NEWS FROM OVERSEAS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XX, Issue 192, 4 August 1930, Page 5

NEWS FROM OVERSEAS

LATE CABLES IN BRIEF. Ban on Russian Pulp Wood: The United States Treasury Department has announced that, due to a lack of conclusive proof of alleged convict labour, it has been decided to lift the ban on Russian pulp wood. Japanese Cruiser Scrapped: The Japanese cruiser Akashi, condemned to bo scrapped, was ineffectively bombed by three naval ’planes for 90 minutes on Friday night outside Tokio Bay. The attempt was renewed on Saturday morning, when tho vessel was sunk. "Red” Day Celebration: A “Red” day ordered by Moscow for Communist riots was' a general fiasco in Paris. The Parisian police arrested a number of Communist leaders, including the editor of the “Human? ite.” The' Communist commemoration of “Red” day passed off quietly at Bucharest.

Australia and Canada i That a trade understanding between th© different parts of tho Empire is unlikely to grow until the newspapers of the dominions publish more news about each other, is the opinion of Mr McGregor, the Australian Trade Commissioner in Canada. He said there was little Canadian news in Australian newspapers, and since his arrival in Canada a month ago there had been little Australian news in Canadian newspapers. Scrapping of Warship*: The United States Navy Department announced that a tentative decision had been reached calling for the retirement of the battleships Utah, Florida and Wyoming about October 1 without the necessity of awaiting Japan’s ratification of the London Treaty. It is assumed that world conditions are such that no situation could arise within the next eighteen months in which the United States would be handicapped by the lack of these warships, and the move will save the country about 4,000,000 dollars. It will also serve as a gesture of international confidence.

Tcheka Tortures: “The Times’ ” Riga correspondent says Latvian papers decline that the Tcheka, after atrociously torturing 14 Lettish colonists in the province of Smolensk shot them on a charge of harbouring a priest and attending service in contravention of the rules restricting the movements and activities of ministers of religion. Despite appeals of the relatives to bury the dead privately, the bodies were thrown into a common grave. Their property, even their clothing, was confiscated, leaving the families destitute. Tlio Tcheka also sent 130 colonists attending services to the notorious Slovetsky prison cnrnp, where the conditions are described as “hellish.”