THE TIMES-SYDNEY SUN SPECIAL CABLES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3101, 20 August 1913, Page 26

THE TIMES-SYDNEY SUN SPECIAL CABLES.

LONDON, August 11

Mrs Pankhurst, speaking in the Kingsway Hall, declared that she did not believe the paper read at the Medical Congress asserting that prostitution was a permanent evil. Tests made with benzol have shown that it has considerably greater power than petrol, while it is 5d per gallon cheaper.

August 12. A private conference of the Labour leaders at Cardiff resolved that the success of trade unionism depends on maintaining their political activities.

August 13

The International Law Conference has completed a naval war code for submission to The Hague Convention, It assumes that the enemy’s private property is liable to capture at sea. August 14.

The Aerial League is appealing for subscriptions for Colonel Cody’s family, who are left in very straitened circumstances. A woman obtained a separation order from her husband on the ground that he sat up studying the stars and burning incense. He also threatened to murder her and her solicitor.

In the House of Commons, in answer to a question, Mr Asquith stated that the question of football betting was receiving the serious attention of the authorities, who were fully alive to the necessity of an alteration in the existing law. The North-western railwaymen at Liverpool are agitating for a living wage. They assert that 21s to 23s a week does not provide even a bare subsistence, and have resolved not to undertake any special work until they are granted an advance. Mr Will Thorne has introduced a Bill providing that on and after January 1 persons holding above 50 acres of uncultivated land shall be held guilty of a misdemeanour, and upon conviction the holder shall be ejected and the land invested thenceforth in the Commissioner of Woods and Forests, the ejected person to receive from the Consolidated Fund a sum equal to five years’ produce of the land before his conviction Tlie Times, in a leader, says the Medical Congress was successful beyond all precedent. It is glad to note the rebuke administered by Ur Bateson to the ardent votaries of eugenics, but says that the insanity and cancer experiments might be quickened with advantage. August 17. John Roberts has finally decided to retire. He has presented his favourite match cue to Reece There is a cat famine in London. Thieves are catching and killing these house pets and selling their fur. Ordinary blacks fetch 4s and Persians 10s to 8s a skin. Ten thousand pounds’ worth of jewellery was stolen from the show cases at the Llandudno Hotel. The thieves escaped in a motor car. The bag containing the jewels was taken to the Llandudno Hotel by a woman assistant in a handbag. While she was removing her hat a motorist engaged her in conversation. departed shortly afterwards in a motor car, and it was subsequently discovered that a bag filled with novels had been substituted for the other while the two were talking. PARIS, August 11. An expedition for Franz Joseph Land has left Havre under the command of Jules Payer. A big programme of scientific work has been planned by means of motor boats and aeroplanes. CHRISTIANIA, August 12, The press angrily complain that the German fleet is making jlaborate soundings and examinations of all the fortified harbours of Norway. THE HAGUE, August 14. M. Subrecht, a member of the Dutch expedition which scaled Wilhelmina peak in New Guinea, is returning with geological specimens, which are believed to supply proof that Australia and Papua were once connected. BERLIN, August 15. The Mecklenburg Gazette asserts that

the negotiations between England end Germany for an entente have been broken off.

August 17. Fifty thousand unemployed are demanding work, but the Government is ignoring them, asserting that the agitation has been started in the interests of the Social Democracy propaganda. MADRID, August 14. The Princess Beatrice, wife of the infante Alfonso Marie, is abjuring Protestantism and becoming a Catholic. VENICE, August 12. The manoeuvres with hydroplanes and submarines have proved that submarines, no matter at what depth they are navigated, are always visible to those in the Uydroplanes. ROME, August 14. Two powder magazines at the Monte Mario fortress containing airship bombs, were blown up. Three men were killed and three wounded. ' WASHINGTON, August 15. The State Department is being urged to negotiate for the purchase of the islands of Curacoa and Buonayre, in order to form a naval base commanding the southern approaches to the Panama Canal. [These islands are on the Atlantic side, and belong to the Dutch.] Tho Washington baseballers are offering to buy Cobb, of Detroit, for £20,000. The highest amount paid previously was £2500. ■ - NEW YORK, August 14. President Wilson has decided to dismiss Ambassador Wilson instead of accepting his resignation, owing to the tone of his (Wilson’s) criticisms of the British Foreign Office. OTTAWA, August 13. The wheat yield in tho three western provinces is estimated at 22 bushels an acre. August 17. , Mr Cairnes, the dominion geologist, reports a rich new goldfield on the' White river, in the Shasanna district. Hundreds of prospectors are departing thence from Dawson City. CAPETOWN, August 11. Mr Botha is certain to have a majority at tho National Congress in November. Should the Free State break away from tho wording of the- compact he will probably arrange with the Labour party. JOHANNESBURG, August 14. Before the Judicial Commission Mr Fitzgerald, in an affidavit, said he took full responsibility for organising the special police on July 5. Six hundred men were armed and posted in the suburbs in 48 hours, at a time when Europeans were endeavouring to induce the natives to strike and defy the compound raana- ' gers and also to cut off the water and light supplies. Had the attempt succeeded they would have let 100,000 lavages loose, and Johannesburg would have become a hell upon earth.