COAL DISPUTE

Evening Star, Issue 18335, 24 July 1923, Page 4

COAL DISPUTE

MAITLAND MEN REJECT AGREEMENT. ACCEPTED AT OTHER MINES. Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. SYDNEY, July 23. (Received July 24, at 12.40 a.m.) Tho Maitland minors rejected the coal agreement, but the Cessnook and Kurri Unions both accepted it. LOVE DRAMA A GREEK SENSATION. Press Association —By Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON, July 23. The Athens correspondent of tho ‘Daily Express’ reports that a man and a girl, who w.ero refugees from Smyrna, are the central figures in a poignant lovo romance which has moved all Greece. Aristide Vussilacopoulos was found unconscious in a home-made coffin with a poison boltlo at his side, and was taken to hospital. A.n hour later a girl named Athena, Tantailides was found unconscious in the same coffin. It has since been revealed that when Mastapha Kemal’s troops appeared at Smyrna Aristide was preparing for ins wedding. . He ran to Athena’s house, and found her in her wedding dress. Ho hurried her to tho waterfront, and, as ho was unable ’.o find a place on a ship, ho plunged tvith his sweetheart into iho sea, and swam for half an hour until a ship took them on board. The couple reached Athens penniless. ■ Weeks of privation followed until Athena found work weaving. Aristide, broken in spirit, could not find employment. Athena paid the rent of his room ns well as lior own. Aristide began drinking heavily, and became very jealous. Ono night ho tried to break the door of Athena’s room Next day she departed from hor-lodgings, leaving a letter saying that she still loved him, but only if ho honored and respected her and himself. Aristide, brooding over his troubles, conceived tho idea of punishing tho girl bv making a coffin and decorating it with carving. Ho spent several nays on this task, and then traced tho girl to her new home. Taking the coffin there when she was away at work, be lay down, in it, and drank bichloride of mercury. When Athena returned she found_ her lover. Her cries brought in the neighbors, and Aristide was sent, to hospital. _ Athena, loft alone, lay down in tho coffin, apparently believing that Aristide was dead and that .bo expected her to follow him, and that she would die of a broken heart. When her friends returned she was unconscious. . . Both aro now in hospital, but tfio doctors hope that they will recover. Thousands of people in Athens arc praying daily for their recovery when efforts will lie” made to enable the lovers to get back their lost happiness.-—A. and N.Z. Cable.