GENERAL CABLES

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 178, 22 April 1924, Page 8

GENERAL CABLES

THE EXILED CALIPH BORDERING ON PENURY By Telegraph—Press Association. It is reported from Vevey that the ex-Caliph spends his days in praying, painting and composing music. His position is becoming serious. He will be penniless within a month unless the Turks send assistance. His family has taken a cheaper suite. All his wives sleep in one bedroom, and never show themselves in the corridors. Royal etiquette is maintained. the Caliph always is addressed as ‘Your Majesty.” although he is now unable to keep a servantCaptain Victor Gordon has been appointed High Commissioner for Newfoundland in Great Britain. Damage estimated at £15,000 was done by a fire which gutted Thomas Brown’s wholesale store and offices in Townsville, Queensland. Good Friday was the. first unspoiled spring day of'the year in Britain. The weather was warm and the seaside and other holiday resorts were crowded. General Bruce, leader of the Mount Everest expedition, has returned to Darjeeling owing to an attack of fever. He hopes to rejoin his party later. A report from Burma states that a large band of Chinese , rebels and brigands crossed the Chinese-Burma frontier into British territory, committing depredations. Military and police columns have been sent to oppose them. A report has been received at Delhi of a serious raid in the Dera Ismail district on April 16, which resulted in the abduction of seventeen persons, seven of whom later escaped. The raid was the work of a gang of Mahsuds, under a notorious leader named Baksha.

Tho “Morning Post’s” Constantinople correspondent states that the Turfiish authorities have closed, the Women’s College built by Americans at a cost of £60,000 on the ground that higher education is the exclusive right of the Government. This is regarded as a blow to the women’s emancipation movement.

Mr. Collier, the new Premier of West Australia, in a policy speech, declared that he was in favour of immigration limited only bv the absorptive capacity of the land; of settlement stimulated by effective land values; of the taxation of State-aid-ed co-operative marketing, State banking ana insurance! of a Basic Wage Commission, a Fair Rents Court, and legislation to control rents.

The “Daily Chronicle” reports that engineers, after experiments lasting for six years, have perfected a landing stage that will enable aeroplanes to land on the roofs of citv buildings and railway stations. . The device consists of a steel grid, which is tilted up according to the speed of the aeroplane. Huge fans beneath pump away the cushion of compressed air formed in landing. > An outstanding episode in connection with the Byron Centenary celebrations in Athens was a gathering of thousands of Byron lovers in the moonlight at the Acropolis. Throe hundred of the prettiest girls in Athens, in classical robes, came two by two from the Parthenon, and sang Byron’s “Maid of Athens,” to Gounod’s music. Recitations of Byron’s poems followed. Six female attendants who replaced strikers at the Letterkenny Asylum have been arrested and charged in the Court -with assaulting the head nurse, the only remaining female member or the old staff who did not go out on strike. It was alleged that complainant was dragged from the building by her hair at "night time. Her screams attracted the civic guards, who found her gagged. Accused were committed for trial.—Reuter. The Paris correspondent of “The Times” says tho Municipal Council has decided to tax foreigners visiting Paris. If a visitor remains more than two days he will be required to obtain a permit, for which a fee of twenty francs is payable. Tho permit is valid for four months. If tho visitor stays longer than four months, he must exchange the permit for an identity card, which is already obligatory on resident foreigners, and for which the fee in future will be fifty francs, instead of twenty as at present. M. Carpentier, a French inventor, has devised a system of diving bells attached to a submarine for. saving the crew in the case of accident. The first bell, attached to the submarine by a cable, can be sent to the surface carrying a signal of distress and also indicating where the submarine lies. If aid is delayed, the crew can uso the other bell to bring several men to the surface, and they can send the bell down again to rescue the others.

Samuel Moore and Leo Unell, owners of a sporting goods house at Chicago, have been arrested and charged with arson, which resulted in the worst fire Chicago has experienced for many years, says a Sydney “Sun” messageShortly before midnight when a hundred firemen were fighting the blaze, a four-story wall fell, killing eight firemen, and one civilian. The police allege that Moore fired the building to collect the insurance, which had only just been put- on.

Addressing the Millions Club in Sydney, General Bramwell Booth mentioned that he got a lot of advice from spiritualists on how to run the Salvation Army. One man at Boston said he had a message for him from his father, “who desired him to tell me that my father was very dissatisfied with the wav things were managed up above, and he was trying to bring about an alteration.” The General added that the message sounded “very like his father.” A West End lady spiritualist had also delivered a message to him from his father. This ran: “Tell my son Bramwell to push the collections.” The General’s comment was: “This sounded more like my father.” The question of abolishing the flogging of boys for disciplinary purposes in the Naw was raised by a Labour member in the House of Commons. Mr. C. G. Ammon. Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty in reply, said it was not proposed to abolish the birching of boys inflicted by conrtmaitial for certain serious offencesWhen he went to the Admiralty ho made inquiries, and found that there had only been six cases since 1917, all for serious offences. Most of the flogged boys made good, while in previous cp-ses of imprisonment boys had gore to the bad. Hence his present decision, which wi« arrived at in spite of previous predilections on tho subiect.—Router.