INDIAN AFFAIRS

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 September 1928, Page 7

INDIAN AFFAIRS

“TORTOISE” POISONS EATERS

(Australian Press (By Cable—Press Assn.—Copyright.)

(Recd. Sept. 29. 10 a.m.) . DELHI, Sept. 28.

Eighteen deaths occurred in a fishing village in Travancore as the result of four families eating the flesh of a sea animal, resembling a giant tortoise, which was caught nibbling at the nets spread on shore. Half the flesh was divided among the captors, and the rest sold in market. All twelve members of the families died after the feast. Many buying the flesh in the market were seriously ill. Six are dead. “

Experts examined the shell and declare it was not ordinary tortoise, but a species unknown. The Government has ordered an enquiry into the tragedy.

JEWELLERY. STOLEN

COLOMBO, Sept. 28.

Theft of jewellery worth over £lO,000 from a registered package is reported by a Belgian commercial traveller, named Wilberts.

The package was insured and con- . tained fifty-two pieces of jewellery, each weighing about twenty-five carats. > It was despatched from Singapore to Colombo, by registered post. On arrival at Colombo, Wilberts claimed the packet from the Customs. On being opened it proved empty. The jewels were enclosed in a tin box and the seal had been lifted, a hole drilled underneath, the jewels removed and the seal replaced intact.

STATUTORY COMMISSION. (Official Wireless.) . RUGBY, September 27. Sir John Simon and his colleagues on the Statutory Commission on Indian Reforms, left London to-day for their six months’ tour of India. They will join the mail steamer Maloja at Marseilles, and are due at Bombay on October 12. Since the return of the Commission to London in the middle of last April, a great amount of printed material for the Commission has been collected and co-ordinated ; it has received some 500 * printed memoranda. Fight out of the nine Provincial Indian Legislatures are setting up committees to assist the Commission in its investigations, and the ninth and that of the Central Provinces have not yet finally decided. The first sitting of the Commission in India will be at Poona, where the Commission will be joined for pui*poses of investigation by the Bombay Provincial Committee, elected by local Legislature, and the All India Committee. The sittings at Poona wil] end on October 28. The Punjab evidence will next be taken at Lahore. Karachi, Peshawar, Delhi, Lucknow, Patna, Shillong. Calcutta, Burmah, Madras and Magpur will each in turn be visited for several days, and the final work of the Commission in India will be at Delhi, which will be the headquarters of the Commission from March 25 till April 11 next year. The Commission will leave India on April 13 for London, where the work of preparing the report will be undertaken.