GENERAL NEWS ITEMS

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 1954, 20 March 1919, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS

TROTSKY IN CANADA. « A Canadian paper recalls the fact that Trotsky, the new sole director of Russia, once worked in the freight sheds of the Canadian Pacific Railway at Montreal, and that he has a claim aginst them for £3 for alleged arrears of wages, as lie left without notice. Trotsky also claims the attention of Canadians in dial he organised a branch in Toronto of die I.WAV. when iu New York. FIRST AERIAL CONCERT. The first aerial concert was recently heard by London. A big bombing-plane canned a band aloft, shat off the engines, and had a concert while it glided In earth. Another Handley-Page which was to have dropped (iOOlb. bombs on Berlin, bad the war continued, is carrying 40 persons at a time on flights over London. LEAGUE OF NATIONS CAPITAL. The Foreign Affairs Committee of (lie French Chamber of Deputies is. considering a Bill which would make Versailles the capital of the proposed society of nations. The Bill is backed by the deputies from Versailles and the Department of Seine-et-Oise. it proposes to put the buildings at Versailles at the disposal of the States represented at the peace conference, giving them the privilege of extra territorial right, and to make Versailles the permanent centre of the proposed society of nations. GERMAN WIRELESS STORY. Sir Hugh Clifford, Governor of the Gold Coast Colony, lias issued a statement in West Africa that on September 11th, 1913, he was informed by an Austrian engineer that a pledge had been given to the Kaiser that the Kamina Telefuuken Wireless installation (Togo, German West Africa) should be in working order not later than August Ist, 1914. The Kamina installation was one of the most magnificent systems in the African continent, and was designed to be able to communicate with Berlin, with Hindhoek in German South-west Africa, and with Dar-es-Salaam on the east coast. NOVEL CAMP PUNISHMENT. In contrast with the familiar record of maltreatment of British prioners in Germany, some amusing incidents of life in the huge camp at Schneidemuhl were told by a serge.; ant of the Royal Garrison Artillery, who had just reached England. Some of the German officers in charge ..of the camp were real

“sports,” said the sergeant. It would occur sometimes that - men in the cam]) were “reserved for pun* inshment” on account of discipline. Rather than millet the ordinary punishments, however, the commandant would arrange for certain ollicers to box some of the prisoners in the hope of administering punishment to them iu that way. But among the Englishmen! were a number of clever boxers, and it usually happened that they made full use of their, opportunities,, indicting on the Germans retribution, which caused the greatest hilarity in the camp. “Really,” said the sergeant, “our occasional high spirits nearly drove the Germans mad with indignation.”