NEWS FROM OVERSEAS.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, Issue 203, 11 August 1927, Page 6

NEWS FROM OVERSEAS.

CABLES IN BRIEF. At the conclusion of counsel’s addresses in the Police Court in Perth in the cases in which Constables Began and St. Jack were charged with murder of natives, the Magistrate found that there was no case of the jury and discharged the accused. Speaking at a conference of the National Federation, Mr Latham, Federal Attorney-General, said two cruisers and an aircraft carrier would be built out of the surplus revenue this year for the Australian Navy. A famous Russian geologist, Professor Obrutscheff, has returned after a prolonged exploration in Eastern Siberia. He declares that the rivers and countains are all marked wrongly on the map. He discovered no fewer than seven Alpine ranges where atlases showed level country, many peaks exceeding 10,000 feet.

It is expected there will bo a slight majority at the Republican party meeting in favour of taking the oath as an expedient enabling them to enter Dail Eireann and vote against the Public Safety Bill. Thus probably working majority, resulting in an election or an invitation to Mr de Valera to form a Government.

The London “Gazette” states that President Cosgrave, in Dail Eireann, replying to Cojonel Moore's motion for the rejection of the Public Safety Bill on the ground that coercion acts are always futile, said the Government intended to crush crime, whatever were the consequences.

The “Daily News” states that Watkin James VTliams, of Cardiff, who meteorically made a fortune in shipping was arrested on charges relating 10 the foundering of the steamer Eastway, of which he was regis tered manager, 150 miles from Bermuda, on October 22, 1926, with a loss ol 23 lives. A Board of Trade inquiry showed thta the vessel was laden 131 inches beyound the winter loadine. She was insured for £64,100 and was worth £50,000. Her d'ead weight was 9580 tons and should have been 9120. The Court blamed Williams and ordered him to pay £lOOO towards the cost of the inquiry.

An announcement that the American cotton crop is 4,500,000 baler less than last year alarmed the Lancashire trade, raw cotton rising suddenly twopence per pound. It is reported that a tew firms made a profit of thousands of pounds. A ballot of the American section of the trade resulted in the Master Cotton Spinners’ Association recommending all mills spinning American staple to close for a week in addition to the annual month’s holiday. It refers to the deplorable condition of the trade. Business at the Manchester exchange is u, a standstill.

The “Daily Express's” Paris cor respondent states that M. Briand achieved a great personal triumph in bringing the Government back t-> the spirit of the Locarno theory. There was a dramatic scene in the Chamber when, after demolishing recent attacks against the Locarno policy, 41. Briand pleaded for a more friendly attitude-to Germany, and finally carried with him M. Poincare and M. Martin, Minister of Pensions who is an ultra-Nationalist. It is understood the Cabinet decided to reduce the army in the Rhineland by at least 5000, and probably 10,000 immediately after the League Assembly in September.

Following a recantation of views by Trotsky and Zinovieffi their expulsion from the central committee has been withdrawn and a strict warning and reprimand substituted.

M. do Jouvenal has sent a letter to M. Briand resigning his ippointmcnt as France’s League Council delegate, because the French Government did not submit to the League problems which he considered only solveable by the League. M. Briand, replying, points out that it is not always advisable to appeal to the League over the heads of interested parties where it is possible to settle international disputes by the normal processes of diplomacy.

Lieutenant Gary, of the United States Intelligence Department, at a cound table discussion on the British commonwealth of nations, said the most significant aspect of the modern international era is the shifting of the world politico-naval centre from the North Sea to the Pacific. Singapore is the key to the new British naval strategy, or Britain’s window overlooking the Pacific. This base is a factor on which it is most likely Japan did not seriously count at the Washington Conference. Professor Heaton, Queen’s University, Canada, said Canada had shown little interest m naval defence because she was comparatively sale from naval attack, but Australia and New Zealand because of their isolated position, felt great dependence on the British Navy,

Arising from the July riots in Vienna the police have completed searches of the Communists’ and Anarchists’ haunts. Altogther 250 will shortly be tried for sedition, arsOT and other riot offences.