GENERAL CABLES.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 February 1921, Page 7

GENERAL CABLES.

SLEEPING SICKNESS. By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. London, Feb. 2. There have been 21 cases of sleeping sickness (encephalitis lethargica) in a week in London.—Reuter. KIDNAPPERS SENTENCED. New York, Feb. 2. Two men, convicted at Los Angeles of having kidnapped Mrs. Witherell, have been given an indeterminate sentence of from 10 years to a life term.— Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. CAMBRIDGE DEBATING SOCIETY. London, Feb. 3. The Cambridge Union Society is adopting the role of candid friend and, at a recent meeting, carried a resolution by 160 votes to 92 that the influence of the Press is pernicious. MESOPOTAMIAN MANDATE. London, Feb. 3. The draft of the British mandate over Mesopotamia, which will be submitted for the approval of the League of Nations, is extraordinarily ambiguous and involved. The main provisions are that there shall be no discrimination against foreign States in trading enterprises and that all nations shall be placed on the same footing as regards freedom of religion and education. .Britain is made responsible for foreign relations, defence and the maintenance of the present frontiers.—Times. BOOM IN DOGS. London, Feb. 3. The annual dog show at Islington emphasises the present boom in dog-breed-ing. Americans are keen buyers of champions. The reserve price of the champion Pekinese was £3OOO. Puppies brought £5O, and a young St. Bernard £BOO. THE FUTURE OF VILNA. London, Feb. 2. The Polish-Lithuanian negotiations for the settlement of the Vilna question have been broken off owing to Lithuania’s repudiation of her willingness to agree to the taking of a plebiscite in regard to Vilna. The reason assigned is the continued presence of Zeligowski’s troops at Vilna, which it is feared would unfavorably affect the voting. THREAT OF RUSSIAN SCANDAL. New York, Feb. 2. The assistant-secretary of the Treasury admitted that since the fall of the Kerensky Government and the assumption of control by the Bolsheviks, the Ambassador, M. Bakhmetieff, representative of the Czarist and later of the Kerenskj T Government in Washington, withdrew 59 million dollars from the United States Treasury, the sum being provided as a Russian credit by the Liberty Loan Acts, a war measure.'The manner in which M. Bakhmetieff utilised the money has not been revealed, and the matter threatens to become a scandal.