NEWS OF THE WORLD

Evening Star, Issue 21784, 28 July 1934, Page 7

NEWS OF THE WORLD

BLACKSHIRT STORMY PETREL - HIT MAN ‘FOR INSULTING LEADER At the hearing of a judgment summons in Leeds County'Court recently, defendant (wearing a black shirt), said: “I’ve been out of work three years, but got a job with the fascists three weeks ago, and then I hit a chap for .. Insulting the leader. The Judge: What leader? Defendant: Sir Oswald Mosley. His Honour: What did you hit the man for? ' , Defendant: If 1 hadn’t hit him he would have hit me. I then got another job, and a man insulted me. His Honour: You alwaySiSeem to be finding insults. Why? • ■ : - Defendant: Because I belong to the Blackshirt movement. His Honour: If you cannot make a living with, the Blackshirt movement , you had better go without it. LOTTERY TICKET ON DEAD MAN REPRESENTED £12,500 TO HOLDERS When a body was exhumed at Fortiers by holders of a French National Lottery ticket, a ticket which represented a prize of 1,000,000 francs (about £ 12,500) was found carefully folded tn a pocket of the dead man’s clothes. The dead man was one of the holders .of the ticket, and the remainder had been searching ; frahctically everywhere for the ticket, sihee. the news of their luck was known. . ■ Then one of the group remembered that the man who had been nominated to hold the ticket had died. They asked his widow for f permission .to exhume the body, and- are now rejoicing at their luck. The Widow will get the dead man’s share of the prize. The fact that the dead man carried the ticket to the grave with him is accounted for by a village custom in certain parts of. France of burying people fully dressed. GREAT BRITAIN’S CUSTOMERS PURCHASES BY DIFFERENT RAILWAYS The British;' railways’ annual purchases include 50,000 different articles. Over "1000 miles of track are laid' or renewed yearly, for which 210,000 tons of steel rails, 4,000,000 sleepers, and 2,000,000 cubic yards of ballast must be bought. . The 14,000.000 tons of . coal consumed by 21,000 locomotives and steamships and hotels keeps a large section of the mining industry regularly employjpi. No : less .than 3,800,000 yards of cloth are purchased from British mills for uniforms.' 21,000,000 bricks, 62,000 tons of oil. 9000' tons of paint and varnish, and a 'further 296,000 tons of iron and steel—all from British firms. The sum of £16,800,000 is expended on the renewal and maintenance of permanent way and works, and £19,900,000 on locomotives, carriages l and wagons.

WAYSIDE PULPIT FOR MOTORISTS A pulpit has been built outside the ■wall of the new church of St. George, at Brentwood, Essex. It faces the main road. In fine weather clergy will use it to deliver special addresses for motorists. - A crucifix illuminated by floodlight -will he behind the preacher. The bishop of Chelmsford (Dr. Henry Wilson), delivered a sermon from the outside pulpit, when he consecrated the church a few weeks ago. The church is a memorial to a former vicar of Brentwood, the Rev. C. Grinstead. and was built from funds left by John Larkin, a parishioner. DOG SAVES BOY’S LIFE JUMPED INTO ENGLISH CANAL A rough-haired terrier named Gyp played a big part in saving a boy’s life at Leicester when Allen Ernest Clare, aged eight, fell into a canal while playing with another boy. The dog jumped in after Allen, dived beneath him, and, supported him on his back. It might have been by accident but the family say they believe that it was a piece of intelligence on the part of the dog. In any case the action prevented the boy from drowning. Two men who had seen the accident ran to the spot. One ■ dived in and' brought the boy to the bank, where the other helped both out. ■ The man who dived in went home, and his friend took the boy to his parents’ home. There was no one at the , house, and the boy was given in the charge of a neighbour.

ENGLAND’S MOTOR ACCIDENTS : V LARGE INCREASE OF .. - FATALITIES v The National “Safety First” Associa- ! tion requires co-operation to lessen the growing and tragic toll of the roads. No fewer than 7125 persons killed and 216,401 injured was last year’s black record, an increase of nearly 500 fatalities on the previous year. Since the war the ■ number of road accidents in Great Britain has risen steadily until the peak year in 1930, when 7305 persons, an average of 20 a day, were latally injured. (Charts compiled by the association show that 80 per cent, of accidents originated from failure to observe the Highway Code, the remainder being attributed to such causes as defects in vehicles, defective roads, and wet, slippery weather. One-half of the people killed are pedestrians, one-quarter motor-cyclists, and one-sixth pedal cyclists, motorists forming a very small minority. January and February are the lightest months for accidents, and August the heaviest, DOCTOR FLIES TO PATIENT DESPERATE PLIGHT OF WOMAN =s: When human life hangs in the bal- • ance as it did recently at isolated Beetaloo station, 45 miles from Newcastle , Waters, the Australian Northern Terrij'.tory Medical Service, its flying medico, Dr C. C. Fenton, and the administration can move with amazing rapidity. ’ • A call for help for a mother who was fighting for her life came at 9 a.m. To ■ rush a doctor to Beetaloo from Darwin by car—4so miles—would have taken! two days’ driving, night and day. The . mother’s plight was so desperate that she could not have lived more than 12 hours.

There was only one hope—an aeroplane—but Dr Fenton’s machine was wrecked. In Darwin, however, was a new, privately-owned Moth awaiting a buyer. Its owner was found at 9.30 £f.m., permission obtained by 10.30 a.m. from the Department of the Interior to purchase it on behalf of Dr Fenton, and at noon Dr Fenton was winging his way in a race against death. Staking all on his navigating skill, Dr Fenton set a direct course over unmapped country for the tiny group of buildings tucked away in a hollow in hundreds of square miles of virgin bush, and found them just in time to land before nightfall. Two hours, after the mother’s life was saved, and a healthy and vigorous young Australian in its cradle was voicing its tribute to Dr Fenton’s skill and the Government’s foresight

PENALTY OF OVERSLEEPING Because he overslept. Sergeant Patrick McColgan, aged 32, of the 3rd Carabineers, has been reduced to the rank of corporal. The reduction in rank was the sentence promulgated by an Aldershot court-martial after McColgan had been found guilty on two charges of absence from reveille rollcall while acting as squadron orderly sergeant, and another charge of disobeying an order. McColgan stated that he overslept on both mornings.

GOLD HUNT AT GALLIPOLI OLD TRENCHES AND DUG-OUTS SEARCHED Naval veterans from Great Britain who have searched Gallipoli for a pile of sovereigns which was buried in an allied outpost just before a battle 16 years ago returned to Liverpool recently with empty pockets. With a map and instructions how to find the treasure drawn up by a man who said he could not afford to join them, fHe investigators tramped over miles of wild land where trenches and dug-outs were still recognisable. The searchers never reached their goal, however, for it was at the farthest point to which the Allies penetrated in the Dardanelles campaign, and time compelled them to abandon their search. These incidents were related when 240 men who served in the Dardanelles campaign returned from a pilgrimage to the battlefield. with 500 other tourists in the Canadian Pacific liner Duchess of Richmond. “The outstanding feature of the pilgrimage was the impression we made on the Turks,” said Mr F. W. Davey, who served with the R.N.D. Efigineers in the campaign. “In Khelia Bay 20 of them, Including the Governor of Chinak, paid us a visit, and we entertained them and their womenfolk at a dinner-dance on board.” TOO' BIG A MOUTHFUL SWORD-SWALLOWER’S STRANGE DEATH A pathetic little story about a professional sword-swallower, who swallowed once too much,-has been told in London. The sword-swallower wasquite at home with his armouty, but one day he swallowed a dessertspoon, and could not recover it. So he had to pay a visit to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. Considerable difficulty was experienced in locating the spoon in his body, for it was deeply hidden. While still under an anaesthetic he was transferred from the operating theatre to the X-ray theatre. There, the exact position of the spoon was promptly found, and a successful operation followed. This story -is contained in the annual report of the hospital.

NAPOLEON’S LIBRARY TO FRANCE RECENT DEATH OF DONOR Only three days after the French Government had bestowed on him and his wife the insignia of Knights of the Legion of Honour, Mr John Jaife died Mr Jaffe, who was formerly a prominent Belfast industrialist and chairman of the chamber of commerce of that city, had lived at Nice with Mrs Jaffe since 1885, and was a highly esteemed member of the British colony on the Riviera. He was a great friend of France, to which he had made many generous gifts, notably Napoleon’s library, which he secured when it was about to be purchased by another country, and presented it to Malmaison. He had also made valuable contributions to the Louvre and to the Massena Museum, Nice, where the presentation of the insignia was made in the presence of a large and distinguished gathering.

CHAIN OF UNSOLVED MURDERS CLAIRVOYANTS ASSISTS POLICE In the summer of 1930 two murders were committed in the vicinity of Schrobenhausen, in the Danube Valley, says the Munich correspondent of “The Times;” which, up to a few weeks ago, baffled the police. Fraulein Frohlich, an elderly woman, was found murdered in her bed, a sum of money having been stolen from her house. Shortly afterward a young farm labourer named Burckl, who seems to have had some knowledge of the crime, disappeared mysteriously. Josef Bohm, another farm hand and the murdered woman’s nephew, was arrested on suspicion of having committed both or one of the crimes. He steadfastly denied all knowledge of the murders, though his aunt, the first victim’s sister, drowned herself when called upon to give evidence, and his mother died of a broken heart. When confronted with overwhelming circumstantial evidence, Bohm hanged himself in his cell. His father, who had also been arrested, was then released, and all hope was given up of solving the mystery of Burckl’s disappearance. A clairvoyante then offered her services to the police. She described the method of the second crime and the burial place of the victim’s head, which, she said, had been severed from the body. When her statements were substantiated. Bohm’s father was rearrested, and he committed suicide.

The clairvoyante promised to find Burckl’s buried body and clear up finally the circumstances of the two murders, which brought in their wake four other deaths.

HONOUR TO BILL ADAMS PILOT-MAJOR OF 370 YEARS AGO Bill Adams—not the Waterloo marvel —came out of the realms of legend recently and into the realms of history and honour, says a correspondent of the Daily Mail.” The people of Gillingham, Kent, where Bill was born 370 years ago, turned out in thousands to ao him honour at the unveiling of a memorial clock-tower. Every representative of Japan in England whose presence could do the hero honour turned up, including the Ambassador, Mr Tsuneo Matsudaira, and a vice-admiral of the Japanese Navy who, with a party, had arrived specially from Marseilles. The story of Bill Adams, Pilot-Major of Gillingham, was told by the Ambassador in a speech at the unveiling. "After a long and adventurous voyage starting in 1598, Adams at last reached the coast of Japan in 1600,” said Mr Matsudaira. "There, as Governnient adviser, he taught mathematics, gunnery and shipbuilding, and introduced Western civilisation.

“After a stay there of 20 years. William Adams passed away in Japan, leaving a reputation for sagacity, probity and courage—a man whose name will always be revered by the people of both Great Britain and Japan.”

Major W. W. Grantham, K.C.. who has been largely instrumental in getting the memorial erected, produced abottle of sake, the Japanese national drink, which he said had just arrived. He gave a Japanese drinking shell ro the Ambassador, to Admiral Sir Hugh Tweedie, and to the Mayor, Alderman S. O. Summers, J P.. gave them eacn a few drops from the bottle, and the four drank a toast to Japan and Bill Adams.