russia and prevent the development of peaceful trading.

“MUMMY WHEAT.” GERMINATION IMPOSSIBLE. LONDON, April 25. “I do not believe it,” said the British Museum Egyptologist, Sir Wallis Budge, when told that a grain of wheat found in Tutankhamen's tomb had sprouted on tile Alberta farm of Herman Trelle. “T am so tired of unswerng queries as to whether mummy wheat can mature, that I have printed forms of denial,” Sir Wallis added. “The explanation is that the Syrians stack their whdat in Egyptian tombs for safety. Some whdat found in these tombs has matured, but it- was only five years old.

“I once opened a Nineteenth Dynasty tomb, and brought wheat to England where the director of Kew Botanic Gardens tried to mature it under blue, white, yellow and red glass, and used every possible means, hut the germs were absolutely dead.

“Ask any farmer if lie will buy fivo-vear-old wheat. That is the answer to the absurd question,” said Sit Wallis.

NOT A MURDERER? v DUSSELDORF “VAMPIRE.” LONDON, April 25. The detective-novelist, Mr Edgar Wallace, in the “Sunday News,” propounds the theory that the so-called German “Jack-thc-Ripper,” Kuerton. who was recently sentenced to death on nine separate counts, is megalomaniac “hoaxer.” Kuerten, he argues, could easily have assimilated the details of the murders from the newspapers. He may oneo have committed homicide, but his story at this trial is “the product of a vain and disordered mind.”

BRITISH FILMS. AND AUSTRALIAN CENSORS. LONDON, April 25. “Either Britons are most depraved or Australians are enveloped in an odour of sanctity,” declared an official of British International Films, regarding the banning by the Commonwealth of “Cape Forlorn,” the Frank Harvey talkie.

The company has decided to send the film on to New Zealand, where the executive is confident that it will notbe banned. The Australian censors, headed by Mr C-reswell O’Reilly, it was stated, had banned more of the company’s pictures than all the censors throughout the world,

“The Australian Prime Minister, Mr Scullin, asked us to improve the tone of British films, a suggestion with which we heartily agree,” the official added. “But we cannot understand how a film that is acceptable to Britain and other countries is unfit for Australians. Perhaps the censor is ton squeamish, but if he dictates what the public should see the Press should be permitted to attend private screenings to satisfy the public that the decisions are justifiable.” An executive of the British Gauinont Films declared that the Australian censorship is only less strict than the Irish, which is the laughing-stock of the world.”

SOVIET “CHICKS.” COUNTED BEFORE HATCHING. LONDON, April 24. Because be wrote an article headed “See Russia and Die—-Laughing,” Mr W. Grady, an American mining engineer, and his wife, have been expelled from Russia. Interviewed in Berlin, Mr Grady described how an American expert engaged by tbe Soviet to demonstrate tbe working of incubators, had 5000 eggs deposited therein, but as the time for hatching- approached, bis anxieties grew, because the promiesd chicken food bad not arrived. The result was 5000 dead chickens. The Russians made a second attempt, hut did not regulate tbe beat properj ly. This time the result was 5000 hard-boiled eggs. Mr Grady tells similar stories of Soviet 'inefficiency, but nevertheless, considers that, the five-venr plan will be successful.

PARENTS DEFIED. ROMANTIC RUSH TO GRETNA. LONDON, April 24. With all the elements of old-time romance, two runaway sweethearts sought the aid. of the blacksmith ol Gretna Green in order to overcome the objection of their parents. Scorning the parental ban, Charles the 20-year-old son of Mr A. T. Peehey, the novelist, and Mary Elizabeth, the 24-year-old daughter of Vice-Admiral Edward Wemyss, secretly motored to Gretna Green and clasped hands over the anvil, while the celebrated blacksmith, E. Rennison. married them. The young couple had been engaged, hut Mr 1 Vchey, holding that his son was too young to wed. amicably agreed with the vice-admiral that the ceremony should indefimt ly he defined. Then the lovers took matters into their own hands.

Rennison said the party of three men and two women arrived when he was taking in the milk. Rennison said the marriage would he all right il one ol the parties had lived in Scotland for the previous three weeks, and Alias Wemvss signed the necessary declaration.

“We defied the ban," the bridegroom said, “because, my father said it would lie permanent, instead of being lifted when I became 21. A friend offered to drive us and a friend of Mary to Gretna, so we four set forth without a word to another* soul. We feel perfectly justified, as we have known each other for four years, and have been engaged for six months. We are much in love and cannot understand tlm queer argument by which man-intro still is the subject of parental control when if, is a vital affair of our own.” On the Great North Road the runaways were stopped on the return by Vice-Admiral Wemyss. who lie*', received a telegram from, his daughter saving: “Married Gretna Green. No other way out. Bliss.” The'admiral had placed two cars across the road, and talked in a fatherly manner to the oonnle. He pointed out; to Ins anu'chter that she had done wrong in declaring that she was resident in Scotland.

A conference of the families will decide whether the couple will live to getlier.