Around The World

Greymouth Evening Star, 3 October 1950, Page 6

Around The World

War Crimes Trial

The War Crimes Court today found three Japanese guilty of the mass murder of Australian and Allied prisoners of war at Laha airfield, Ambon Island, when more than 100 prisoners were executed about February 7, 1942. The Court sentenced to death by hanging Warrant Officer Kakutaro Sasaki. Warrant Officer Kyusake was sentenced to life imprisonment, and Petty Officer Shimkichi Shimohama to 10 year’s imprisonment.—Los Negros, Oct. 2.

General Honoured

General MacArthur has awarded the Oakleaf Cluster to the Distinguished Order to Lieutenant-General Walton Walker, commander of the United States Bth Army, for “continued acts of extraordinary heroism in the Korean campaign.” The citation said: “General Walker personally and at the risk of his life from enemy ground fire, performed repeated aerial reconnaissance flights in an unarmed plane, deep into enemy territory. The knowledge gained was of inestimable value to him in making tactical decisions.” — Tokio, October 2. Fire Services In Britain

Britain’s Chief Inspector of Fire Services says in his annual report that only one in eight of the fire stations in England and Wales meets present-day requirements. Five of every eight need new buildings and two of every eight need big alterations. The inspector adds: “I cannot express too strongly my concern. Not only is operational efficiency hindered by worn-out fire stations and improvised headquarters and workshops, but in some places there is a serious risk of continued loss of men.” He also expresses alarm at the general standard of fire appliances, particularly hydrants, because of their age.—London, Oct. 2. Condemned Food

Police told a Hastings Magistrate that after a former cleansing inspector, Horace Aldridge, had passed condemned food to a local tradesman, soup from a boarding-house was found to have millions of bacteria in each drop and was full of injurious organisms. Some patent invalid food from a grocery in the same town was fed to a mouse. It died of gastro-enteritis. The police said that tinned food condemned by Hastings sanitary inspectors was taken to refuse dumps by the borough engineer’s department where Aldridge was an official. Aldridge sorted out condemned foods and gave some to his friends. The magistrate fined Aldridge £25 and warned him of the danger of seriousness epidemics arising from such carelessness.—London, Oct. • 2.

Icebergs In Atlantic A French scientist, Mr Gerald Taylor, who has arrived in New York from Greenland, said that there would always be icebergs to menace North Atlantic shipping. Mr Taylor spent 18 months on the Greenland icecap about 1000 miles from the North Pole, as a member of a French Government-sponsored expedition. He said that the temperature dropped as low as 78 degrees below freezing point and was never above freezing’ point. The expedition discovered that the ice on Greenland was about 9000 feet thick and that the ice pushed out into the sea at an average rate of 60 feet a day. The icebergs which floated through the North Atlantic Ocean had broken from that ice. There was no indication that the icebergs would become smaller or fewer, said Mr Taylor.—New York, Oct. 2.

Labour Party’s Conference The industrial correspondent of the Daily Telegraph says that a tightening of Government measures designed to lower prices and possibly further to restrict profits may follow the annual conference of the Labour Party opening at Margate today. The party’s executive, which includes Cabinet members, dare not now risk a showdown with the trade unions, which have been pressing for these measures, says the correspondent. The trade unions hold four-fifths of the aggregate conference vote. The delegates will discuss today the administration of nationalised industries, and tomorrow wages, prices, and profits. Other agenda items include foreign policy, the war danger, and the spending of more money on raising the standard ef living of people in under-developed territories and less on rearmament.—London, Oct. 2.

Super-Accurate Clocks The U.S. National Bureau .of Standards announced that scientists were working on three improved models of its “atomic clock,” and, hoped to develop a timepiece that would gain or lose less than one second in 300 years. It believed that super-accurate clocks would be of tremendous value in many fields of research and engineering, and eventually might supplant the astronomical standard of measurement based on the earth’s rotation. The bureau first announced the development of the atomic clock on January 6, 1949. Essentially it was a clock regulated by the .frequency of radio waves from a quartz crystal transmitter. The clock was made “atomic” by an attachment which automatically corrected any frequency defects of the quartz crystal transmitter by comparing its output with the vibration of atoms. The first clock was accurate to one part in 20,000,000. The bureau said that the best of the new models mighl be accurate 1 to one part in 10,000,000,000,— Washington, Oct. 2