CABLE BREVITIES MR. CHURCHILL’S NARROW ESCAPE?

Greymouth Evening Star, 19 September 1946, Page 8

CABLE BREVITIES MR. CHURCHILL’S NARROW ESCAPE?

Mr. Churchill narrowly escaped assassination during his visit to the United, States in June, 1942, according to Mr. Michael F. Reilly,-who headed the White House Secret Service during much of the term of the Roosevelt Administration. Writing in the Saturday Evening .Post, Mr. Reilly savs that British authorities overruled" the, efforts to have Mr. Churchill’s plane take off elsewhere than at a public British air base in Baltimore. Secret Service men were ordered to accompany Mr. Churchill in the plane. One of them over-' powered a field guard at the plane, who was muttering: “I am' going to kill that Churchill! ” The guard was lated judged to be insane and was committed to an institution. Mr. Churchill was not informed of the incident. —New York, September 18.

Austrian Ambassadors. Dr. Rudolf Kohlruss has been appointed Austrian Ambassador to the Vatican. Dr. Heinrich Wildner is to. be Austrian Ambassador to Turkey. —Vienna, September 18.

Marriages Permitted American troops and occupation officials in the European theatre have been given permission to marry Hungarians, Bulgarians and Rumanians, but still cannot marry Germans.— Frankfurt, September 17.

French Electoral System. The French Constituent Assembly decided by 242 votes to 212 against asking the nation in a referendum to decide the method of electing its representatives. The vote was a knell 'for the hopes of the Right and Centre parties, which wanted to scrap the present electoral system under whibh voters choose between parties and not between individuals.—Paris, September 17.

Church Divorce Law. The Protestant Episcopal Church of America at its 55th triennial convention in Philadelphia, passed as a church law a canon to permit the remarriage of divorced church, members at the discretion of individual dioceses. Previously only the innocent parties in divorces granted because of adultery were permitted to remarry.—Philadelphia, ’ September 17.

Displaced Persons. *«.. General McNarney has issued a statement appealing to Jhe 400 nonJewish displaced persons in the American zone of Germany to retuin to their home countries regardless oi conditions there. He said it .was manifestly impossible for America to continue operating displaced persons camps indefinitely.-—Frankfurt, September 1.8.

Colombo Bank Clerks’ Strike. The Executive Council has decided to introduce legislation for compulsory arbitration to end the 12-days strike of the city’s 1000 bank clerks, owing to the inconvenience and hardships the strike has caused to the public. The strike has virtually paralysed business throughout Ceylon. The clerks’ union has agreed to submit its claims to arbitration. —Colombo, September 18.

Canadian By-election. The Government has apparently lost a seat in the Quebec by-election, where Mr. Caouette, a member 01 the new monetary reform . party, “L’Union des Electeurs,” similar to the Alberta Douglas Credit Party, leads the Liberal candidate by 600 votes. Returns are almost complete. The Government now has only 123 seats of the total of 245. Mr. Caouette advocated pensions of 60 dollars a month to all persons over ,60.—Ottawa, September 17.

Czechoslovakia’s Recovery. “Czechoslovakia, through hard work and industry, is returning rapidly to her pre-war stability, said Dr. Edgar Booth, chairman of the International Wool Secretariat, after a visit to Czechoslovakia. He inspected large wool textile mills and other factories and discussed how the secretariat could help the development of the wool industry to meet, the needs of the Czech people. —London, September 17.

German Gang Leader. A Russian military court sentenced to death Horst Schulz, aged li, leader of a gang of nine Berlin youths known as the “Black Hand, for terrorism and armed, attacks against Russian soldiers. Eight were sentenced to imprisonment. The pang was made up of Hitler Youth members, who fought during the last months of the war in the Volksturm and concealed their arms on the German capitulation. —Berlin, September 17.

Flying Classroom. A Royal Air Force Halifax bomber, fitted as a flying classroom, leaves the St. Mawgan airfield, Cornwall, on September 19,. on a 25,000 miles tour of Australia, Rew Zealand, India, arid the Middle East. This will be the first liaison flight overseas from the recently-formed Empire Radio School at. Debden, near Saffron Walden. This is the latest of five Empire training schools established jointly by the Air Ministry and the Dominion Governments to ensure uniform radio instruction throughout the British Commonwealth air forces. The flight is planned to last 65 days.—London, September 17.