WORLD MISCELLANY

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 17, 14 October 1933, Page 7

WORLD MISCELLANY

Happenings Overseas

NEWS IN BRIEF

United States Crime Bill

Dr. Clayton .1. Ettinger, professor of sociology at the Western Teachers’ College of Kalamazoo, Michigan, in his book “The Problem of Crime” asks how any taxpayer can view with complacency the enormous public cost of crime. Dr. Ettinger estimates this at 4,000,000,000 dollars (normally about £800,000,000) annually. Losses through frauds, property losses through burglary and robbery; the economic value of 12,500 murdered persons every year, and the general waste due to crime—these items amount in excess of 8,000,000,000 dollars (normally about £1,600,000,000) more. “In recapitulation,” Dr. Ettinger says, “after pondering all these items and considering the far-reaching effects of crime, we come to the conclusion that the highest figures on its annual cost yet ventured —13.000.000,000 dollars (normally £2,600,000,000) —is probably not an exaggeration.” That is a terrible commentary on organised society. It should make every American shudder to think that crime saps more from the people than all the legitimate costs of Federal, State, and local government It must be curbed, and curbed at once.

£7,000,000 Tunnel Scheme

The United States Public Works Administration announces that it ha< granted New York City a loan of 37,000.000 dollars (over £7,400,000 at par) at 4 per cent, for the immediate construction of a vehicular tunnel beneath the river Hudson connecting the midtown section of Manhattan with NewJersey. Record Rock Climb

A message from Innsbruck says that the well-known guides, Josef and Angelo Dimai, from Cortina, in the South Tyrol, and Emil Comicl, from Trieste, have succeeded in climbing for the first time the northern wall of the Great Pinnacle in the Dolomites, tried in vain by the best climbers of Austria, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland, in consequence of its extraordinary smoothness. A large part of the wall is quit® vertical, and offers no opportunity whatever for the tourist to find a footing. The courageous conquerors used no fewer than 90 wall-hooks, 50 carbines, 270 yards of rope, and 170 yards of cord.

Ban on Village Lifted

A ban which was laid on the village of Glade, near Tetowo, Yugoslavia, thirty years ago, has been lifted by the Bishop of Stopije, at the request of the villagers. In 1903, when the village and neighbourhood were under Turkish rule, the then Bishop of Stopije paid a visit to it and was received with animosity and abuse by the inhabitants, upon which he promptly pronounced a ban. Since that time innumerable misfortunes have occurred in the village, such as the burning of the church by lightning, destruction of crops by hail, cattle plagues, and devastation by the Komitadschis on several occasions.

Scientist Marries at 83 Sir John Ambrose Fleming, the scientist and inventor of the wireless valve, has been married at St. Pancras Church, London. He is 83 years of age. Sir Ambrose’s bride was Miss Olive May Franks, whose home is in Manor Park, Redland, Bristol. She is 34, and the daughter of the late Mr. George Franks, laundry proprietor. Sir Ambrose Fleming, whose first wife died in 1917, was knighted in 1929. He was associated for many years with the development of electrical science, and achieved fame as the inventor of the thermionic valve which revolutionised wireless telegraphy and made wireless telephony possible.

Boy Imprisoned in Ceiling

All one morning recently a search party scoured the district for Kevin Donohue, aged nine years, who was missed from his home in North Bendigo. At about midday he was found imprisoned in the roof of his home with one foot firmly jammed in a cleat of wood. He had been there since the previous afternoon. When the boy had not appeared the previous evening his father and a number of neighbours searched until a late hour without finding any trace of him. Meanwhile the boy was in the ceiling of the house, which was undergoing repairs. He had climbed up into the ceiling and in a space enclosed by two walls and a chimney one of his heels was firmly caught in a cleat. He called for assistance, but apparently his voice did not penetrate from the confined space. Eventually his mother heard a noise in the ceiling and a younger brother climbed up and freed the boy. He had been in the ceiling for about 20 hours. Bismarck Monuments to Go All Bismarck’s monuments put up by the Germans in Polish Upper Silesia are to be destroyed. At Katowice, the main city of Polish Silesia, the town council has ordered the breaking up of the stone monument of the “Iron Chancellor,” which was erected 30 years ago when the Germans ruled that part of the country. A similar decision has been taken by local authorities in other places of Polish Silesia, where Bismarck monuments were put up years ago. Bismarck s endeavours to Germanise the Poles attach unpleasant memories to these souvenirs. Escapes from Devil’s Island An alarming increase in the number of escapes from the terrible French penal colony at Guiana and on Devil s Island has unexpectedly forced the French Government to consider its abolition. Eighteen prisoners, tormented to desperation by the conditions in the colony, have evaded their guards in a seemingly hopeless attempt to reach sanctuary in British territory at Trinidad. Braving a shark-infested sea. the men set sail in open boats, according to reports received in Frnnce bv the authorities. They eluded the warders while at work ou the fringe of the jungle, and made their way through it to the coast, where the boats awaited them on a deserted stretch of of beach. The authorities are satisfied that they were assisted by some outside person whose identity _is not known. The menace of poisonous snakes, the fear of certain hunger, thirst, and the tropical sun. did not daunt the desperadoes, who preferred to run these known risks rather than endure longer the terrors of Guiana. Their escapes increase to a total of 100 the number of escapes made in the last twelve months. They have also intensified the campaign prompted by humanitarians throughout France for » the abolition of Abe colony