STRAINED RELATIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 66, 19 March 1931, Page 7

STRAINED RELATIONS.

Sequel to Canada's Trade Treaty With New Zealand. PRIME MINISTER'S PLEA. OTTAWA, March 18. The Prime Minister of Canada, Mr. R. B. Bennett, criticised the former Government of Mr. Mackenzie King for tlie trade agreements it had negotiated, and said it had made one treaty with Australia and another with New Zealand. To-day the relations between Canada and New Zealand were strained because of that treaty. A channel of trade had been created and then destroyed, he declared.

WAR CRUELTY RECALLED.

BRUTAL GERMAN OFFICER. LONDON, March 13. A refugee of oleven years from Allied and German justice, a notorious German submarine officer has revealed, only by his death, his hiding place in South America. Lieutenant Johann Boldk, of the submarine which torpedoed and sank the British hospital ship Llandovery Castle in 1918, and who himself sank the ship's boats with gunfire, has been killed in a motor smash in Columbia, whence, it has now been discovered, he fled after escape from prison in Germany. Of 258 persons on board the'Llandovery Castle, only 24 survived the attack. All the twelve nurses were drowned. Boldk was tried for violation of the customs of war by the German Supreme Court, when Germany refused to surrender him and others to the Allies. Captain Patzig, commander of the submarine, did not appear for trial. Boldk, ■ who was tried with Lieutenant Dittmar, refused lo discuss the affair, and maintained an arrogant demeanour throughout the trial, for which he was greatly praised by his friends, the Nationalists. The Court found that Patzig sank the Llandovery Castle, which was showing all her lights, in waters in which Germany had guaranteed immunity. It found, further, that he had no reason to suspect that she carried munitions, and that he acted in defiance of his orders and.of international law, and had deliberately fired on the. boats in order to destroy'evidence of the tragedy. One boat, however, escaped.

Boldk, according to the judgment, was concerned in lining oil the beats, thereby abetting manslaughter. He was , sentenced to four years, but he and Dittlnar disappeared from Hamburg prison after a few months.

NOBEL PRIZE

FORMER WIFE WANTS SHARE. CARSON CITY (Nevada), March 13. Grace Hegger Lewis, former wife of Air. Sinclair Lewis, author of "Babbit" end other books which have gained him distinction, is suing for additional alimony. She particularly, claims a portion of the money which Mr. Lewis receiveu as winner of the Nobel prize for literature.

HERO PROMOTED.

COLONEL FREYBERG, V.C. LONDON, March IS. Lieutenant-Colonel B. C. Frevberg, V.C., lias been promoted colond as from March G, with seniority to date from January 1, 1922. He has been appointed assistant-quartermaster-general, Southern Command.