MISCELLANEOUS CABLES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18340, 2 September 1921, Page 5

MISCELLANEOUS CABLES

Pr*«a Association—By Tal«graph—-Copyright The United States Federal Trade Commission lias charged the Famous PlayersLasky Corporation, which is a kinema combination, with a violation of the antitrust law, also with an alleged violation of the Act against unfair trade practices. Eleven other individuals and corporations are cited as respondents m a formal step to break an, alleged motion picture trust. The corporation was given a month in which to reply to the charges. The United States Government has started a new campaign against liquor smuggling at Atlantic ports and in the West Indies. Scores of prohibition agents have been sent to New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore, and Florida cities in an attempt to break up this smuggling gang. , A commercial agreement between Germany and Italy.has been signed for nine months. The Air Ministry has accepted Sir Ernest Shackleton’s offer, during the Quest’s voyage, to carry out investigations in the upper air with a view to future assistance to aerial navigation. In the House of Commons, in reply to a question concerning war criminals, • Sir Ernest Pollock (Solicitor-General) reviewed the Leipzig trials. He said that the punishment imposed must be judged by German standards. He admitted that Von Mueller’s sentence was quite inadequate, but the manner in which the cases were conducted indicated a sincere desire to get at the real truth. When the Italian cases, which had not yet been heard, had been finished the lawyers of France, Belgium, Italy, and Great Britain would meet to decide the true view to be taken of the trials. Nevertheless, it should be remembered that it was the first time in the history of the world that a vanquished country had been forced to try its own war criminals. Germany had already found some of her own nationals guilty of atrocities, and had passed sentences carrying a stigma to Germany. From the viewpoint of international justice that was no mean achievement. It marked a new milestone in the course of' international justice.