GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2079, 17 January 1920, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

The deathis announced at Amolieles- Baines of Colonel" Ortus, the heroic defender of the “Maison des Dernieres Cartouches,” at Bazeilless, on the eve of the capitulation of Sedan. The great bronze slab which the Austrians placed in the middle of the roadway tit the exact spot where the bomb fell which killed the Archduke Ferdinand has now been removed by the Jugo-Slav Government. The Austrians allowed no one to pass over the slab, which much impeded traffic in that part of the road. The Lille court-martial demanded the extradition of eight Germans of high positions, including Count Otto yon Bismarck, grandson of the Iron Chancellor. Count Otto is accused of a’ number of crimes, sucli as having condemned to death without trial 14 inhabitants of the village of Vieoigne, near Valenciennes. These were shot “as an example,” and as soon as they had fallen, and before all were dead, the wall against which they stood was set on fire, and f also the neighbouring houses. A Japanese newspaper has just published an account of a curious Walking Society of Kobe, each member of wiiieh lias planned to walk a distance equal to the circumference of the earth. There is a charming variety of walks around the-Western port city, and the 185 members of the Kobe Society may be seen each Sunday morning setting out for their weekly ramble over the J ills. Organised in 1914, the sucieiy has already 13G long walks to its credit.