NEWS BY CABLE AND MAIL.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 29 November 1924, Page 12

NEWS BY CABLE AND MAIL.

. — 9 ; ARMI/3TICE DAY. - ’ “HEARTLESS MERRIMENT.” . LONDON, Nov. 9. “We’re making a mockery of Armistice Day, the most religious thing entering our lives,” writes' Mr. Hannen Swaffer in The People. “A few hours after the great silence, we are asked to join in supper parties served at increased prices by Italian waiters at West End hotels, where people wear fancy hats and blow squeakers made in Germany, and dance American jazz. I have seen ices modelled from the Cenotaph! “Why do the English waste on such heartless merriment money needed to relieve thousands suffering from insanity, epilepsy, and incurable injuries inflicted cn war service, besides hundreds of thousands of widoivs and orphans?”

RUSSIAN REFUGEES.

RESIDENTS IN FRANCE. LONDON, Nov. 9. Now that the French Government has recognised the Soviet, there is much speculation in Paris as to the attitude Moscow intends to adopt with regard to 400,000 Russian refugees at present living in France. The Paris correspondent of The Times. says that when French recognition of the Soviet was seen to be likely, certain representations were made to the French Government, and it is understood that the French Foreign Office will give definite assurances that it will regard the status of Russians in France as governed by the right of. asylum, and that it will brook no interference from the Soviet in the matter, which is considered to be purely a French internal concern.

WORKMAN’S SILLY HOAX.

DECEIVING A PRIEST

LONDON, Nov. 7. Resenting a priest’s well-meant questions about liis wife, a workman named Badouin replied: “I killed her a few days ago. She is buried in the cellar.?’

The priest informed a police magistrate.- Detectives rushed the house, shouted, “Where- is: your .wife?” and marched to the cellar*. Badouin inno-; eently asked if they preferred red or white wine.

The magistrate angrily ordered that he be handcuffed, whereupon the irate wife appeared on, the stairs. The police are unable to. prosecute on the score, of a hoax, because the statement was made to a priest. AMENDED PROTOCOL. OPPOSITION IN CANADA. ./ OTTAWA, Nov. 8. The Canadian Minister for Defence, Mr. E. M. MacDonald, who' has just returned from Geneva, states that he was heartily opposed to Japan’s amendment to the protocol. , “Next week,” he said, “I shall take the matter up with Cabinet. When our policy is decided we shall issue a. statement. I do not believe that Japan’s policy .will appeal to the new British Government. It hinges largely on the exact interpretation- of what constitutes aggression within the meaning of the amendment.” It .is not believed that the Canadian Parliament will ever concur in an amendment that would take a question like immigration before dhe International Court. ♦ “ WINSTON’S ’ ’ PORTRAIT. LIBERAL .CLUB’S QUANDARY. DIVISION OF OPINION. LONDON, Nov. 8. The National Liberal Club is discussing what shall be done with the excellent portrait of Mr. Winston Churchill adorning the smoking room, hanging oeside portraits of living and dead Liberal statesmen, Mr. H. H. Asquith, Mr. Lloyd George, Mr. W. E.: Gladstone, • Mr. Richard Cobden and Mr. John Bright. During the time of the Liberal split, from 1818 to 1923, the portraits of Mr. Lloyd George and Mr. Churchill were removed from the walls and placed in a cellar. They-reappear-ed when’ the Liberals were reunited. .Some members argue that, Mr. Churchill was a leading Liberal, and that therefore his portrait should re- -i mam; others contend that the club; should not honour a renegade; others! su S3 es t that it would be a graceful act! to present the portrait to the Consti- i tutional Club.

It is expected that the committee of the club.Avill decide' whether Mr. Churchill can continue to be a member.