BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

Feilding Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2313, 16 March 1914, Page 3

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

BY BLECTKIO TELEGRAPH —COPYBIGHT. PEB PBEBS ASSOCIATION. SOME GENERAL ITEMS. . London, March, lv. Sporting Life, discussing the practice for the 'Varsity boat race, at Putney, says that, compared with the Oxonians' ponderous, jerky and irregular movements, the Cantabs are the very essence of neatness and grace. The Sportsman declares that Cambridge is a very big crew, and, at present, is rowing faster than Oxford.

At a meeting of the Imperial Mission, a letter from Lord Charles Beresford was read urging the summoning of the Imperial Council of Defence to frame a scheme for the de- * fence of the Empire. In the Lower House of Austria, the Minister tor Defence in supporting an increase in recruits, said: ' 'Nobody could believe we may hope long for peace or that the Balkans problem can be settled in such a way as to preclude sudden complications." Stevenson has scored 8851 and Reeee 8761 (still in play) in the billiard match. While the wife of Mr Hartog/a banker, was at the theatre, £8000 worth of jewels was stolen from a seci'et drawer at the residence. A valet has disappeared. In the Rugby football match, Wales (11 points) beat Ireland (3). In the Association game, Ireland and Scotland, with one goal each, drew. M. Albert Edwards, founder of Le Matin, the Paris paper, bequeathed £250,000 to Gabrielle ltomano, a young actress who was a friend of his late wife. The master builders of London decline to amend the National Conciliation Board on Monday, on the -ground that six trades connected with the dispute have been invited "to join in. Nineteen Nationalists were absent from Thursday's critical division on the Home Rule Bill in the House of Commons. Several went to Ireland without leave. Mr Redmond, their severely rebuked them. The committee of the miners' lodges in Northumberland and Durham have issued a circular urging the men to back up the leaders in their efforts to remove Lords Mersey and Cower from the chairmanships of the Minimum Wages and District Boards, even if the industry is brolght to a standstill. Advices from Phillipopolis state that Sakik Bey, a Turkish Liberal, was attacked in a street and stabbed with a knife in the left side. The stabbing is supposed to have been done, by a Young Turk emissary, who escaped. The French press point out that Russia and France have equal rights with Germany to perfect their armaments. Le Temps says that if the legitimacy of the measures for which Germany has set an example be challneged, an era of chronic tension will he re-opened, and everyone suffer. The engagement is announced of the Hon! William McAdoo, Secretary for the Treasury in the Cabinet, to Miss Eleanor Wilson, yonugest daughter of the President of U.S.A. .

The Lusitania steamed 618 knots in 24 hours on the eastward run, which is world's record for the Atlantic trip from America to England.

The British Naval Estimates Note explains that H.M.S. Philomel will shortly be transferred to New Zealand. The ordinary channel for the entry of New Zealand cadets will be through the Australian Naval College. The effective period of service will be seven years. Two light cruisers will be retained by the Admiralty for a New Zealand division., to be manned by New Zealanders. The .British Insulated and Helsby Cables Company has secured a £300,----000 contract for the supply of overhead electric equipment for the Melbourne railways. London, March 15. The Fabian Research Committee, after a careful investigation into the working of the insuranc c Act, reports there Is reason to fear that practically all societies having a large proportion of women members have exceeded the estimates of sick benefit by from 25 to 100 per cent., and believes the first year's claims will ceed actuaries' estimate by nearly £100,000, and the payments of sanatorium benefits are backward. The gravest feature is, says the report, that millions of.families below the £1 a week level are practically always ill, and the Act extracts a loaf of bread a week from the bare cupboards, starving them further into illness. .

Sylvia JPankhursb has been released. Suffragettes at Liverpool havo formed a church of the New deal, conducted solely by women, including tho preachers. Men ar c admitted to the evening services. SEVERE STORMS. A f ioleht gales are raging in the west and south of England. A hundred houses wer c unroofed at Queenstown. SECRETS STOLEN TTROM THE QUEEN. The Daily Chronicle states that the agent of foreign Powers have been making endeavours to obtain the signal code and fire control, and it has now been revealed that a book has been stolen from tho Queen. BIG SCHEME DROPPED. Berlin, March 15. Tno world's commerce scheme collapsed owing to one of the most important trade organisations holding aloof. FIRE IN OLD CATHEDRAL. A cathedral at Neuss, one of the finest specimens of mediaeval architecture in Germany, was greatly damaged by fire. The-tower collapsed, but fne nave was saved. ANOTHER AHtMAN KILLED. • Lieut. Lesser, while flying at Koenigsburgj fell and was killed. " JAPANESE POLITICS. Tokio, March 15. The Lower House rejected the Senate's naval reduction, and a joint conference of both Houses has been summoned. TOLLS NEEDED AS REVENUE. New York, March 15.

Professor Emery Johnson, addressing a banquet or Pennsylvania Univerity men said the taxpayers would be obliged to meet loan of £4,000,000 for the first ten years' operation of tho Panama canal, and it would be necessary to secure a revenu c of approximately £4,000,000 annually to meet the cost of operation, tho sanitation, the annuity payable to the Vanama Republic, and other charges. If air vessels paid tolls, the revenue from the Canal at the end of ten years would cover the annual outlay for operation expenses and charges upon capital, if American ships were exempted, tho Canal would not be self-supporting. The speaker also declared there was no doubt the intention of those who negotiated the HayPaunceforte treaty was that the United States should be granted no rights that other nations did not receive. THE BALKAN DRAMA. Budapest, March 15. Couut AVitte, m an interview published in the newspaper Azest, says the Balkan affair has not been, disposed of. Only the first act has been played, and tho enfr'acto may last for years or months. Th c dangerpoint lies between Rumania and Austria. „,. , Tr . Constaiftinoplc, March lv. Tho Turco-Servian peace treaty has boon signed. Th c soread of the Greek boycott, especially in Smyrna, is causing anxiety. BASUTO JUSTICE. > Capetown, March 15. The paramount chief of Basutoland lined Jonath an, a troublesome minor chief, twenty head of cattle. Six Volkurst strikers were fined eiims ranging from GOs to £13 for desertion from duty and inciting others to desert. KAISER'S NEW DECREE. Berlin, March 15. Tho Kaiser has ordered officers' wives to refrain from riding astride on horseback. INDIAN BANK FAILURE. Delhi, March 15. Kothavle, manager of the Bombay Banking Company, which failed in October, was sentenced to three months' imprisonment for breach of trust,.