LONDON LETTER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 70, 23 March 1940, Page 8

LONDON LETTER.

ALTMARCK INCIDENT. PRISONERS ON WARSHIPS. LIBERTY IN NEUTRAL SEAS. rn.v .ur Mail.) LOXDOX, February 23. International lawyers have not had to go hack very far in their search for precedents in tlie arguments over the Altmarck affair. Prisoners aboard a belligerent warship or prize ship must be given their liberty if the vessel enters neutral waters and remains there more than l'-I hours. In two eases already the Germans have acknowledged this rule. Captain Langsdorf of the Graf Spee immediately set free his British prisoners when the crippled "pocket battleship" put in to Montevideo. Last October the Norwegians themselves acted'on the same rule. This was when the captured American steamer City of Flint put in to a Norwegian port with a German prize crew. There were British prisoners on hoard and they were at once released by Norway at the request of the British Consul. The Germans were angry, hut they did not seriously challenge the legality of this procedure. Insurance Against Death Duties. Insurance against death duties, which enables an estate to bo passed on intact, is becoming more popular among wealthy people in Britain, lint such Insurance is a costly business. In fact it may turn a big income into n minus quantity. for instance a person with an unearned income of £20,000 must spend £8000 to uinke the provision. As he already pays £73-10 in income tax and .CaTOli in super tax, his total expenditure in taxation and Insurance against death duties will exceed his income by £1455. The greater his unearned income the worse oil he becomes if he effects this insurance. A person drawing ,€.">0,000 from investments will have to pay not less than £81,243. There arc IGB3 people in Britain who receive unearned incomes between £20,000 and £.10,000 and who therefore are confronted by this problem —to insure or not to insure against death duties. If the income is wholly or partly earned the rich man is not hit so hard-r-hc may even be left with a margin on which to live! Raid Warnings for the Deaf. How can deaf and dumb people be warned of the approach of hostile aircraft? The problem was not overlooked by A.R.P. authorities in Britain. Local wardens or neighbours were made responsible for rousing persons whose hearing was delicient, and in many eases were given keys of the homes.

Dissatisfied with tiio.se arrangements, (leaf people hove originated a number of ingenious schemes as alternatives. Thick string is tied to bedclothes, trailed downstairs, and left, hanging out of the street door letter box, enabling the warden to awaken the sleeper from his own porch. Or the bell push at the front door is connected with the electric light in the bedroom, so that a "ring" of the boll turns the light on. Another favourite dodge is to suspend weights behind Uie front door with thin ropes leading outside. A pull of the rope sends the weight to the floor with a thud, waking the occupants by vibration, to which deaf and dumb folk are very sensitive.