PERSONAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 June 1917, Page 4

PERSONAL.

A London cable mesasge states that Mrs, Pankhurst is going to Russia,'with the permission of the Government." A report sent early last March from Mr. William Owens, of the Y.M.C.A, in Egypt, to Mr. J. H. Lang, Australian National Secretary, contains interesting reference to Mr. D. N. McDiarmid, son of Mr. N. K. McDiarmid, of this town. Mr. McDiarmid has been working for some time as Y.M.C.A. field secretary in Egypt. The report referred to states that he has finished work in Upper Egypt, the work there having closed down. "He is now," it says, "to go to Khartoum to open up work there. Tin's is only a temporary arrangement. He is well-known there, aiid on account of that .Air. Jcssop was anxious for him to Btart the operations. Because of this 1 consented to a temporary arrangement being made. He is in the best of health, and 'his work in Upper Egypt was of a very fine type."

The death of the Rajah of Sarawak, Sir Charles Johnson Brooke, G.C.M.G., is announced in a cable message from London. He was born in 1829, and in hi:; earlier years served in the Royal Navy, rising to the rank of commander. His uncle, the first Rajah of Sarawak, invited his two nephews to help him in developing the territory of Sarawak in North-west Borneo. This region Sir .James Brooke had freed from pirates and ho had been requested by the inhabitants to rule over them. Sarawak has been enlarged by the late rajah, and its area is now 50,000 square miles, with 600,000 people, the capital, Kuching, having a population of 30,000. The late rajah spent nil his life in Sarawak, only occasionally going to England. He was married to Miss Margaret de Windt, of Blunsden Hall, Wilts, and is succeeded by his eldest son; the Rajah Mudah, Charles "Vyner Brook*, born in 3874, and married to a daughter of Viscount Esher. Sarawak is becoming every year a more valuable asset to the Empire, owing to its oil development and its gen&ral prosperity.

In the King's Birthday honors list announced a day or' two ago there occurred the name of Colonel Standish among other recipients of the Order of St. Michael and" St. George (C.M.G.). This is Lieut-Colonel Ivon Standish, son of Mrs. Standish, of New Plymouth. Colonel Standish, who will be 34 years of age in December next, left as a major of artillery with the main New Zealand Expeditionary Force. He is an old New Plymouth High School boy, and for a time was assisting his brother sheepfarming at Tarata. After serving in the South African war he returned to New Zealand and joined the Permanent Artillery, and his progress has been rapid. Some time ago he was awarded the D.S.O. It is worthy of passing remark that Dr. Truby King and Colonel Standish are the first Taranaki-born men to receive the C.M.G.