CHRISTMAS OVERSEAS

Evening Star, Issue 20986, 28 December 1931, Page 6

CHRISTMAS OVERSEAS

MILD WEATHER IN BRITAIN CROWDS VISIT SOUTH COAST Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON, December 25. Tin's is the mildest Christmas experienced for years. The roads are crowded, many people making for the south coast for the holidays. Though the roads are moist and slippery there have been few accidents. POVERTY IN AMERICA A DEPRESSING CHRISTMAS NEW. YORK, December 25. America celebrated its leanest Christmas in a decade. It was a Christmas void of every feature of those sensationally prosperous years when only the socalled extras were worthy of mention—namely, millions in bonuses from Wall Street houses, end-of-the-year profit sharing for stpckholders of large corporations, and vast Christmas Club savings. The sole outstanding financial feature this year was the extraordinary number of bank failures, possibly fifty institutions large and small having closed their doors during the past week. All over the country business continues at a low ebb, and merchants throughout the nation have complained of sinall sales despite pre-Christmas price slashing. The unemployed now exceed 7,000,000, and further wage reductions in the larger industries seem likely. Every effort has been made to reduce actual suffering, and probably 130,000,000d0l has been raised throughout the nation for relief. A special effort was being made to extend this relief directly to householders, but to-night in New York and other large cities of America long queues are standing in icy cold streets waiting for coffee and sandwiches, which were being handed out from lorries. Naval vessels and many forts gave Christmas parties for children, and thousands were thus entertained. It is estimated that 1,000,000 people were fed by charity organisations in New York alone.

The picture throughout the country was a depressing one, and it was not relieved by, the usual number of Christmas Day shootings, stabbings, killings, and deaths from poison liquor. Thirtysix persons died from these causes, and 100 people were taken to hospitals suffering from the effects of had liquor., CHURCH BELLS SILENT CHRISTMAS IN MOSCOW MOSCOW, December 25. There was no Christmas in Moscow this year, save for private celebrations by foreign diplomats or technicians. Not one church bell rang here. The conversion of the churches during the past year to secular use has proceeded apace, one after another having become clubs, cinemas, or warehouses, and no one seems to care. The only sign of Christmas on the streets was the sale of tinsel and a few, small fir trees in the public markets.

ACCIDENTS IN 'ENGLAND

TWENTY-THREE PEOPLE KILLED,

LONDON, December 27. (Received December 28, at 9.5 a.m.) Twenty-three people were idled in Christmas road and other accidents. The worst occurred at Staines, where a car driven by Mr Henry Burton Tate, a member of the famous sugar family, skidded and overturned in a ditch, killing his two sons, Arthur (tw,enty-one) and Robin (nineteen). Mr Tate was thrown clear. A retired schoolmistress was incinerated at Bayswater, her clothes catching alight while she was cooking the Christmas dinner.

There was a holiday theatre sensation unparalleled for generations when 3,000 people, many of whom had booked seats weeks ahead, arrived at the London Hippodrome yesterday afternoon to find a typewritten notice'on the doors stating that the spectacular revue, ‘ Bow Bolls,’ on which £25,000 had been spent, had been postponed owing to a mechanical difficulty in handling the new heavy velvet scenery and numerous scenic effects. TRAGEDIES IN AUSTRALIA BUSH FIRES IN SEVERAL PLACES. SYDNEY, December 28. (Received December 28, at 11 a.m.) The Christmas holiday tragedies numbered nine in New South Wales, where five people were drowned and four were killed in car smashes. There were three drowning fatalities at Brisbane. The week-end was extremely hot. Fires in South Wagga swept a large area of wheat and grass lands over a front of several miles. The fighters were unable to stem the flames. In South Australia fires in scrub lands near Bridgewater threatened a number of picnic campers, who had an < anxious time getting to safety by the combined efforts of men, women, and children, whose merrymaking turned to a grim fight to save their lives and property.