NEWS IN BRIEF

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 18 December 1924, Page 5

NEWS IN BRIEF

DEFENCE OF IvUT. BY CABLE —PRESS ASSOCIATION— COPYRIGlIT LONDON, Dec. 16. The latest volume of the official his- c tory of the war discloses that the late Major-General Sir Charles Townshend. on the authority of the War Office, offered the Turkish commander £1,000,WK) and to surrender the guns if the Kut garrison were allowed freedom on parole. The Turk declined this and a later offer of £2,000,000. Shortly after this hunger compelled an unconditional surrender. LOSS OF THE KAVANTO. r • . . . TOKIO, Dec. 15. The revised official figures in connection with the loss of the special service vessel Kwanto, which during a blizzard was broken up by heavy seas and sank, place the list of survivors at 111, dead 54, and missing 42. CHARGE AGAINST MACDONALD. LONDON, Dec. 16. The Paris Oppositionist newspaper Liberie publishes a statement that the decision to withdraw the Comte St. Aulaire (the French ambassador to Britain) from London was readied on the eve of tlie British election owing to Air Ramsay MacDonald’s request, forced upon him bv his own extremists, that M. Herriot (Premier of Fiance) should send an ambassador: likely to be more accommodating on the subject of international Socialism; hence the appointment of Defleuring. The Libevte says it awaited the Comte St. Aulaire’s departure from London before publishing the statement. Mr MacDonald, commenting on the Liberie’s statement, says: “It is absolutely untrue that I made any representations for the withdrawal, of the Comte St. Aulaire.” IMPERIAL DEFENCE. Earl Balfour has accepted Mr. Baldwin’" invitation to ioin the Committee of lumend Defence for the pumose of considering the Geneva protocol. COOKERY BOOKS FREE. A very fire cookery boko, compiled bv Miss Mildred Trent, New Zealand’s lending cookery expert., will be posted on receipt of four penny stamps, on mentioning this paper and writing to H. F. Stevens. Cathedral Essences, Christchurch. —Advt.