BRITISH AND FOREIGN. LONDON, December 27.

Otago Witness, Issue 2808, 8 January 1908, Page 26

BRITISH AND FOREIGN. LONDON, December 27.

- It transpires that some members' of the ja-ton Hall house party committed "just >r fun." the alleged burglary at Cholmonleley Castle. ' - - December 28. The Daily Express says that its statement re the Cabinet changes, which ~wqp* fa&de authoritatively, is "baseless. December 29. The White. Star liner, Suevic,, having !>een^ pieced, together, will start , from Southampton within a fortnight -for Liverpool,- where she will prepare" to' take* up" the Australian trade 'again. ,r" , ' ' Three hundred 'and' eighty-seven securities tEat were dealt with on the Stock Exchange during /1907 represented a shrinkage in values of £342,000,000, or an Average fall of 9 per oerit. " December 30. The London County CounciL insists on a' Rental of 15s- per foot for the. Strand site for Commonwealth offices, instead of 13s $d offered by the Federal Government. It also requires tue_Commonwealth to take an additional depth of 10ft. - December- 31. ' Many people wish to take ' advantage o? the West Australian Government's, reduction in the price of assisted > passages outwards by the Orient line to £5 for domestic servants and agriculturists. The late LoTd Kelvin's estatie is. valued - Jit less than £1,000,000. ' - * t January. 1. Fifty Australian' lambs,- the gift of a .West - Australian, named Hally, were distributed yesterday among the survivors of the charge of the Light Brigade,- the Sal- - vation Army, and the. Church Army. During 1907 the sum oi £7,500^000 was Bubscfibed for" the maintenance of London's charities. This is .apart altogether from a number of '-large bequests for the same object. ■ " i \ • Lord" Kitchener v has Iveeu created •*. Grand , Commander of the Order of "the Indian Empire. 3fr' ( Cbghlan, in His annual report on the •; transactions of the New, South Wales AgenGy in London, states" that' assisted passages were granted last year to Sydney to 2779 workers and domestics out of 13,770 applicants. - The favourable feature of the year's operations was the higher percentage of immigrants who were friends cf immigrants " who ' had been previously assisted out to New South. Wales. N - January 2. General Booth in a report claims that the Anti-Suicide Bureau in 1907 saved }500 people from self-destruction.-- Of the friale applicants in London 54 per cent, financial embarrassment or poverty, Jl per cent, drink, drugs, disease, or taelancholia. * The Jajte 'Lord "Nunbornhqlme's estate is jralued at nearly £1,000,000. - . The bulk*of the estate, valued at % ove*r £250,000, -$f Mr Wilkinson Smith, -lace ijiamifacturer, hag been, bequeathed to widows and spinsters of Nottinghamshire. Mr J. Havelock Wilson, MvP.-, on being interviewed, declared that the -Australian -Navigation Bill quite represents the spirit of the ' resolutions .carried at the recent Imperial Navigation Conference. "He conRiders that the complaints of the British ship-owners against the measure, as cabled to the Commonwealth Government through the medium of Lord Elgin, are untenable. • January. 4. > • Handlers of : Australian, .canned - meats having alleged that the Board of Trade |s accepting inferior American meats for the merc-TJitiJA marine; Mr Coghlan;

Agent-general for New South Wales, interviewed the board, and received an assurance that the^standard recently put in force would not be lowered* The Franco-British Exhibition authorities have appointed an expert (Mr Marks, who is now visiting Australia) to xeprej sent them in order to . give the wineI growers information relative to the use of J Australian wines at the exhibition. ■ The Powers have discussed the advisa£i bility of holding a -naval demonstration ' I with & view to compelling the Porte to accept a collective note regarding reforms , ii£ Macedonia 1 ! , . X - - ■ . ' ~ ' y *'' •' ' January 6.- ' -The, people of Tetuan object, to the inauguration of European .,' 'control of , the , police. The authorities - insist -- ' that recruiting must- begin, since the Sultan, has 'sanctioned the organisation of j the police force. " ' . " • ' EDINBURGH, January 1. } The Marquis of Linlithgow has remitted i his Lothian tenants' rentals to ,the amount , t of £5000 on account of the bad harvest last summer. , - . PARIS, December 31. I A court-martial,, held at Clermont Fer- | rand with, a view of, resolutely suppressing J anti-militarism, inflicted sentences of from I two to ten years on five military prisoners. ' Grave insubordination took place during ' recreation in the prison yard. January .3. N Outside a fashionable- church, in this . city, where both men had attended a • requiem mass, Count Boni Castellani at- . tacked -Prince de Sagan, knocking him down in the gutter, where he continued to kick and trample him until the parties were separated. The apparent cause of the attack is that Prince Sagan is about to marry the divorced wife-of the Count - (nee Anna Gould). • ; January 6. The French Cabinet has been rearranged. M. Briand nas been appointed Minister | of Justice,.' M. 'Doumergue Minister of ' Public' lnstruction, and M. Cruppi Minister of Justice. _ " • The United States has reduced the duty on French" wines to 20 per cent, in Teturn . for a similar concession on cottonseed' oil and some classes of machinery. LISBON, January 6. . , King Carlos has accepted President I Penna's invitation to visit Brazil in i | May. i > ■ VIENNA, December 28. The man who gained access to the regi«mental safe at Vienna has been arrested. He had in bis possession £1000 after repaying a woman a sum whereof he "had previously robbed her. He is a deserter ! named Coldschmidt. | It has been determined to boycott Prus- . sian goods throughout Galicia as a mark j of resentment of the Prussian Diet Germanising Posen. ROME, December 30. Signor, .Cominada, a Milanese engineer, has planned the construction of a canal between the seaport of Genoa and Constance (on the lake of "that name), to - cross the Apennines. The ' canal is designed to admit of the passage of vessels lof 600 "tons. One hundred and sixty-one miles of existing waterways are 'to be j utilised towards the 366 miles traversed by the canal. ST. PETERSBURG, December 29. The evidence-'giveii before --the courtmartial that is inquiring into the surrender of" Port Arthur to the Japanese is almost uniformly unfavourable to General , Stoessel, who. has been unable to rebut the charges of unwarrantable interference preferred against him by General Smirnoff, the commandant of the fortress. January 3. 1 The notorious Union of the Bussian

People has been transformed, with the approval of the Czar, into an orthodox league, without changing either . its aims or its ideals. CONSTANTINOPLE, December 31. The steamer Grindonhall collided with wreckage in the Black Sea and foundered with 27 of those aboard. MOROCCO, December 28. General Drude has retired from the command of the, French forces in Morocco. General Damate, has succeeded him. NEW\YORK; December 28. i , The better-class Italian] clerks and , warehousemen in New York, PiJfeburg, and- Philadelphia have , formed ■ a White Hand 'Society to assist the police against the Black Hand Society. • December 31. Reuter states that' six steamers have, been chartered in New York, to take £5,000,000 worth of farm machinery to Europe. ' January 1. Albert Thompson, an English mechanic, has been arrested on suspicion of murdering on Christmas night a beautiful young woman, and leaving her body in a> swamp at Harrison, New Jersey. ■ He at first announced himself to be a bachelor, but later stated that he ie married, his • wife Lilian residing in New Zealand with his son. The accusation is at present unconfirmed. ~ " '' During racial riots at Bryson City, in Carolina, a huge negro killed five whites and then effected his escape. ' The landlords in this city propose to evict 10,000 of their tenants. , A girl named Neuman, who is an ardent Socialist, is inciting aA immense number of the tenants to organise a scheme of , passive resistance. , An explosion occurred in the Cortage mines at San Antonio, New Mexico. Thirty miners, who were entombed, are . believed to" have perished. ' • j I •'* January 3. • A 60 horse-power Napier auto-car, running on • the Brooklands course, .attained a speed of 85 miles" per hour.' -One of the tyres burst, and the oar jumped over the embankment? Frou, the driver, escaped with a severe shaking. -- -•-__' January 4. The body of a woman which was found in a New Jersey swamp has been identified as that of Lena Whitmore, the wife of a railwayman at Brooklyn. ' She disappeared at Christmas time or after with I her husband. The latter has been detained, but not charged. - - OTTAWA, December 30. As a result of the Franco-Canadian Convention, Canada grants most-favoured treatment to the Japanese and to several other countries, as well as ' to certain British colonies that do not now enjoy preference. ■ TOKIO, December 30. The Japanese Government is determined to restrict the number of Japanese emigrants for " Canada • and the United States.