CABLE BREVITIES

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 147, 18 March 1931, Page 9

CABLE BREVITIES

In Sydney the death is announced of Mr. William Horner Fletcher, at one time a well-known city accountant, native of Auckland, at the age of 80. ♦ ♦ * The European tariff truce is regarded as dead by the Geneva Conference, which has been convened to consider the position. Only twelve out of thirty-one Powers ratified the agreement. * * » The death has occurred at Singapore of Sir Charles Eliot, aged 71, who retired five years ago after a long and distinguished career in the diplomatic service. For several years he was British Ambassador at Tokio. * Tirade From Coffin. . . As an old beggar woman was missing from her usual haunts in Lisbon, neighbours went to her house and found her lying prone, stone cold, and seemingly lifeless. They ordered a coffin, prepared for her burial, and then asked the sacristan to toll the church bell. Ait the first peal the “corpse” jumped up and cried, “Who’s dead?”' Then seeing the shroud upon herself she began a tirade which sent the mourners away helter skelter. « ♦ ♦ Snowden Recovering. . . The Chancellor of the British Exchequer, Mr. Philip Snowden, underwent a minor operation on Monday, which a bulletin says, was very successfully performed. The patient bore the operation very well indeed. Mrs. Snowden anticipates that Mr. Snowden will make h.js Budget speech if his present progress is maintained. * * A “Butter Election.” The Dairy Council of the Empire Marketing Board has inaugurated a buying election, in which 10,000 housewives in the Midlands will vote either for Empire or foreign butter. The Lord Mayor of Birmingham inaugurated the ballot in the presence of 1000 women employees of motor-cycle works. ,