CABLE NEWS IN BRIEF

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24261, 1 April 1940, Page 8

CABLE NEWS IN BRIEF

Australian Airmen The Australian Air Minister, Sir J. V. Fairbairn. announced that Australia’s first batch of pilots, observers. and air gunners, fully trained under the Empire air scheme, would be on active service abroad, where they were needed most, before next Christmas. Halifax Harbour Tragedy

At Halifax (Nova Scotia) six harbour pilots were drowned, three were rescued, three members of the crew were drowned, and two were rescued as a result of an incoming freighter ramming and sinking a pilot boat at midnight.

Illegal Immigrants Fifteen thousand illegal immigrants have entered Palestine in the past 12 months. Hundreds remain in concentration camps. The authorities are examining all most carefully in view of the danger of spies. South African Forces

• It is officially announced that all serving members of the South African forces have been invited to undertake to serve anywhere in Africa, not only- in the Union, for the duration. No new recruits, either whole time or part time, are being accepted unless they fulfil this requirement.

Did Not Know of War A message from Paris states that a man who did not know that France was at War. Robert Plaiter, has been arrested and will appear before a military tribunal for failing to answer mobilisation. Plaiter said he could not read or write.. He was working in an isolated area at the outbreak of war and nobody told him.

French-Canadian Troops Marshal Gamelin, the supreme commander of the Allied forces, inspected French-Canadian troops at Aldershot after taking the salute at the march past. He saw units at field exercises with machine-guns and tanks. Addressing the men, he said: “The hearts of England and France beat as one. We have .not forgotten your predecessors and are, glad you have come over here to complete your training and to follow in the footsteps of your fathers.”