LATE CABLE NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 23 May 1931, Page 6

LATE CABLE NEWS

CAR “BEHEADED”

MOTORISTS’ NARROW ESCAPE

LONDON, May 8

Running at full speed, 70 miles an hour, the London express, at a level crossing at Cropthorne, Worcesershiiv, crashed into a motor car in which George Swift, fruitgrower, and a friend, John Silvester, an insurance representative, were travelling. .It whipped oil' the bumpers, headlamps, and a front wheel, sliced the radiator like a knife and carried them for a hundred yards.

Swift’s employees, hearing the terrific crash, rushed up, - fearing the worst, but were amazed to see the occupants of , the car stepping, smiling, from the “beheaded” motor car, which was lu, t even overturned. Apparently the speed of the train saved the motorists, who were not even jerked from their seats.

The express, which was not damaged, was pulled up three miles away.

FRANCE’S TURN. EFFECTS OF DEPRESSION. PARIS, May 8. Over 70,000 unemployed are receiving State municipal relief. This is only a small proportion of the total out ot work. The textile unions have declared a strike for the near future if the employers insist on the proposed wage reductions. France lias been almost the last country to feel the effects of the world depression.

ROMANTIC ANCESTRY. DEAD DUKE’S SUCCESSION. LONDON, May 8. Edward Seymour, 16th Duke of Somerset, whose death was reported recently, was descended from Jane Seymour, one of the wives of Henry VIII., and romantically succeeded a third cousin in 1923 by proving to the House ol Lords that his ancestor, Colonel Seymour, was legally married, before the birth of his son in 1788, to a beautiful girl whom he befriended when murderously attacked by seamen, one of whom claimed to be her husband. A search of records all over the world showed that Colonel Seymour died at sea and was buried at Calcutta in 1/96.

“THE BASER SORT.” HARM DONE BY POLITICIANS. LONDON. May S. “It is probably too much to hope that even Sir Robert Gibson s positive denial that the Bank of England has dictated to the Commonwealth Bank, or big emphatic assurance that the Bank of England is ready to help Australia. will prevent the baser sort ol politicians repeating their assertions to the contrary,” says “The Times, in a leading article. “These things needed saving, however, and it is well that they were said authoritatively on an occasion ensuring the utmost publicity throughout Australia, enabling the sober public to realise the facts.”

TWO KINGS. PARLEY IN MOTOR- BOATS. j BUCHAREST. May 8. j Two kings held a secret conference, ; lasting an hour, in a motor boat on the I River Danube, one of them piloting the I boat himself. They were King Alexani der of Yugoslavia, who is a virtual die- ! tutor, and King Carol of Rumania, who, finding difficulty in securing a Cabinet, is credited with similar ambitions. j King Carol, accompanied by his formler tutor, Professor Jorga, who is now ' Premier, motored to Dreneova, where . he met King Alexander, who arrived j in a, yacht, escorted hv monitors, j King Alexander entered Carol’s motor boat, and the two monarohs, alone, speeded up and down the river. I It is stated that 1 the conversation j was merely a friendly chat between I brothers-in-law, King Alexander havi ing married Princess Marie of Ruma- ' nia.

M.P.’S MIXED. CONFUSION IN COMMONS. LONDON, May 8. Confusion of the name of Mr L. W. Matters, an Australian-horn member of the House of Commons, with that of Mr G. Mathers, ALP. for Edinburgh, caused an amusing incident in the House, when the Speaker called “Matthers,” and neither knew which had caught his eye. ‘.‘Our correspondence becomes hopelessly mixed,” said Air Abutters. “1 am an impecunious journalist and he gets mv bills. He, as a level-headed, serious business man, pays his bills, and I get the cheques intended for him.”

BODIES EXHUMED?

STORY FROM FLANDERS

LONDON, May 8

A report in the “Sunday Express” states that wealthy British people are paying thousands of pounds to a. Belgian organisation, which secretly exhumes bodies from war cemeteries in France and Belgium and smuggles them to England at night, thus making possible their reburial in family vaults. The vice-president of the Imperial ‘AVar Graves Commission, Alajor-Gener-al Sir Fabian AVare, declares that there -i s no truth in the report.

The Director of the War Graves Com-

missioner’s Records, Major Chettlo, says: “The report, to sav the least of it, is wildly improbable. Our gardeners would surely have found traces of such exhumations, while the smugglers would hare evaded the law and the Customs on both sides of the Channel.” “The whole thing is impossible,” said Sir Granville Ryiie, who was indignant,.at the circulation of the story.

ADVOCATES DRINK

RENO’S MAYOR RE-ELECTED

NEW YORK, -May 7

The colourful Mayor of Reno, Nevada, Edward Roberts, has been reelected for a fourth four-vear term.

He is an ardent anti-prohibitionist, flavours open gambling, and quick divorces, and intends placing open barrels of “good <o,-n whisky" at the, principal street corners for the purpose of ridding the city of bootleggers, bv making illicit selling unremnnerative.' SKIDDED INTO COURT. WEALTHY COUPLE DIVORCED. CINCINNATI, May 7. Harry Weed, who invented the I Unions motor car chain to prevent skidding. sold a partnership in the patent years ago to Walter and together they became millionaires. Wishing to keep these millions in the family, they contrived a. marriage between Martha Lushar and Bobby Weed. This partnership, however, skidded.J.nto the Divorce Court, after a short trial, and to-day the couple became unchained.

“CHEATING” IN ART?

COPYING FROM PHOTOGRAPHS. LONDON, May 7. A fresh controversy ha« been caused by Sir William Orpen’s painting, “Palm Sunday.” which critics declared caricatured Christ, making both him and the donkey on which he is riding appear as ludicrous figures. After the first storm of protest had partly subsided. a critic noticed a remarkable similarity between the central figures in the painting and a twelfth century sculpture, which is one of the treasures of the Pergamon Museum, in Berlin.

When the similarity was pointed out to Sir William Orpon, he admitted that the sculpture was the s°»rce of his inspiration. He had it specially photographed and enlarged. an ( ] drew his Aendemv picture from the photograph. ,Sir William claimed that his action was legitimate.

“I can put any work ol art into niv pictures, without acknowledgment lie said.

The Secretary of the Royal Academe Mr Walter Lamb, said that lie thought that the rule relating to the inadmissibility of copies had not been infringed. Ho declared that an artist, could legitimately use photography to refresh his mind. AUTOMATIC SERVER. NEW ENGLISH RESTAURANT. LONDON, May 8. England’s first “automatic restaurant” has been opened in the Str a nd. It has 30 machines, catering for 300 people at once, with a caviare sandwich at one end of the scale, and a chocolate eclair at the other.

Not a single' item costs more than sixpence, and the restaurant is open throughout both day and night, the door never closing.

AAV AR BED TAVO PENCE. JEAN BOROTRA\S “LIEF.” PARIS. May 8. Jean Borotra, the famous tennis player, who claimed £2OO, has been awarded one franc (twopence') damages against the editor ol the story of his life as a tennis champion, which was distributed free at the French championships in 1929. Borotra contended that the biography savoured of nublicity and damaged his amateur status.

The Court, giving judgment, held that Borotra had suffered no material damage, hut that the moral prejudice was undeniable. Tl ordered the destruction of all copies of the biography and forbade the editor to use Borotra’s name again. “FATES WRITTEN.” LORD THOMSON’S AVORDS. LONDON, May 8. “Tf the worst comes to the worst, it will soon he over. Thp fate of everyone of u s is written.” This, according to the Prime Alinister, ATr MacDonald, in a preface to the second edition of the late Lord Thomson’s novel “Smaranda,” was the farewell message his Secretary of State for Air called to Him up the staircase when leaving to join the ill-fated R.IOL

“Lord Thomson’s courage was such as wag to lie expected from EieldAlarshal Sir AV'Hiam Birdwood's cousin,” says Air ATacDonald. “Lord Thomson was that most enticing human being, a soldier in upbringing an,] discipline, an artist in sensibilities and valuations of life. “AA’e discussed the risks of the R. 161 on til,? day before it left. He had set his heart on the venture, and it was right for him to do so. He believed in the airship. It was his child. How could he remain when it proceeded to its attainment ”