LONDON CHAT.

Otago Witness, Issue 2363, 8 June 1899, Page 24

LONDON CHAT.

(Fkom Oxte Own Correspondent.) LONDON, March 24,

Mr George Raymond Birt, the managing director of the Alillwall Dock Company, who absconded on the disoovery that his accounts had been systematically cooked for many years, and to whose arrest I referred last week, was brought up at the Police Court yesterday and remanded. His bail was fixed at no less a sum than £12,000. It had been stated that two fellow-lodgers, bank clerks, suspecting his identity, had " given him away," first stipulating for a pecuniary reward. But the young men have indignantly repudiated this imputation, and the police support their denial. It is now asserted that the information waß given by a relative of Mr Birt's liudlady, who, on hearing her account of her mysterious lodger, suspected his identity with the missing manager, and set the police on the track. Apparently the cooking process has gone on tor fully 19 years. It at first seemed as if Mr Birt's manipulation of his accounts had procured for him no personal gain— that is to say, in a pecuniary sense — but it now turns out that he received a commission on the company's profits, which profits had been magnified, on paper, by his orders, to the extent of £208,000 in excess of their true amount. It is Btated that Mr Birt's management was somewhat autocratic in character; and that he required and received prompt and unquestioning obedience on -the part of his subordinates. So long ago as 1888, Mr Wood, tho indoor superintendent, was. alarmed at^the inflation of the accounts, and insisted on receiving written instructions, which he could show in his own defence, should his conduct be subsequently challenged, but Mr Birt assured him that every item could be justified, and this he believed in spite of the evidence of his own eyes. But on the 6th ult. Mr Birt was ill, and could not attend a board meeting, and as it happened questions were asked at that meeting which Mr Wood could not answer, so he called on Mr Birt and told him what had occurred. Mr Birt was still^as confident as ever, and told Mr Wood he~tieed not worry about the matter, as everything was right. Mr Wood couldn't see it, and went away despondent. Three days later the audit was held, and by that time Mr Birt had vanished. Mr Wood gave his testimony with obvious reluctance and pain. Mr Birt, through his counsel, accepted all responsibility for the accounts, and virtually exonerated his subordinate from complicity. The case now stands adjourned to the 11th prox. The bail, as I have said, was fi»ed at £12,000— viz., four .sureties at £1500, and Mr Birt' 9 own recognisances in £6000. The four sureties were immediately forthcoming— one being Sir William Birt, general manager of the Great Eastern Railway, brother of the accused. It i 3 rumoured that the line of defence will be based on a somewhat curious theory of explanation.

Some clays ago the dead body of a woman was found alone in a house in Whitfield street, j It was identified as that of a woman named Briesnieck, or Briesnick — it is spelled both | wa y B—who8 — w ho had carried on business there as a fortune-teller, and as a person ' from whom drugs of a certain character could be obtained. But-after the inquest had been begun and the corpse buried, it camo out that the deceased "bore no resemblance to Mrs Briesnick, either in person or in clothing, and it became suspected that she was a visitor who had died there through an overdose of some drug, and that Mrs Briesnick and tho man who lived with her had bolted. This proved to be the case. Mrs Briesnick and her partner were traced to Berlin and arrested there, and the deceased woman was identified by 'her sister as a domestic servant named Sophia Richards, who had got into trouble, but was going to be married, and so had sought the assistance of Mr 3 Brießnick, whose extradition and that of her associate is expected to be granted by the German Government, on the charge of murder. A curiously romantic little case was dealt with yesterday at the London County Sessions. A nice-looking young girl, named | Clara Hanson, was indicted for stealing a "watch, a purse, and two ringp, valued at £7, from a cabinetmaker named John Lewis. _ He deolared that the girl had come from Liverpool to London to live with him and that one day while he was at work she suddenly Vanished, taking with her the things alleged to be stolen. He informed the police, and I they fetched her from Liverpool. She was charged-and committed for trial. This seemed | simple and straightforward enough till the girl gave her version, which she did in the witness box, with many tears. She unfolded a strikingly different situation. The man, she (said, had told her "a lot of lies," which she was foolish enough to believe, and bad persuaded her to come with him to London, j giving to her as presents the articles referred to" in the charge. But when once he got there hia motive quickly appeared. He insisted upon her going into the streets to earn money for him by disreputable means through trading on her good • looks, and when she refused and said she would return to Liverpool, he threatened her with a revolver, and swore he would ruin her life and make her suffer. So she ran away in terror, taking the things he had given her. He had written to a friend in Liverpool asserting that he would win the case as he knew a lot of people, and she had uo witnesses. "But God knows I am not guilty," she continued, sobbing bitterly. Now came a complete transformation scene Evidently both the judge and jury were convinced by the beauty and simple pathos of the fair Clara and her story, and were strongly influenced against the prosecutor, John Lewis, who is described as " a miserable-looking foreigner." So they instantly acquitted Clara, and the judge refused the prosecutor his costs. Next the jury clamoured to be allowed to pay, out of their own pockets, Clara's expenses back to Liverpool, and the judge consented on condition — sternly insisted upon — that he should pay his share. ' I want to be in this, too," said the judge, Mr M Connell, Q. 0., and he was. A sum of £1 12b lOd was subscribed. Then the court ordered the jewellery to be restored to her and not ghen back tc the prosecutor. Finally a letter was read in court from a very respectable young man in Liverpool, who had long been a devoted admirer of the acDused, declaring his conviction of her innocence, and offering to marry her immediately on her arrival at Liverpool, and promising to "work for her as she deserved." So the Eretty Clara was taken care of for the night y the St Giles's Christian Mission, and this morning was duly forwarded to Liverpool, where she will be met by the nice young man who will marry her. Could there have been a prettier or more romantic outcome to what at first seemed a sordid case of the most common petty larceny? . "Sir/ Henry O-B."— aa people have agreed' to designate the new leader of the Opposition, even Sir Wilfrid Lawson's " OamDbellmatt "• nar satisfying public re-

qulrements as to brevity — has in some degree redeemed his fiasco over foreign affairs, by delivering a really excellent "fighting speech "at the National Liberal Club. He scored rather neatly by enumerating a list of what he deemed the Ministerial shortcomings, and attributing them to " Legislative Influenza," a phrase which has " caught on." I fancy Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman is heard to best advantage when he has" no antagonist sitting opposite and evidently "waiting for a spring." That condition does shake the nerves of some combatants.

Just now the question which most deeply agitates the Radical party is the choice of a suitable flower to be worn on " Gladstone Day," in commemoration of the G.O.M. It is insisted that the flower must be white, " the white flower of a blameless life '' — how that recalls a certain ex-Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives ! — and the one first suggested was the lily-of-the-valley. But unluckily that promptly inspired some pestilent Tory poet with the following wicked epigram : — Of course, the Radical should wear The lily of the valley, Because it rhymes so neatly with The shilly of the shally. And of course that has killed the idea. The latest proposal is to adopt the daisy. But that really does seem quite too funny. So the storm of controversy on this momentous question still continues to rage furiously. ■ Another current controversy is that excited by the London Government Bill, which creates a number of new municipalities and abolishes the old and effete system of rule by vestry. One important thing it does is to re-establish the venerable and historic City of Westminster. This, "however, gives' umbrage to several strong parishes which would be absorbed — much as "St. Martin's-in-the-Fields — and there are other debatable matters. But "the Radicals see in the measure an insidious attack on the London County Council, which, by the bye, was created by a Conservative Administration, and they bitterly resent the letting alone of the other historic city comprised within greater London — that of London itself, — which it is the earnest ambition of the Radicals to destroy as a separate and venerable entity. So the fight waxes fierce and free. The Government, however, will certainly- carry the second reading of the bill, probably to-night, but there will be a long and tough and complex struggle in Committee.

All those foul and unfounded charges made by the amateur "special" Bennett against Lord Kitchener and the Anglo-Egyptian army, of massacring the wounded dervishes after the battle of Omdurman were promptly disposed of at the time, but tho refutation has now received a most conclusive corroboration and endorsement. It is clearly shown by Lord Kitchener, Lord Cromer, and Sir Reginald Wingate that the Bennett " yarns were scandalous libels : that the dervish wounded were treated with the utmost kindness and attention, and only those were killed who were caught in the act of attempting to murder our men in cold blood after the battle was over.

A great and stupid fuss has been made about the destruction of the tomb and mortal remains of the rascally impostor and infamous murderer, the_ late Mahdi. To colour this act still more luridly, it was even alleged that the disjecta membra of the 'defiant Mahdi were shared among various officers as curiosities. On this head Lord Kitchener has just written as follows: — "I was advised after the taking of Omdurman,. by Mcrha"mmedan officers, that it would be better to have the body removed, as otherwise many of the more ignorant people of Korckifan would consider that the sanctity with which the5 r surrounded the Mahdi prevented ue from doing so. None of the Kadis, Ultmas, or inhabitants here . consider the Mahdi to have been other than a heretic to the Mohammedan religion. He destroyed all the- mo&ques in the country, as well as the tomb of the descendant of the prophet at KLatmieh. Ho was denounced by the religious Sheik Sonoussi as acting against the religion. He treated all Mohammedans who did not accept the changes he introduced into their religion as heretics to be killed. I feel sure that no Mohammedans in this country feel anything but satisfaction at the destruction of his power together with all trace of his religion. The skull of the Mahdi has now been buried at Wady Haifa." Upon which Lord Cromer — who had been specially appealed to by those who sought to make antiMinisterial capital tut of the affair — comments as follows: — "I have nothing to add to this statement, except to express my personal opinion that, under the very exceptional circumstances of the case, both, the destruction of the Mahdi's tomb and the removal of his body elsewhere were political necessities." There, I should imagine, the matter might, and could, and should, and must, end. But if any further demonstration be desired of the "falsity of Mr Bennett's charges, take the following letter from Major luigi Calderari, of the 40th Italian Infantry regiment, who represented the Italian army as military attache on Lord Kitchener's staff: — " I am very glad to have an opportunity to put in writing what L stated to you verbally in Milan ab to the mannei in which the dervish prisoners at the battle of Omdurman were treated, and to deny in the most ab&olule way that any cruelty wa.s practised toward the prisoners. 1 rode on to the field of battle in various directions, and everywhere I saw hundreds of wounded lying alive, notwithstanding that the Anglo-Egyptian troops had already traversed the ground. I happened to be for a while at the head of the troops in their advance, after the attack on the zareba had been repulsed, and then again I was able to convince myself that the wounded were not in any way molested. If an occasional wounded man was killed, it was only in legitimate defence, because, as is well known, it is a custom with these peoples to pretend to be dead, and then to fire on the enemy as he passes, or, worse still, to ask for water and help, and then treacherously to kill those who are succouring them. I do not write these things in order to defend Lord Kitchener. He is so far above such accusations that merely to waste words in denying them would be an insult to him. I can only repeat that I am very happy that an opportunity presents itself for me to give a denial to_ statements which are untrue." Surely this, supporting, as il docs, what the German military attache (Captain Yon Tiedcmann), of the Royal Prussian general staff, had previously averred, ought to put a final quietus on the miserable libellers of the Anglo-Etryptian army, and make them hide their faces for very shame !

Yesterday the half-yearly meeting of the North British Railway Company established a new record in the his-tory of railway companies, and also forcibly accentuated -the f;\ct that a strong public feeling e\i?ts against directoral pluration. Prior to the meeting, Mr Grierson, one of the board, issued a circular to the shareholders complaining that many of his co-directors held so many directorships that they could not possibly attend to all ; that some lived far away and neglected their duty ; and that the attendance statistics showed the

interests of the North British Railway to have jsuffered through the pluralism practised by the chairman and others. How far it was strictly proper for Mr Grierson to take this •step while still remaining a member of the board, and without intimating his intention | to his colleagues, may be a matter of opinion. Probably the method will be deemed regrettable, but the facts were indisputable, and most unprejudiced people will add — indefensible. So although Lord Tweeddale (the chairman) and Sir Charles Tennant (the vice-chair-man) each attempted a defence of his pluralism and angrily attacked Mr Grierson, the latter carried the shareholders with him, for a resolution was passed for the appointment of a committee to investigate the statements made, and all but one of the retiring directors, whose re-election was peoposed by the chairman, were rejected by a large majority, all of Mr Grierson's f nominees being elected ; while tho only retiring director who retained his seat did so by the consent of the opposition party. This was the most severe slap in the face that the board of a great railway — for the North British is the premier Scottish line — has ever received. One immediate sequel has been the resignation of Lord Tweeddale and Sir Charles Tennant. A curious incident of yesterday's very stormy meeting was the sudden rising of a lady shareholder to support the attack on the board. She said she bad travelled all the way from Carlisle (100 miles) to support Mr Grierson. Her rising was received with a hurricane of applause, which was redoubled at the close*of her vigorous and eloquent little speech. Lord Elgin, exViceroy of India, was one of the rejected candidates. The affair is creating a tremendous sensation in Scotland, and indeed in this city too. It is regarded, justly, as a powerful and well-timed protest against the present rampant " guinea-piggism." A very unusual incident occurred at the close of the performance of " Woman and Wine " at the Princess Theatre last "night. An elderly clergyman, sitting in the stalls, rose and thanked the management tor producing a play which, he said;, was a powerful sermon, bringing home to the hearts of all present the degrading effects of sin. His remarks were greeted with great applause by the crowded audience. It was staled that the speaker was the vicar of a Northumberland parish. Evidently he was also a sensible and broad-minded man.

One word more about this extraordinary "cold snap." The current week of spring has been far more severe than any winter period since the great frost of 1895. Four people have died suddenly in London during the week from the direct effect of the low temperature in stopping the heart's action. The snowstorms in some parts of the country are the worst of the century. Snow lies 6ft deep around Scarborough. Skating is in active progress on all the shallower and more shaded lakes and ponds in and around London. As I close my letter the frost still continues. The effect on the public health is growing very grave. Influenza is spreading rapidly in an aggravated form. It has already caused 150 deaths in London this week, or double the worst death rate during last year's epidemic. Hosts of notable people are amojig the sufferers, and all the hospitals -are crowded. There were no fewer than 15 deaths certified as .from influenza in London yesterday!

On Wednesday last the funeral of the late Lord Herschell took place, ..the service being held in Westminster Abbey. It was noteworthy for somo novel and impressive musical features introduced by the organist, Sir Frederick Bridge. These included not only Beethoven's solemn ' and beautiful " Equali," played by four trombones, but also the introduction of a powerful band of brass and drums, in addition to the splendid organ of the Abbey. The effect of the tremendous outburst of organ, brass, and drums in " Luther's Hymn " was most thrilling and memorable.