LATE CABLE NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 28 September 1931, Page 6

LATE CABLE NEWS

"MINUS-FOUR.” GANDHI’S FEW POSSESSIONS LONDON, September 16. When Gandhi arrived in England he was asked if he would not be ashamed to appear before the King in a loin cloth. He chuckled, and replied: “The British wear plus-fours; I prefer to wear minus-fours.” When a Customs inspector inquired if lie had anything to dec are, he answered: “1 am a poor mendicant. My earthly possessions consist of six iiomesupn loin cloths, and my reputation, which is not worth much.” . More than 200 journalists and photographers besieged the Indian, who laughiingly pleaded to be allowed‘ to breathe. He said that he would dearly like to meet liis enemies, Winston Churchill and Lord Rothermere. He wanted to visit Lancashire, but would not go uninvited, as the population might blame him for their poverty and try to lynch him.

NEW LOUD SPEAKER.

VOICE SCARES ELEPHANTS.; LONDON, September 18. : Working at one-tenth its maximum volume, the world’s most penetrating moving coil loud speaker, known as the “Searchlight Speaker,” has beer demonstrated at Radio House. .. It roared sufficiently loud to demoralise, a herd of elephants, besides shattering the glass of a listener’s watch. At a. maximum radius ol three miles, the loud speaker makes the on nds of kettledrums resemble a bombardment. At half-power production of “God Save the King,” at a. spot near Waterloo .station caused people in .the ' Strand (across t’ e Thames) to remove their hats . The Gramophone Company will be able to operate huge public address equipments, install sound effects in theatres, record any noise, pea's of bells for churches, and also penny-in-the-s'ot music machines.

A U-BOAT COFFIN. DEATH OF ENTIRE CREW. LONDON, September 18. How it German submarine, with a dead crew aboard, drifted about the sea bed for a month is disclosed by Captain Ernst Hnshagen former German na-val officer, in a book, the “Log of a U-Boat Commander,” Patrol vessels on the east coast of England in the summer of 1915 suddenly saw the conning tower of a submarine show up in shallow water inshore and vigorously opened fire. There being no response from the submarine, which roller further inshore, it was boarded.

Though there was no sign that submarine had been in combat, it was a

steel-clad cemetery. Mast of the corpses lay in bunks and hammocks, and some ' had nearly fallen out. Two forms crouched in the corner of the control [ room, showed that two of the crew had turned on the oxygen. Apparently, an I excess of oxygen stupefied all of the crew before they died of suffocation, and the U-boat was transformed into | a marine Pompeii. | Hashagen was the guest in England in 1929 of Commander Lewis, formerly a British Naval officer, whose “Q” boat lie torpedoed during the war, killing the occupants of the engine room and stokehold. . Hashagen spoke at Reading Town Hall on behalf of the | League of Nations’ Union, and was j well received, despite protests from ! parents of men who lost their lives in the submarine campaign. ENORMOUS SPEEDS. FUTURE OF AIR COMMERCE. LONDON, September 18, Mr Anthony Fokker, the well-known aircraft designer and builder, corroborates a statement made by Mr R. J. Mitchell, designer of Britain’s Schneider Trophy machines, regarding the illimitability of flying speeds. Mr Fokker declares that commercial aeroplanes will achieve a speed of 500 miles an hour.

“The most important factors are the human element and the design of the machine,” he said. “There is no limit to engine development. Nearly all existing machines are obsolete, having been only slightly modified during the past ten years.”