WORLD-WIDE NEWS OF THE WEEK

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21386, 31 January 1935, Page 1 (Supplement)

WORLD-WIDE NEWS OF THE WEEK

MR MacDONALD ATTACKED Scene in the House of Commons Bitter words were spoken of Mr Ramsay Mac Donald, Prime Minister of England, during a noisy debate on the finance of the Unemployment Assistance Board in the British House of Commons on Monday. The Government's action in reducing certain relief grants was given as the reason for the strong attacks on the Government made by members of all other parties. The Strangers' Gallery of the House was crowded with men and women interjectors; about 20 of these were carried out after vigorous struggles with police and attendants had upset the crowd.,

The debate came in the midst of the unusually cold storms which were raging in England and the Continent with disastrous results for the poorer classes. Public feeling in London was doubtless embittered because of the hardships suffered through the cold. The scene in the House was one of the noisiest and most unruly for several years. GOLD LOST FROM AEROPLANE While flying from France to Essex, England, a Hillman Airways cross-Channel aeroplane was so buffeted by a storm that the luggage compartment was ripped open and £6OOO worth of gold from Paris fell out. Two passengers lost their luggage. The police are hunting for the gold along the route over which the aeroplane flew, but have found no trace of it. The pilot felt a change of weight as the aeroplane neared Dungeness, on the coast of Kent, but he attributed it to the movement of passengers at the time. It is generally believed that the gold fell into the sea.

JAPAN AND SIAM An Air Base Near Singapore Singapore is Great Britain's chief naval base in the Far East. It guards the Pacific at the west as Panama does at the east. Past Singapore go the important trade routes from India and Ceylon to China and . Japan. In a cable from Tokyo yesterday, Japan, through " Admiral Osumi (Minister for Marine) declared her desire for avoiding a naval race. It was stated that if she were forced to meet naval competition she would do so thoroughly and her people would live on okayu—the cheapest form of rice food—if. necessary.

At the same time news comes from London that Japan is making efforts to establish an air base at Bangkok, Siam, a position that, could be a menace to Singapore in time of war. The plans are being made for general air transport, commercial and passenger, and Japan hopes to open her service between Tokyo and Bangkok within a few months. Bangkok is about 600 miles distant from Singapore in a direct line by air. Hong Kong and Singapore are 1440 miles apart by the regular sea trade route. It is about 2500 miles from Bangkok to Tokyo by air. BIBLICAL DISCOVERY Manuscript Found in Egypt A new Biblical manuscript' has been found recently in Egypt and acquired by the British Museum. The manuscript consists of fragments of Greek papyri, or paper reed. There are four pages written in a literary hand appearing to date not later than the middle of the second century A.D. One page contains dialogue between Jesus Christ and the Jewish authorities, revealing striking agree-

TROUBLED GERMANY Military Leaders Bitter General Hermann Goering, German Minister for Aviation, has gone on a hunting holiday to Bialowieza forest- East» Poland, and it is suggested that he has fled Germany for a time till the bitterness against him in Berlin Has been forgotten. The leaders ,of the German military have clamoured ever since July for a public clearing of the character of General von Schleicher, a former, Chancellor of Germany, who was shot on arrest in June. Herr Hitler promised that the . general's name should be cleared, but General Goering is determined that Schleicher, who was accused of attempting to betray the Nazis to a foreign power, shall remain disgraced. Recently General. Goering published a further accusation against the murdered general to the effect that he had attempted to cause a revolt in January, 1933, just before Herr Hitler became Chancellor. !

The troubles in Germany are not of th« kind that may be solved in a few days; it is to be hoped that Herr Hitler's recent expressions of goodwill are to go towards solving some of the embittered country's problems.

ments between the new gospel and St. John's Gospel. The episode ends with attempts to stone Jesus and then seize Him and hand Him over to the multitude, but unsuccessfully, "because the hour of His betrayal was not yet come." It is believed that the manuscript is the earliest pieqe of Christian writing known at present. It is probably 50 years older than the Chester Be'r.tty manuscripts, which were thought to be the oldest in Inc world.